Developers floored by Microsoft combo suite

IT pros participating in the Microsoft Tech.ed 2010 summit waited with bated breath as Microsoft unveiled the much-awaited Visual Studio 2010 and .Net Framework 4 in Bangalore on Monday, and announced that Silverlight 4 would be unveiled later this year. 

The two products were released in the US later in the day.
Participants of the three-day summit that kickstarted on Monday were more than pleased with the IT giant’s new package of development tools. And the gaming freaks were all eyes as the package would help them develop games for the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 Series right from Visual Studio.

“We had seen videos online showing developers using the same code to develop games for Windows Mobile and Xbox Live. Even though I’m not much of a game developer, this is something I might try out,” said Rajesh, a participant. “The Visual Studio and .Net combination is a very rich feature… something that I have been looking forward to,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a developer. 

“The tools have integrated access to SharePoint and Windows’s cloud service Azure which opens up a lot of possibilities to developers. Now I can develop applications much faster than usual. I’m yet to try them out, but going by the demo and the talks I’m really impressed,” he said.

.Net Framework 4 offers additional support to applications, has a wider choice of languages, offers better support for high-performance of middle-tier applications, including parallel programming, and also a side-by-side installation with .Net Framework 3.5. The .Net Framework 4 client profile will help reduce runtime size by over 80%, making it easier for developers to create faster running applications.

Silverlight 4, on the other hand, will enable developers to deliver compelling application experiences on or off the web. New features in this tool include extended out-of-browser capabilities, enhancements for enterprise application developers, and more than 60 customisable pre-written controls to quickly build rich, interactive applications among others.

Over the next two days, the summit will include sessions on the usage of these tools from Windows to build applications. 
More than 3,000 people are expected to attend the event, and others can watch the event live online at microsoftteched.in.