Hurricanes permitting, Microsoft will open VSLive! in Orlando, Florida, launching Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 Refresh featuring Team Foundation. Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS) Team Foundation provides Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) team members with Software Configuration Management (SCM) capabilities when building .NET applications and web services.
VSTS Team Foundation replaces Microsoft’s SourceSafe, and provides SCM capabilities including change management and source code control, to store and track code, control access to code, and help trace bugs, among other features. VSTS Team Foundation is designed to provide team-based control and access to development assets.
VSTS marks Microsoft’s debut into ALM, having preferred to provide tools until now, and is expected to provide a major challenge to existing ALM providers. VSTS Team System will, potentially, compete with software like Borland Software Corp.’s Starteam, IBM Corp. Rational’s ClearCase, and offerings from a host of smaller ISVs.
Microsoft’s code will be released to VSLive attendees in the same week Borland hosts its own annual BorCon developer conference in San Jose, California.
Microsoft will also use VSLive! to announce an updated, expanded version of the current Visual Studio.NET 2003 Standard Edition, which is targeted at individual developers in small companies and advanced enthusiasts, the company said.
Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, due in the first half of next year, will see the current suite updated to include all four of Microsoft’s programming languages in one place, rather than shipping four versions of Standard Edition, each based around a single language – Visual Basic, C/C++, Visual C Sharp and Visual J Sharp.
The change follows Microsoft’s launch in July at TechEd in Amsterdam, Netherlands, of an Express line of developer suites, each around a single language and targeted at novices, students and enthusiasts. The Express family includes Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, Visual C Sharp 2005 Express Edition, Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition and Visual J Sharp 2005 Express Edition.
Jay Roxe, Microsoft Visual Studio program manager, said the company is using the re-worked edition of Visual Studio Standard Edition to target novices and people who want to undertake both web and client development.
Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition, part of the planned Visual Studio 2005 family, will lack features such as remote debugging found in the planned Professional edition.
In a further re-alignment of tools, Microsoft is also expected to launch Visual Studio.NET 2003 Professional Special Edition, for developers building enterprise-class web applications or who want to develop client applications integrating with the Office System.
Visual Studio.NET 2003 Professional Special Edition features Visual Studio.NET 2003 Professional, Windows Server 2003 Developer Edition, SQL Server Developer Edition and Visual Studio Tools for Office. The package can be purchased for $749 or for the upgrade price of $549 when moving from other tools, like Visual Basic 6.0 or Visual Studio.NET 2002 Standard Edition.
