What's New in Whidbey? (March 18,2005)
Posted: March 18, 2005
Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity
Introduction
EricR (Expert):
Welcome! The new chat tool we use at MS to manage this chat (a .NET WinForms app) appends the word "Expert" after my name ... please do not let this confuse you in any way. I will however attempt to do my best! I know many of you are looking forward to Beta 2.
EricR (Expert):
We have RobertCo, ScottGu, David Burggraaf, and ScottWil in the room ... in order to preserve their pride, I will neither confirm nor deny who has the "last bug" that we are waiting for before shipping Beta 2. The good news is that we are very close to getting this done. We're not quite there today, but we are within strike distance and I think the overall quality of this release will be very, very good.!
Jana Carter (Moderator):
My name is Jana Carter and I will be your moderator for today, please don't hesitate to private message me if you experience any difficulties or have questions relating to chats in general. Please abide by the Chat Code of Conduct and have fun!
Jana Carter (Moderator):
Let's begin...
Jana Carter (Moderator):
I would like to welcome everyone to today's chat with Eric Rudder. Eric is Microsoft's Senior Vice President for the Server and Tools Division. Eric and his team focus on coordinating the overall programming model for the client and server, creating the best tools for the .NET platform and fostering synergies between Windows and the Windows Server System offerings. Today's chat will focus on Visual Studio 2005 (Codenamed Whidbey). This is your opportunity to present questions to Eric and his team. This chat will last one hour in length.
Jana Carter (Moderator):
Eric, welcome, it is good to have you here again. I bet you are excited about Whidbey!
Start of Chat
EricR (Expert):
Let me start by taking Jonathan's question right off the bat, since I know there is a lot of interest in this topic. I have been traveling on Jonathan's side of the pond this past week, so I have not had a chance to read absolutely all of the latest discussion on this topic, but I have heard from some of you directly. First, let me thank you for sharing your feedback. This clearly is an important issue and deals with an issue that we have been working on for a long time. I have heard basically two types of feedback. The first centers mainly around support and the second focuses on some sort of new VB6-based product. Let me deal with support first. Support is NOT ending. Support is, however, transitioning, consistent with the roadmap that we disclosed in 2002. We are moving to extended support and that means we are entering a paid support period. MSDN subscribers can still use their prepaid support incidents and of course, Premier customers have support as well. All customers can purchase individual support incidents too. In addition, I know that many on the community will help "support" the product as well, and for that, I would like to thank you. We will work very hard to make sure that support goes well. We have heard strong feedback about making sure that critical security fixes continue to be made. We will do this. We have heard a large number of folks ask for VB6 runtime support on Longhorn. We will do this. We will also continue to monitor how this situation is working and make sure it works as smoothly as possible. For VBA, we will continue to have support in "Office 12." (I know Jonathan cares about this and I know others do as well.) The second issue around "a new product" or "hosting VB6 inside of Visual Studio 2005+" is different. Here, we have been clear that this is not currently in our plans. I know this disappoints many folks, but I think it's important to set expectations correctly. We want to do a great job on security. We want to do a great job on productivity. We want to continue to innovate in key areas like Data Access. For these areas, we are betting on VB.NET. We are *always* looking for ways to make the transition from VB6 to VB.NET better. I think Whidbey helps a lot in this respect and I hope we can work together to do even more in future VS releases. I hope this helps clarify some of our thinking. I know we will continue to engage in good discussion on this topic in the days and weeks ahead. For now, let's move on to some other fun questions, since the queue is getting long!
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: within the compact framework 1.1 it is not possible to programmitically load and unload components such as in the full framework. We currently have to shut down an application to allow for customization changes to take effect. Will whidbey (2.0) allow this
A: The support in the .NET CF is the same as the desktop CLR: you can unload entire app domains, but not individual assemblies. My blog has more background on this topic: https://weblogs.asp.net/jasonz/archive/2004/05/31/145105.aspx
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: does whidbey facilitate the creation of assemblies that contain functionality created using two or more different languages? for example, I have three class files, each one written in a different language, C#, VB.NET and J#
A: The new C++ linker allows you to merge two .netmodules together into one final assembly. I don't believe there is support for creating these modules in the IDE, but the command line for your language should be able to handle it. Note that just like V1.x you can also create multi-file assemblies.
Scott Wiltamuth (Expert):
Q: Do we have a tenative target date on when we will be albe to code C# instead of VBA in Office Apps?
A: I'm the Product Unit Manager for C#. My group is responsible for the C# language and compiler, code-focused features for C# (IntelliSense, navigation, Refactoring, Code Snippets, etc.) and the Visual Studio debugger. I was one of the original designers of the C# language, along with chief designer Anders Hejlsberg and Peter Golde. Two places on the web to find me and my team are my blog at https://blogs.msdn.com/scottwil and the C# Dev Center at https://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Has anything been done to fix the HTML editor in VS? I have lost a lot of time reformatting HTML so I can read it after the IDE clobbers it all to a single line. The "Options" to turn that off do not work.
A: Improving the VS HTML and web designer is a big focus of Whidbey. You can now use the design surface without having to worry about it ever moving your HTML around. There are also *a lot* of new features to take advantage of in both design view and source view.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Will Beta2 have a GoLive license?
A: You bet! (What application are you looking to "take live?")
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: how many edition of visual basic 2005 going to appear ( standard, proffesional, etc ) ?
A: We will have Visual Basic Express as a stand-alone product. Of course, Visual Basic will be included with Visual Studio Standard, Professional, and the Team Editions and Team Suite products.
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Has anything been done to fix the HTML editor in VS? I have lost a lot of time reformatting HTML so I can read it after the IDE clobbers it all to a single line. The "Options" to turn that off do not work.
A: Hi, I'm Sam Guckenheimer from Visual Studio Team System, here to discuss the new functionality for project managers, architects, testers andother members of the extended software development team. So feel free to post these.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: What kinds of additional support will VS 2005 have for schema-based web services design? Will xsd.exe be enhanced so that it handles a greater variety of schema designs?
A: inside of the VSTS Team Architect edition we have added a complete design experience for designing services using a WSDL first/schema approach. you can try out the feature (called the application designer) in the lastest VSTS CTP.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Are there any updated examples of building custom loggers for MSBuild? I noticed the api's have changed from beta 1 to beta 2
A: You should see much better documentation on this in Beta 2. We looked at the help quickly just now, and there are about a dozen entries. Please let us know if this meets your needs when your Beta 2 arrives!
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Jason Z. We don't get question numbers here, it would be nice to have that!
A: mea culpa, first time using this app :-# btw, when I'm not inserting answers into Eric's commentary, I run the Common Language Runtime team. You can find my blog at https://blogs.msdn.com/jasonz
EricR (Expert):
Q: Will the Express products be released at the same time the full VS is released?
A: We intend for these to be "pretty close" ... we build the products from the same source tree, etc. Our end game is complex because we have so many SKUs (each language gets its own entry in our matrix), but overall, these products are tracking together.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In ASP.NET Whidbey, is there a way to programatically add HttpHandlers to an application? (Say I have a server control that needs to server a specific .ashx request)
A: Hi SergioPereira,
For security reasons we don't allow HttpHandlers to by dynamically loaded. But if what you are trying to accomplish is having a server control call back to itself, we have several new cool Whidbey features specifically designer to enable that. The two you should check out first is the resource.axd support for embedding resources (like script files and images) with your server control assembly. You should also then check out the out of band callback mechinism that allows your control on the client to talk back to itself on the server and exchange data. That should help with what you are trying todo.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will it be safe to install beta 2 along side vs2k3 and develop in both?
A:
Hi Dave,
Yep -- it is safe to install VS 2003 and VS 2005 side-by-side and do development with them. For ASP.NET web applications, there is also now a new admin UI tab in the IIS Admin tool that provides a version picker drop-down that let's you easily configure which version of ASP.NET (v1, V1.1 and V2.0) that you want to use on a particular vroot, application or site.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: What is the support for Continuous integration tools. Build will be MS BUILD? Unit testing?
A: VS Team System (Team Developer and Team Test editions) support creating unit tests (including the ability to code gen the signatures of your tests, running, and seeing the results of your unit tests inside the IDE. We also have built into Team Foundation Server a "Team Build" feature which is configurable to set the time between builds, currently its set to 24 hrs (nightly build scenario). There's an event model with the Team Foundation Server that you can use to get events when new checkins occor and can implement a continuous build model that way. I know the cruisecontrol folks at thoughtworks have looked at Team System and are figuring out how they want to integrate. we'd love to see cruisecontrol.net be able to use all of the tests you can create in Team System, etc.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Have some of the cosmetic issues like Intellisense not updating correctly and such been resolved in Beta2?
A: Yes, we have bought plenty of makeup, and have much better cosmetics. You should notice a considerable improvement in this area.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In Whidbey, will they offer a tool to make it easier to update/edit the new Browser definitions in dot.net 2.0 (at least what I seen in the betas) that are stored in the browser subdirectory?
A: Hi Ocean,
Starting with Beta2 there is actually a new item template in Visual Studio that let's you create browser definition files pretty easily. Just select the "Browser File" item in the new item dialog and it will create the App_Browsers directory for you and add a file with the right XML template for defining it. You should be able to fill it in there and be good to go.
Hope this helps,
Scott
EricR (Expert):
Q: will whidbey provide for better debugger support for STL containers? Also, any chance of nice STL compile error messages?
A: Yes. David assures me that our support is "awesome."
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Will team system be released at the same time as vs 2005, or will there be a lag?
A: Same time, late summer. the integration work we've done requires that we get it all done together.
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will Team System force you to choose a methodology, or can you start a team project without one?
A: You need to start a team project with a "precess template", because that's the holder of the definitions of groups, permissions, work item types, reports, etc. You don't need to have "prcess guidance" with it, although the two we're planning to provide do have guidance. They are MSF for Agile Software Development (out for public review now) and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement. We are considering a stripped down "bugs only" process template as well -- I'm interested in your feedback.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: How aggressive will MS be on allowing/encouraging Whidbey developers to *not* run as Admins on their local boxes? Do any of *you* run as non-admin on your dev boxes?
A:
Hi Ray,
We've actually done a lot of work to make sure developers can run as normal users and not as admins on the box. This applies both to client and web development work. For web development specifically, we've even included a built-in ASP.NET web server that only accepts local requests (so secure from remote computers), shuts down with the IDE closes (so won't run in the background), and more importantly runs as a normal user -- which means you can debug and interact with it without having to be an administrator.
Hope this helps,
Scott
EricR (Expert):
Q: Will Whidbey support OpenMP (or whatever the clustering buzzword is), as well as 64-bit code, equally on all languages?
A: We will support OpenMP in C++ ... including 64 bit. For managed code, we are working on some new ideas in conjunction with the Windows HPC team; we will share more details over the next few months.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Will datasets ever support SQL Selects?
A: "ever" is a long time! we do have a prototype of this in house, but we won't get this into Whidbey.
Scott Wiltamuth (Expert):
Q: Do we have a tenative target date on when we will be albe to code C# instead of VBA in Office Apps?
A: C# developers can use Visual Studio Tools for Office 2003 (aka VSTO). The Microsoft Office Developer Center (https://msdn.microsoft.com/office/default.aspx) has information about this. This functionality will be updated with VS 2005.
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Hey Sam, What's the difference between Team System and SourceSafe?
A: SourceSafe is a great tool for small workgroup-based teams, but does not scale to larger, enterprise development teams. Team System is designed to scale. Additionally, source control in Team System is intimately bound to Work Item tracking -- for example, when you check in, you can directly tick off the work items you're delivering and bugs you're fixing. And there's check-in policy enforcement, a metrics warehouse, reporting engine, process, guidance, to name a few improvements.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Is PREfix still scheduled to be in the release of Whidbey?
A: Hi Chris, yes its going out as part of the Team System's Team Developer Edition.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will we be able to use XML comments for documentation (easily) with ASP.NET applications in beta 2?
A:
Hi Ray,
You can use XML comments with both VB and C# code in ASP.NET applications. So I think the answer to your question is "yes". Did you have somewhere else in mind that you were wanting to use them?
Thanks,
Scott
EricR (Expert):
Q: Can I upgrade from beta 1 to beta 2?
A: If by upgrade you mean "export your settings; install a new version; import your old settings" then ... yes. ;) I think it's fair to say that we are hoping for some "smoother" upgrades as we march towards RTM.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ScottGU: Will whidbey actually render the contents of custom user controls instead of a gray place holder?
A: Yep -- you now get full WYSIWYG support for user-controls in the designer. As an added bonus, we also now allow you to register both custom controls and user controls in the web.config file (eliminating the need to register them on each page). VS also provides full WYWSIYG support for this.
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: visual basic express going to include create class library proyect and crystal reports ?
A: VB express *will* support class libraries. But, Crystal reports is Visual Studio professional and above.
EricR (Expert):
Q: for the go-live - is that good for both winforms and asp.net?
A: Yes -- it's for both.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: To scottgu: You didn't answer the second half of the question: how many of *you* run as non-admins? (as a Security MVP, I do)
A: Hi Steve,
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: To scottgu: You didn't answer the second half of the question: how many of *you* run as non-admins? (as a Security MVP, I do)
A: Hi Steve,
I run as a non-admin on some of my machines. It is also a key focus of LH -- we are definitely pushing people towards that as the default going forward.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: why has microsft not shipped a simple tool for users to find out which frameworks are installed on there machine?
A: In the 2.0 SDK there is a tool called clrver which can do this.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: What TDD tools will there be in VS2005?
A: Hi Tommy, we've added a few things to the VSTS product that we think will make doing test driven development much easier. First, we've integrated unit testing (the ability to create, run, see results from, organize/test case management, etc) into the product. Using this model, you can write the tests, then use the refactoring support to create the classes/methods you need to implement for the tests. i'm in europe right now and have demo'd this a couple of times. it works pretty well. we've also been talking w/ several TDD folks about creating a "test driven development" methodology template which would drive the way teams use the Team System to implement software projects in a TDD way.
EricR (Expert):
Q: any chance we will see the the breakpoint UI improved. SpecificallyI would like to group a set of breakpoints and then save them to a "favorites" list or what not. Then when I am debugging foo I can load up the foo breakpoint set or the bar set
A: The idea of "debugging session profiles" is one that we have definitely discussed. We didn't get this done for VS2005, but I am sure we will consider this in future releases. It would be a very nice thing to have.
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: VSTS - a simple process template with no initial work items, no policy, etc. would be handy - probably take a few hours to create it, it would be nice if it's in the box
A: Got it. Thanks for the input.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Scott, with the version of VS2005 I'm using, I can't go into the properties of an ASP.NET app and tell VS to generate the XML doc file.
A: Hi Ray,
Interesting -- I'm not sure about that (I've never actually tried that before). Can you send me email at scottgu@microsoft.com describing the scenario and I'll follow up and get back to you with an answer.
Hope this helps,
Scott
EricR (Expert):
Q: Are the Enterprise Template and TDL (Template Description Language) supported in Visual Studio 2005?
A: We still have features to help folks maintain policy. However, I think you will see some migration issues from TDL. Are you using this today -- and if yes, how so?
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: do you have guidance on teamsize where VSTS becomes practical?
A: Hi Chris, from about 3 to 1000 is what we figure. Actually, the team system was designed to handle small teams using very agile methodologies as well as large teams using very formal methodologies such as CMMI level 3 type stuff by having a configurable process model. We think that any team that needs to increase the collaboration because of size, specialization, or location, will get a lot of value from it. We will continue to ship a much improved version of VSS in Whidbey as well for the small (2-5) person teams that don't want a server based SCM system and don't need the collab features. Still, those teams may very well want to pick up the role based skus for load testing, performance tuning, or SOA design.
EricR (Expert):
Q: What's the migration path for users of older version of Visual Studio?
A: When you open an "old" VS project, we launch a wizard that makes a copy of your project and "upgrades" it so that you can start coding in VS 2005. (Does this answer your question, or were you looking for some other specific point?)
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Is PREfix still scheduled to be in the release of Whidbey?
A: btw, I should have been more clear, we are shipping PREFast in Whidbey.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Creating ASP.net application is so much easier in 2.0, will the focus now change to help me as a developer layout web pages better, with better css support/previews and a more feature rich html viewer?
A:
Hi richy_roo,
Glad you like ASP.NET 2.0! :-)
We've done a lot of work in ASP.NET 2.0 to add features like Master Pages and Themes which make it much easier for designers to participate in the development workflow of web applications. Going forward, you'll continue to see us spend a lot of time both in the tool and runtime space to make the designer support even richer.
Hope this helps,
Scott
EricR (Expert):
Q: Why were there so many problems with the CTP. I had trouble installing and I hear many others did as well.
A: I am sorry to hear about your CTP install issues. As you know, we trade off a little bit of quality control for timeliness on CTPs. One area where I think we will get some help is that we will work to release more of the CTP technologies using VPC images -- this should help us out a bunch on install issues.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Will there be any tools in VSTS to assist in the customization of methodologies?
A: Hi Akarcher, VSTS has an XML based methodology template for customizing the processes. in V1 we were able to get an XSD schema for the XML so that it loads nicely into the VS XML editor, but weren't able to finish in time a custom editor for it. We know of a couple partners who are building very powerful methodology editors as add ons for version 1.
David Burggraaf-MSFT (Expert):
Q: Are all the remote tools from eMbedded Visual C++ integrated in VS 2005? Are there new tools?
A: Yes. All of the tools for CE and Smartphone are now fully integrated into VS2005. There have been major improvements to the debugger (emulator and remote). MFC/ATL for devices is much more compatible with the desktop versions too. You can leverage the latest advantages available on the desktop when doing device development.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: what support is there for upgrading existing web apps to asp.net 2.0 (specifically with templates functionality)?
A: Hi Hylts,
You can upgrade existing ASP.NET V1 and V1.1 applications to ASP.NET V2.0 using Visual Studio (it will automatically upgrade to use the new project system for you). Not sure if this is what you meant...
Hope this helps,
Scott
Josh Ledgard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: We have had a number of bugs reported in LadyBug and have come back as "Fixed" late last year and early this year but they were not fixed in the Feb CTP. What is the reason for this and should be we concerned? Will they fixed in Beta 2?
A: Because of the way our build process works the developers may have checked the fixes into branches that were not yet merged into the code branch that is spun off into CTP releases. This means there can be large lag times between developers marking the bugs as fixed and the time you get to see the improvements. Without knowing the specific bug numbers it is difficult to tell what the situation is with the bugs you are referring to. If you do not actually see the fixes in the Beta 2 release you should reactivate the bugs.
EricR (Expert):
Q: What do you think is the biggest misconception about Visual Studio 2005 that your team will have to work hard to dispel post-launch?
A: This is a good question! Unfortunately, I haven't really thought about this a ton -- so I am going to punt and ask you -- what do you think we need to address?
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: Will support Visual basic 2005 COM interoperativity ?
A: Yes, VB 2005 will continue to support COM interop.
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Will there be any changes or updates to .NET Interoperability for COM DLLs? If so, what? or where can I find more information?
A: We've primarily responded to customer feedback for improving marshalling as opposed to big new features. Why kinds of things do you feel you are missing today?
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Will Team System require a separate Yukon server license, or will the database be covered under the VSTS license? Also, will Beta2 allow one-machine (VlPC) configuration for evaluation (I certainly wouldn't want to deploy that way).
A: Hi Steve. VSTS will not require an additional Yukon license, it is included as an embedded version for use solely with the Team Foundation Server. and happily, YES beta 2 will install on a single machine both the data tier and the middle tier if that's the config you desire.
Scott Wiltamuth (Expert):
Q: Are there any plans to build some type of better support for late bound COM objects? Current C# code to do it is tedious.
A: We do not have any plans to improve language support for late binding. We rely on the .NET Framework reflection API's for late binding. What COM objects are you accessing late-bound?
EricR (Expert):
Q: what languages will whidbey come with out of the box? anything other than c++, vb, c# and j#?
A: I think you've pretty much nailed the list! We do also support JScript debugging in our box, and of course, there are more than 70 other languages supported from our partners, etc.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ASP.Net guys: What's the current state of XHTML support?
A: Hi W3bbo,
With ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 the state of XHTML is excellent. :-)
We now emit XHTML markup by default from all ASP.NET controls. All new pages created with VS are also now XHTML by default (the new form template is XHTML compliant), and all static html added from the toolbox are XHTML complaint. We also then provide built-in markup intellisense and real-time validation for XHTML transitional and strict in source mode.
So if you are an XHTML fan, I think you will be very happy.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jana Carter (Moderator):
Q: When is Beta 2 coming out?
A: Soon ;)
EricR (Expert):
Q: What tools will be in VS 2005 to support development in XAML and Avalon? or Are tools support still deferred to Orcas?
A: We will support development of Avalon/XAML, Indigo, WinFS, etc via CTPs during the dev cycles of these technologies ... naturally VS 2005 will support the stuff that is "released" at the same time as VS 2005.
David Burggraaf-MSFT (Expert):
Q: will any new security controls, mitigations or checks in addition to PREfix and /GS be built into Whidbey?
A: In addition to PREfix and /GS, we have also made significant advances in the libraries space. In Whidbey we are shipping the SafeCRTs, that eliminate most of the security related issues in the C runtime libraries. MFC & ATL have also been updated to leverage this. These improvements have been submitted to the C & C++ standards working groups.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: is there an automated process to migrate asp.net 1.1 web apps to asp.net 2.0 with reference to using Master pages and Themes?
A:
Hi Hylts,
There isn't any built-in way to migrate existing markup to use Master Pages. The challange is that it is hard to know exactly how to slice a person's existing page in order to have the UI they really want.
You can, though, configure your site to use Themes within a web.config file (in the section within it). You could use this trick to apply themes to any existing V1.1 pages in your site.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Rick, will any of those partners work on tools for methodology customization have beta products out or are they looking for people to test their products?
A: Check out www.Osellus.com
If you're interest is in the porcess guidance primarily, you also might want to look at the public review of MSF for Agile Software Development. If you have InfoPath installed, you can edit the xml directly via an InfoPath form.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: After running a serverside ASP.NET app which uses Interops, we cannot launch any client side applications sharing the same DLLs the interops are pointing to? It seems as though ASP.NET locks these DLLs exclusively. Are there any configuration settings...
A: Hi Snoop,
I haven't heard of this problem before. Can you send me email at scottgu@microsoft.com describing the issue and how to repro it (ideally with a small sample). I can then investigate it more for you.
Thanks,
Scott
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: With whidbey will there be a new source control tool?
A: Hi Halasz, yes VS2005 has a new enterprise scale configuration management system called the Team Foundation Server (and its part of the overall VSTS 2005 Team System). The TFS is a SQL database backed transactional config management system that is as easy to use as SourceSafe, but much more powerful, substantially faster (order 100x on slow modem lines) and completely reliable. my team of > 250 people have been using this source code control and config management system for about 8 months w/out any loss of data. Hope this info helps. -Rick
EricR (Expert):
Q: In the release version, will the VB6 Migration Wizard continue using the Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility library? (I think this library it's not the better option to migrate)
A: We still do use this library -- but the code generated by the Whidbey wizard uses the other parts of the namespace to a much greater degree, which should make the code much easier to modify and extend in the future.
Jana Carter (Moderator):
Q: Experts can we get a posting of all the answers to all the questions at some future date?
A: To be honest, we won't get to them all. We need them to focus on shipping ;)
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Will domain accounts still be a requirement for Team System in Beta 2?
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will domain accounts still be a requirement for Team System in Beta 2?
A: yes. We're revisiting this post beta 2, however.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: is there any support for WYSIWYG editing/creating of css-p positioning pages and using divs instead of tables?
A:
Hi Hylts,
Yep -- we now support layers in VS 2005. These are now easy to add by going to the Layout menu and selecting "Insert Layer".
Hope this helps,
Scott
EricR (Expert):
Q: will whidbey contain a newer/better msi builder?
A: Well ... it's newer! We have made some slight improvements, but it is substantially similar. What areas would you like to see us target for Orcas?
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: One way that we can build CLR User-defined types is using User-Defined serialization. How about including code for a prototype for the serialization routines in the template you create for these projects?
A:https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag/html/scalenethowto01.asp
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: will whidbey overwrite visual basic 2003 or going to be another program on the computer ( like VB6 ) ?
A: Whidbey will run side-by-side with Visual Studio 2003
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: One way that we can build CLR User-defined types is using User-Defined serialization. How about including code for a prototype for the serialization routines in the template you create for these projects?
A: (hit enter too soon). There is a sample at this url: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag/html/scalenethowto01.asp. I'm not aware of any attempt to do further integration into the IDE.
Josh Ledgard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Does Whidbey have better support for creating setups for .Net Compact Framework applications? Currently, it is very arduous to create even moderately complex setups.
A: Yes we now have a CAB project wizard for Smart Devices in VS 2005
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: What percentage of the market do you think will buy Team System? I could not get a straight answer at the author's summit. I need to know if it makes economic sense to spend any time on it in my book.
A: We will probably be the leading lifecycle suite within the first year. Several of us are writing books; if you'd like introductions, please contact me separately.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: How do you envision changesets being utilized in VSTS and how do they figure into Team Build?
A: Changesets are the atomic checkin unit in the Team Foundation Server. We use those as the way to promote from different branches, we use them as the unit that can get associated with a work item, etc. they are certainly integrated with Team Build. Team Build nightly sync's the days changesets and starts a build with those changes. it produces a report of all the changesets that made it into the build, and all the work items that were related to those change sets (if any). pretty nice. BuckH on my team has a good blog with lots of info about changesets. you can find it at https://blogs.msdn.com/buckh
Josh Ledgard [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are all the remote tools from eMbedded Visual C++ integrated in VS 2005? Are there new tools?
A: We are only doing 6, there were 10 in eVC, 4 will not ship in B2. Call Profiler, Kerner Tracker, System Info and Heap Walker will NOT be in B2
Jason Weber [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: JScript! does this mean that I can create JScript projects in whidbey? Also if i have JScript files in my web application will i get better support from the ide? will i be able to create web applications using c++ from whidbey?
A: We don't have project templates for creating JScript applications in Whidbey, but there is support JScript throughout the IDE. For example we have solid debugging and editing support.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like to know if "Web Matrix" can do everything VB.Net can ? Does anyone know ? Please advise
A: Hi Ocean,
VSTS includes a web-based unit test capability that allows you to author unit tests for web UI. As part of this, you can specify the user agent -- which would allow you to test the capability of your new browser definition.
Hope this helps,
Scott
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: scottgu: For the new browser Definitions template, will you also supplie some way of setingup a unit test to make sure the definition actually works the way you designed it too?
A: Hi Ocean,
VSTS includes a web-based unit test capability that allows you to author unit tests for web UI. As part of this, you can specify the user agent -- which would allow you to test the capability of your new browser definition.
Hope this helps,
Scott
David Burggraaf-MSFT (Expert):
Q: what is the role of native/COM C++ development going forward? Is this something that Microsoft will actively encourage and support?
A: YES! Both native C++ and COM development will be fully supported for the far distant future. Also, with the new VC++ 2005 product, interop between the native/COM and managed worlds is practically seamless. For the C++ developer, .NET provides superior support for paradigms where COM has historically been used, and for newer interop technologies like WebServices.
EricR (Expert):
Q: how are educators meant to teach .net when it's constantly evolving
A: It's hard being a teacher! (My mom is a teacher.) Of course, history, science, literature, etc ... also evolve. (My science teacher taught me there was nothing smaller than an atom, even though we knew about quarks, etc.) We are working hard on making sure our content is kept up to date online. We have specific forums on MSDN where teachers can share curricula and samples, so that the burden can be shared. I don't quite know what the alternatives are!
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: Will ClickOnce be introduced with VS2005 or sooner?
A: It will be introduced in Whidbey.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: I would like to know if "Web Matrix" can do everything VB.Net can ? Does anyone know ? Please advise
A: Hi Dominico,
Web Matrix today doesn't support everything that VB.NET Standard supports today. Specifically, it doesn't support intellisense and debugging.
Visual Web Developer is the logical upgrade from Web Matrix in Whidbey, and will fully support intellisense, debugging and a whole bunch more features. It is also designed for web-download scenarios and includes a built-in web-server and database.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: Has ClickOnce been improved since the Feb CTP? I have had a lot of problems with it with every release to date. I know I am not being specific here but simply creating a simple WinForm app with one form and deploying was not even working
A: Yes, we've made some good progress. We still have more to do before we ship - but you should see improvements.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: What's the estimated ship date? Last time I saw, it was "first have of 2005" I think...
A: Hi J, we've started working with the XNA team to take versions of the Team Foundation Server and customize the process (another use of our extensibility model) to work for game content production. We are also looking at what client side tools the game development community needs. I haven't seen the latest xdk so I'm not sure how much they got in, but the clear goal is to put all of the team system that is appropriate for game development into XNA Studio.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Any plans to include a validation control to prevent script injection?
A: We have built-in client side script injection starting ASP.NET 1.1 -- in fact, I think we even turn this on by default. (Look at ValidateRequest in the page directives and let us know if this is what you need.)
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Any plans on adding additional designers such as tools to generate Sequence Diagrams, Activity Diagrams, etc. in VSTS
A: Sequence and use case i'd expect we get added on the new DSL (domain specific language) infrastructure next time around. i think those are important/useful diagrams. we do have visio (UML 1.4) still in the box and you can certainly use that tool for sequence/activity, etc in 2005
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can we look forward to better databinding- more like two way databinding in Whidbey?
A: Hi Vijay,
The databinding support for web applications is much, much richer in ASP.NET 2.0. We now support 2 way databinding against both databases and middle-tier objects. You can also sort and page over data without having to write any code (and even without having viewstate enabled).
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Jason, what about an tool for *end users* to easily see which version is on their machine?
A: Sorry, we don't have that. On existing machines the easiest thing to do is "%windir%\microsoft.net\framework\v*". I'm curious about the context you want this for, eg: helpdesk support? If we were to add something, that would help determine what it should look like. thx
EricR (Expert):
Q: EricR: MSI feature: Custom dialog creation
A: Do you mean without using a custom action? (If not, I think you can do this today.)
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: are datagrids easier to use straight away with regards to paging, sorting, caching?
A: Hi Hylts,
The databinding support for web applications is much, much richer in ASP.NET 2.0. We now support 2 way databinding against both databases and middle-tier objects. You can also sort and page and cache over data without having to write any code (and even without having viewstate enabled).
Hope this helps,
Scott
Scott Wiltamuth (Expert):
Q: ScottGu, will VS05 fully support document generation from the C# code comments?
A: The C# compiler produces .xml files that enable such tools. There are several such tools available on the market, e.g., https://ndoc.sourceforge.net. VS itself does not automatically produce such documentation. VB and C++ also add xml-doc functionality in VS 2005.
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: Is there a list of breaking changes between .net 1.1 and 2.0? (By breaking, I mean code breaking)
A: Yes - check here: https://blogs.msdn.com/b/brada/archive/2005/11/14/breaking-changes-between-net-framework-1-1-and-2-0.aspx
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Will there be any new UML tools or are we still stuck with Visio?
A: Our modeling strategy is to provide fully faithful, tripless modeling and visualization with the .NET languages. In addition to class diagrams, which go beyond UML, we're focusing on Design for Operations, with innovative designers for both distributed apps and infrastructure.
These are an initial instance of domain specific languages, which you can read about on the workbench on MSDN. We have partners who will be using the DSL architecture to implement more UML modeling, but we won't be delivering that directly beyond what you have now.
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Any plans to support Registry Free COM on "older" OS?
A: Sorry, no plans to back port this. The support is actually in the OS itself (the CLR "lights up" on versions that have it), so it would have to come in an OS SP.
EricR (Expert):
Q: Will Whidbey have better support for window layours, I run 3 monitors and use VSWindowManager power toy to save my layout settings but this is still pretty weak as far as customization; any support ?
A: I think it's fair to say that we aspire to be stronger in the multi-mon case. We will have to invest more here going forward.
Jason Weber [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Hi guys, one question I have is, why have some features been removed from the current C# express CTP, such as the Add-In manager. It was available in the C# express Beta 1 and seemed to be working fine.
A: We're constantly evolving the feature sets to align around the key scenarios. Several features (really pieces of features) were shipped in early versions of the CTP's as we factored the product to enable the Express products. In the case of the add-in manager the dialog and add-in loading code were there but many of the underlying components weren't being installed, so very few add-ins worked correctly. The work to factor the add-in dialog out of the core IDE took place after the initial CTP's were released. The transparency of our builds allows you to see our work in progress!
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: SECURITY question - will there be any additional tools in Whidbey aside from PREfix and /GS to help developers in writing security code?
A:
Hi Chris,
For ASP.NET applications we've added built-in membership and role management services. We've also then provided built-in UI controls for login management (creating users, changing passwords, etc). This should make building secure web applications significantly easier.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jana Carter (Moderator):
Q: Why are Firefox users not allowed to use this chat? I presume it would work as Netscape is on the list of browsers.
A: This will ship in our next chat release in a few months.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: The IE web controls (such as TreeView, etc.)... will they be included in 2005 (and supported)?
A: Hi Tantiana,
We now have a built-in Treeview control that provides uplevel client-support for both IE and Firefox. We also then have about 50+ other new controls you can use as well.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Rick, thanks for the answers on VSTS. Another one. What kind of tools will be included in VSTS to configure nightly builds along with check-in policies such as including completed unit tests, running FXCop and custom check-in policies.
A: This configuration of builds with automated code analysis tasks, build verification tests and reporting is directly in the product.
Jason Weber [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: When will Visual Studio be able to generate Help files from our source code comments - directly? :)
A: It's on our feature list! In the interim you can leverage one of the 3rd party tools that enable these scenarios.
EricR (Expert):
I am going to have to sign off now, as I have another meeting at 11PST -- some other folks will hang around and answer a few more queries since we had such a great turnout.
EricR (Expert):
I do want to thank all of you for spending some time with us and sharing your feedback. I expect we will hear a lot more when Beta 2 ships (soon!)
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: Just a commnet: If ClickOnce works the way its supposed to, it will change everything for business applications. Once we learn the correct coding techniques, we developers are going to rewrite all our junky web apps to winforms.
A: this is great to hear! I'm glad Click Once is something you're excited about.
EricR (Expert):
Peace, Eric
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Thanks Scott for the reply. Regarding better databinding capabilities, you had mentioned that it would be better- Is it done in the 2.0 version primarily using reflection or other means? Does it affect postback events?
A: Hi Vijay,
We use reflection for object binding (note: we cache the reflection signatures -- so you don't need to worry about perf). You can still fully use post-back events as well -- in addition to making things declarative (no code required for common scenarios), we've also increased the number of events and extensibility hooks we support, so you can always drop down to code and do even more advanced scenarios.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Scott Wiltamuth (Expert):
Q: Are there any updated examples of building custom loggers for MSBuild? I noticed the api's have changed from beta 1 to beta 2
A: The MSBuild team has just posted a sample (today!) for this: https://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/MSBuild.SampleLogger.
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: What percentage of the market do you think will buy Team System? I could not get a straight answer at the author's summit. I need to know if it makes economic sense to spend any time on it in my book.
A: hi Bill, while we don't release our specific market projections VSTS is a major for us in terms of product strategy and we expect that we'll see a substantial portion of our licenses (where substantial is > 25% lets say) as one SKU or another of Team System products. Also, in terms of market, if we're talking about the existing enterprise tools market, then i think thats not the best measure. our goal with the team system is to substantially grow the market into professional dev teams that aren't using "enteprrise tools" today because of any combination of (price, usability, consulting costs to role out, etc). hope this provides a bit more of our thinking. -Rick
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: I work in a small place wheree I am the IT department how will VSTS help me?
A: If you're really a team of one person, it's questionable that you need the source control., work item tracking, etc. However, you get the SOA designers of Archtect Edition, the code analysis, performance profiling and unit testing of Developer Edition, and the Web and Load Testing of Tester Edition. These are all valuable whether or not you use the Team Foundation Server.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Are there any plans to change the definition of 'uplevel browser' to more accurately reflect reality? Opera latest is a standards-compliant full featured browser yet by default is treated as though it were 5 years old.
A: Hi CodeMonkey,
Yep -- we've changed "uplevel browsers" to now include a variety of modern browsers. For example, you can now use the validators client-side on FireFox, Opera, etc. We also support client-side support on things like Treeviews, GridViews, etc for most browsers.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: please post a link to info on setting up a development domain for local developers on the corporate domain and remote developers via VPN to access to develop..... Also what recommendations in this scenario - isolated , semi-isolated, ???
A: This is similar to how we are using Team System internally now. We have teams at four sites around the globe.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Lately there has been much discussion going on about the new Javascript/ Asynchronous JavaScript + XML like Google Suggest, Google maps to enhance the client end for better interaction. Is any such feature planned with ASP.NET in the near future?
A: Hi Vijay,
We actually have built-in support for this with ASP.NET 2.0. We call this feature "client side callbacks", and it is a core part of our control model. It also works cross-browser (so specifically with non IE clients). It should make these types of scenarios very easy to write in ASP.NET 2.0 and is super powerful.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: In Vs2003 if my program is missing a referenced dll it crashes but doesn't say why. Is that improved in Whidbey
A: Hi Darin - The only change we've made here is to hook the CLR up to the Watson reporting infrastructure. So you are more likely to get that kind of top level dialog change. Have you considered putting in a top level try/catch in your code to report the exception text?
Jason Weber [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: What is the Framework version in whidbey? is it different from VS 2005
A: The framework version in Whidbey (the codename for Visual Studio 2005) is 2.0.
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: Here is my question: I am putting together a Test automation Tool to test our internal API. I have used VB6, and i was able to complete it in 2-3 months. Now, I am developing it in C# and I was hoping I can complete it the project as fast as I did in VB
A: You might want to look at the test automation built into Team System, which might already do what you want.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: is there support for, like browsers, identifying mobile devices and different handsets for pushing correctly formatted and resized content to the mobile?
A:
Hi Hylts,
The mobile controls and control designer continue to be supported with ASP.NET in 2.0. You can use this to support targetting mobile devices.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Rob Copeland [msft] (Expert):
Q: Will the VS2005 have backward support / compatibility to the old COM based ADO????????????
A: Yes. You can use ADO from Whidbey (in addition to VS 2003 and VS 2003)
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Can you bind to the new GridView without using a DataSource control?
A: Hi Fog
You can continue to bind data to a GridView by setting the DataSource property via code and calling Databind on it. This works just like the DataGrid does today in terms of capabilities.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jason Weber [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: does vs 2005 have functionality to replace sapient BuildIt - and is it in all versions or which?
A: Have you seen MSBuild, the next generation Visual Studio build system? MSBuild is an elegant (hey, I'm biased) build engine that can be leveraged to replace BuildIt in your environment.
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: sam, can you provide a link or info with specifics on setting up a dev environment as you have internally with developers located around the globe in different sites (details on domains, active directory, subnetting, etc) - thanks
A: there should be info with Team Foundation at Beta 2. I don't think we've posted this yet.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ScottGu: has the underlying security model for forms auth changed, I know there are new membership features but the core security basis is my question; any churn there?
A: Hi KWarren
We continue to use the same forms-autn engine in ASP.NET 2.0 -- so from an architecture perspective it is the same (Membership then just provides a credential store you can use with it). There are several new features we've also added to forms-auth. Some specific additions: cookieless forms-auth, and new encryption formats for the auth-ticket.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Have any of the experts ever met Bill Gates?
A: Yep
Rick LaPlante (Expert):
Q: Has there been a decision made on whether the unit testing tools will be included in the non-team system editions of vs2005?
A: Hi David, yes we spent some time looking at this based on customer feedback. In the end we weren't able to make it work into the schedule to pull the unit test work from the integrated Team System product line. we would have had to test in 2 place, 2 config, etc. We also looked at NUnit and felt that it was a fine solution if you aren't looking for the deep integration with the rest of the team system. I know that this will be very high on our list for v2 (getting unit testing into Pro). thanks for the question. -Rick
David Burggraaf-MSFT (Expert):
Q: The "seamless interop" between C++/CLI and unmanaged C++ sounds very promising. Is it seamless in the sense that it's transparent to the programmer, or is it seamless in the sense that it runs almost as fast as using only native code?
A: It is seamless in that you can 1) use native and .NET interchangeably in a C++ application, 2) you can now use C++ paradigms on .NET types (scope based resource management {destructors that work} & features like templates, and 3) you can tune usage of native vs. .NET based on business need, value proposition, performance, etc., on a function by function basis.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Would ASP.NET 2.0 be backwards compatible?
A: Hi Vijay,
ASP.NET 2.0 is backwards compatible with only one or two minor changes (for example: XHTML is now the default rendering format -- although there is a config switch to change this back if you run into rendering problems). You should be able to upgrade existing applications just fine and switch them to run on 2.0 without problems. Please tell us in B2 if you do run into problems -- these are likely bugs that we can fix.
Note that there are project system changes with how web projects are handled in VS 2005. There are no API changes as part of this -- but it can impact some projects you upgrade from VS 2003. We have an auto-upgrade wizard as part of opening older projects with VS 2005 that should update all the references to use the new model. You might also need to tweak a few things to make everything work -- but our goal is that this should take a short amount of time and not prevent anyone from quickly upgrading to Whidbey.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: does team system replace the need to use project server for dev teams tracking project changes, timeline - is there best practices on this - links to info?
A: At beta, Team System uses Project Client, and keeps Project tasks as work items in the Team Foundation database. We are exploring tighter integration to Project Server, but this is not available at beta.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ScottGU: Are you stil day to day active on Whidbey or are you now focused on IIS7?
A: Hi KWarren,
I still spend a lot of time on Whidbey. :-)
But I am also doing a lot of work on IIS7 -- which unifies IIS and ASP.NET in some pretty cool ways. We'll have more details (and a beta) out later this summer. I think you'll really like what we are doing. :-)
Hope this helps,
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Was the meeting with Bill Gate a technical or just business stuff?
A: Hi iqadan,
We actually meet with Bill on technical reviews fairly regularly (usually at least once a year). He is very engaged on what the company is building. The meetings can be both fun (and sometimes nerve racking ).
Hope this helps,
Scott
Sam Guckenheimer (Expert):
Q: sam, can you provide a link or info with specifics on setting up a dev environment as you have internally with developers located around the globe in different sites (details on domains, active directory, subnetting, etc) - thanks
A: We should have some general information at beta. If we don't have what you need, please ping me again.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Thanks Scott,With Biztalk becming so popular and Infopath positioned to work as a client app or with Sharepoint, are there any plans of extending rendering/editing capabilities with ASP.NET in a similar fashion of how it is currently supported in Infopath?
A:
Hi Vijay,
We actually are working very closely with the SharePoint team right now, and have incorporated features like WebParts directly into ASP.NET 2.0. You'll continue to see integration with Office over the next few years.
Hope this helps,
Scott
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: ScottGU: I have talked to you in the past about build configuration settings in the web.config (appSettings node that applied when the build was debug being different from the release); did this ever see light?
A: Hi KWarren,
Yep -- I remember us talking about that. It is definitely still on our list of things todo in the future -- although unfortunately we ran out of time to do in in V2. We will add them in a future release, though, since they are super cool and useful.
Hope this helps,
Scott
Jason Zander [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: how do i stop dr watson debugger from freezing up my pc?
A: Hi Lee - if Windows itself is just hanging completely, that is clearly bug and it woudl be great to get it reported. If you are asking how to shut off Watson for a particular application, check out the AEDebug key online for more details.
scottgu [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: do you recommend any books to lead us through the transition to whidbey?
A: Hi codemonkey,
There are several V2 books out right now on ASP.NET -- although right now they are focused on Beta1 (I believe they will be refreshed with new books on Beta2 once it ships). I'd also recommend visiting the www.asp.net website once B2 ships -- we'll have almost 1000 online code-samples that you can walkthrough and run online to see the new features.
Hope this helps,
Scott
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