Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 sneek-peak

Microsoft is working on the next version of Visual Studio and has just published an article about the features of this and the corresponding version of .NET Framework which will be released as version 4.0.

 

I read the article and haven't dug deep into anything but I have noted that Microsoft claims that they will support Agile enviroments more in this release. So - with this in mind I read the article and this is what I noted down while reading:

• They have forgotten about the fiasco of CASE-tools and invented an Architecture Explorer which can draw visual diagrams of existing codebases. Visual diagrams of class coupling can probably sell the 2010 release to CEO's but is useless as a tool for developers. Typical example of some Microsoft gadget covered in visual sugar which might taste nice but leaves you with nothing but an empty stomach after you have eaten it.
• I noted this sentence: "Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View."  I (choose to) read it this way: You write a line of code and only run the tests impacted by your change. All other tests are NOT run. That's NOT very agile - early feedback is a core asset during agile development which is why you always run the entire testsuite in your project before each checkin. This tool is a good example of a tool which will do more harm than good in your daily life as a developer and I regret the fact that it probably will be the default to have this feature enabled after a standard installation of the 2010 release.
• The current Developer Edition and Database Edition is merged into one - that is actually good because agile teams don't distinguish between DBA-work and code. Everything is code and nobody owns parts of the business domain - so having the working environment being able to gap over both UI, code and database as default is a step forward.

I found an article on www.cio.com which goes more in-depth with the issue if you are interested. It is coloured in the sense that it doesn't question anything so read it to get to know more about the features.

 

I'm not very surprised by Microsoft going in this direction - doing a lot of effort to integrate their idea of what Application Lifecycle Management should be like but very little room for improvement and extensions to their way of doing things. If I had to work with someone who patented the idea of what software development was all about in our team and didn't leave room for me to challenge and change things - working with him or her wouldn't be fun. It could be and sometimes it probably would be - but the overall feeling would be mediocre at best. Why is Firefox the best browser out there? Because it allows you to extend it's basic functionality with something you find better. The way you are supposed to use the Internet isn't limited to what Firefix can and can't do - you own your own experience of browsing webpages through Firefox. If only Microsoft could get that and use it in their products...

 

Regards K.

 

P.S. - Not everyone at Microsoft is looking at their own bellybutton all the time. It looks like they will integrate jQuery into the ASP MVC, the Ajax Toolkit etc. which is very good news since jQuery is an opensource product which will continue to evolve in it's own direction regardless of what Microsoft comes up with in the future    :o)