DEVELOPMENT: Microsoft Visual Studio Team Studio 2010 beta released

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Suite is the next generation of Microsoft development tools. It provides the ideal set of tools for every team disciple who is working on your project: architects, designers, developers, database experts, and testers. When a team is building skills and getting guidance at every step of the project life cycle, they will collaborate better than ever.

Overview
Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to satisfy the latest requirements of developers, Visual Studio delivers key innovations in the following areas:

Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles in a development organization. Traditionally, not every role has had an equal part in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to empower an organization to build a platform for functional equality and shared commitment across its ALM process.

Enabling emerging trends
Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development, and deployment.

Inspiring developer delight
Ever since the first release of Visual Studio, Microsoft has set the bar for developer productivity and flexibility. Visual Studio 2010 continues the tradition by significantly improving the experience for all software development roles.

Riding the next generation platform wave
Microsoft continues to invest in the market-leading operating system, productivity applications, and server platforms to deliver increasing customer value. With Visual Studio 2010, customers will have the tooling support that is required to create amazing solutions around these technologies.

For more information about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4, visit the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Web site.



Web installer download available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=85520793-68fc-4361-a8b6-dc2cff49c8d2&displaylang=en

ISO download available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=255fc5f1-15af-4fe7-be4d-263a2621144b&displaylang=en

.net framework 4.0 training kit download available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752cb725-969b-4732-a383-ed5740f02e93&displayLang=en

ReadMe here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/A/0/7A023209-096F-4F7D-B2BC-831ECC68FF5B/VS2010Beta1Readme.htm

Support and feedback forum here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/VSPreRelease,netdevelopmentprerelease,visualstudioprerelease,vstsprerelease



Is there anything that we have missed!? Please let us know if there are any other useful downloads or information that you've found. Please also share your thoughts and experiences in Visual Studio 2010 - the latest software development environment from Microsoft.

DEVELOPMENT: Visual Studio 2010's New Look Unveiled at VSLive!

Microsoft kicked off VSLive! San Francisco 2009 this week with more news about what's planned for Visual Studio 2010.

In the keynote on Tuesday, Microsoft General Manager for Visual Studio Jason Zander showcased advances in the new VS 2010 user interface (UI) for the first time to VSLive! attendees.

"We've announced so far that we are using WPF for the new editor that we've put in place and made a lot of progress on that," he said in a pre-show interview. "With this release of the product, we will be showing our overall new UI for the product."

According to Zander, Microsoft has "modernized the look and feel for VS 2010" with a new UI built on WPF that rearranges file menus and commands at the top of the IDE. "We are making extensive use of the .NET Framework 4.0...as well as the WPF technology within the framework," he said. "We've improved the way you can examine your source code, your project system, the hierarchies that you have and all the data stored in TFS, as well." Screenshots of the new UI can be viewed at Zander's blog.

Complete story here: http://reddevnews.com/news/print.aspx?editorialsid=10632

For more information on Hilltops IT's software development services, including integration with QuoteWerks, ACT! by Sage, Microsoft CRM, Sage 50 Accounts and Sage MAS, then please contact us on +44(0) 1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

DEVELOPMENT: Fortnightly digest - what's happening at Hilltops IT and the world of software development

Hilltops IT Developer's diary

Since last fortnight's post, most development activity has been on the following projects:

• Website development - development work on our Hilltops IT website for re-branding. this has been the main focus for us - bringing together the design work with the "nuts and bolts" of the mechanics of the site. there are still a couple of tweaks to make, but the site is looking really good. Everyone internally is really excited about being able to announce the launch.


• Business Intelligence reporting - continued work on a bespoke project reporting on 3,000,000+ rows of data from disparate data sources using SQL Server Reporting Services.

Industry News

Development tools component makers see 2009 as a big year for MS platforms

Introduction: The gears are turning for implementations of Microsoft's next generation of platform technologies, and as a matter of course, component makers are the leading-edge innovators. In 2009, some of the latest Microsoft technologies will be gaining the most traction as Silverlight's star rises and developers rethink how they structure Web applications. Silverlight is rapidly becoming a popular platform for component developers to target. ComponentArt, ComponentOne, Developer Express and Infragistics are all making controls for creating business applications and filling in functionality that Microsoft has omitted.

See the full article here: www.sdtimes.com/link/33194

So as Microsoft Partners, leading edge software and website developers and providers of Microsoft platform-based business solutions, Hilltops IT are perfectly placed to take advantage of these new innovations.

Free e-book Introducing SQL Server 2008

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Peter DeBetta, Greg Low, and Mark Whitehorn

ISBN: 9780735625587

Learn about major new features in SQL Server 2008 including security, administration, and performance.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008:

• Chapter 1: Security and Administration
• Chapter 2: Performance
• Chapter 3: Type System
• Chapter 4: Programmability
• Chapter 5: Storage
• Chapter 6: Enhancements for High Availability
• Chapter 7: Business Intelligence Enhancements

Download it here: http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urss1q2we6

For further information on our website and software development services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0)844 357 7360 or +44(0)1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!