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.NET: Coming of Age in 2005
Microsoft's S. "Soma" Somasegar explains why the .NET Platform has succeeded and what developers can look forward to with Visual Studio .NET 2005.
by Nick Fuentes

VSLive! San Francisco, February 7, 2005

Watch the video of the keynote! (Running time: 1 hour, 13 minutes)

S. "Soma" Somasegar Corporate Vice President Microsoft Developer Division

Three years ago, Monster.com reported 300 job postings for the title ".NET Developer." Today, the ubiquitous job site boasts more than 10,000 openings for the same position. So when Microsoft unveiled .NET Framework 1.0 and Visual Studio .NET at VSLive! San Francisco 2002, it set off an industry trend that has gained momentum ever since and has no end in sight.

That was the focus Monday of S. "Soma" Somasegar's keynote address to kick off VSLive! San Francisco 2005: In three short years, Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework have set a development standard rooted in the notion of building integrated systems to create a first-rate user experience. A recent 2004 study conducted by Microsoft and Forrester indicates that preference for .NET development is only getting stronger. According to the study, 56 percent of developers planned to use .NET to perform a majority of their development work, compared to 44 percent for J2EE. In addition, Somasegar noted several corporations—New Atlanta, Baylor Health Care System, and 3M—that have migrated to .NET from other technologies.

Get Smart
Somasegar says a key component of continuing this momentum is creating "connected systems" that work together by using smart clients. "Let's take the best from the Web client world and the best from the rich client world, and—voila!—you have a smart client," Somasegar says. Smart clients can allow several applications to share code with one another while using minimal resources, eliminating the need to duplicate coding efforts; essentially, if one application requires a piece of code existing already in another application, it simply can request the code to be sent over. "The cheapest piece of code is the piece of code that you don't have to write in the first place," Somasegar says, as smart clients provide interoperability through Web services and leverage existing investments. "Enabling developers to reuse existing assets is a key design goal." The end result of using a smart client, ultimately, is a rich user experience that requires using minimal resources.

One example of using connected systems Somasegar provided was that of Zurich International Airport, which opted to use .NET because of its smart client capability. Airports constantly draw data from a variety of disparate sources—reservations, baggage handling, security, and so on—so the ability to streamline access of this data would help make airport operations more seamless. Many airports store this data on discrete systems, but Zurich International wanted a "holistic dashboard view" of this information. Because of the efficiency and scalability smart clients offer, .NET was the chosen platform for this project.

Somasegar announced two new online resources to help developers get up to speed on smart client technology: the Patterns & Practices Enterprise Library, which contains some of the basic building blocks for smart clients including caching, configuration, cryptography, data access, and security; and the Connected Systems Business Kit, which features presentations, sample applications, white papers, training, and customer feedback (see Resources).

Partner Up
Besides the momentum of advances in the technology itself, Somasegar says another key to .NET's success has been the momentum of Microsoft's partners. "Microsoft's success and our customers' success is tied in a great deal to our partners' success," Somasegar says. "Our job is to make our partners successful as well." In support of this he points to the more than 225 VSIP partners that deliver more than 400 applications built on top of Visual Studio, as well as the fact that more than 120 million copies of the .NET Framework and more than 2.5 million copies of Visual Studio .NET have been distributed since they were first introduced.

One key feature in producing smart client applications new in VS 2005 is Avalon, which is the group of presentation subsystems class libraries. Avalon offers a unified approach to storing UI information, documents, and media in the same place. This allows you to use integrated, vector-based composition using the power of your PC throughout the graphics phase of your development. Somasegar says the goal of Avalon is to combine the best of the Web world, Windows world, and PC graphics world and deliver next-generation smart client applications.

Another important theme in Somasegar's keynote centered around the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2005. One of its main improvements will be the Team System concept, which is a role-based development strategy that integrates everyone involved in a project throughout the project lifecycle. Team System offers a comprehensive toolset in an integrated environment for architects, developers, testers—anyone involved in a project. Somasegar asserts that this concept takes the productivity that developers have always enjoyed and extends it to the entire team. By integrating these roles into a single environment, the complexity of a project is reduced while its reliability increases.

Somasegar also detailed the various editions of VS 2005 for this year's launch, the goal of which he says is "to build the right product for the right customer." Visual Studio Express is the base-level edition, geared for novices, students, and enthusiasts. It includes Visual Web Developer Express Edition as well as Express Editions of Visual Basic .NET, Visual C#, and Visual J#. Visual Studio Standard is designed for Web developers, VB6 developers, and those building Web applications, Web services, smart client applications, and device applications; it includes full versions of all Visual Studio languages. Visual Studio Professional appeals to professional developers who work in small teams designing server-based and database applications; it includes all VS languages as well as VS Tools for Microsoft Office. Visual Studio Team includes all languages and is aimed at development organizations that focus on team collaboration and process-driven projects.

Think Small
In addition, VS.NET 2005 will include enhancements to its Tablet PC features. Agilix recently released its new product, InfiNotes, which is an ink note-taking framework built on .NET. It's a control resembling Windows Journal, offering drag-and-drop integration with Visual Studio .NET that developers can use to ink-enable their applications. Also new is the Tablet PC Game SDK developed by Arcs of Fire, which will allow for game development on the Tablet PC platform (see Resources).

Overall, Somasegar says the momentum that has been building around .NET will continue. He points to a roadmap for Visual Studio that he says will keep the technology at the forefront of Windows development. Today Windows Server 2003 and Visual Studio .NET are the key components of this success. For 2005, SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 will further increase the options developers have available to them, and looking toward the future, Windows Longhorn and Visual Studio Orcas will proceed as fresh additions to the lineup. In closing, Somasegar asserts that his commitment to the developer community includes a transparent approach to letting people know what's happening behind the scenes as technology changes, engendering a vibrant community, maintaining a healthy partner ecosystem, and responding to customer feedback.

And offering a piece of cake to celebrate .NET's third birthday doesn't hurt, either.

About the Author
Nick Fuentes is editorial project manager for FTPOnline. Reach him at ftponlinedit@fawcette.com.