email article printer friendly

Climbing the Road to Whidbey
Interview Exclusive: Ari Bixhorn
by Patrick Meader

Posted October 28, 2003

Ari Bixhorn talked to VSM's editor in chief, Patrick Meader, about upcoming features in the next version of VS.NET, as well as how the tool fits into the long-term vision Microsoft has for how it will complement the Windows platform. This is an expanded version of the interview that appeared in the December 2003 Guest Opinion column.

PM: Discuss Microsoft's long-term vision for Visual Studio .NET and how that will be reflected in Whidbey and beyond.

AB: There are three aspects to what we are doing. First, we're expanding on the existing toolset for VS.NET developers. Second, we're focusing on the occupational programmer. Third, we're providing tools that support the latest enhancements in the platform, whether that is Windows or SQL Server.

For example, Whidbey will expand the tool's enterprise focus to include things like Web service modeling. Web services have been out a couple years, and this release will provide support for the latest Web service specifications and eventually wrap these into the framework.

PM: Pertaining to the modeling tool, Rational has integrated directly into the VS.NET IDE for a couple years. Will Microsoft's own modeling tool be incorporated directly into the VS.NET IDE in this version?

AB: Yes, it will be with Whidbey. Our goal with our enterprise strategy is to build our interfaces directly into the IDE in the same way we allow our partner vendors to integrate into the IDE.

PM: Tell me about the real-world implications of Microsoft's focus on occupational programmers.

AB: People call these programmers different things, from hobbyist programmers to non-professional programmers, but I think occupational programmer describes this class of person more accurately. For example, think of the accountant who needs to use a little bit of VB to build a front end to an Access database. We're doing a lot of work in this area in VS.NET, but particularly in VB.NET. What we want to do is put the magic back into the product, to satisfy the needs of all the different developer communities.

The second thing I would say is we're returning to our roots in how we focus on productivity.