The Visual Studio .NET vision
ZDNet | at | by Mike
Some parts of Microsoft's .Net initiative may be floundering, but the heart of .Net--that is, the development environment--keeps beating strongly despite the myriad struggles. Two weeks ago, Microsoft revealed a roadmap for its Visual Studio .Net development environment that described the capabilities of three future versions: one emphasizing mobile development; another boasting integration with a future version of SQL Server (dubbed Yukon); and a third integrating closely with Longhorn, the code name for the successor to Windows XP, due to arrive in 2004.
I'm "not technical enough" (Bill Gate's ultimate insult) to evaluate the barrage of criticism from the Java camp about Microsoft's vulgar efforts to duplicate Java functionality. What I do know is that Java is hard--and the number of truly expert Java programmers is relatively small. With .Net and Visual Studio, Microsoft continues to build a rich environment accessible to all kinds of programmers.