Datasheet

mix projects with different targets in their solutions. Because one native Win32 process could host

only one CLR at the same time, .NET 1.1 (because it uses CLR 1.1) was not in the list of available

targets.

Both Visual Basic and C# went through fundamental changes to support the new LINQ syntax.

As an addition, Visual Basic 9.0 was given support for XML literals (including plain XML text in

the source code); C# 3.0 was extended with new initializer syntax. Both languages were equipped

with new constructs (including type inference, anonymous types, extension methods, and lambda

expressions) to support LINQ and reduce syntax noise.

The J# language was retired in Visual Studio 2008; the last version supporting it was Visual Studio

2005. Microsoft made this decision because the use of J# started to decline. However, the last

version of J# will be supported until 2015.

The LINQ technology was about moving data access and data processing toward the functional

programming paradigm. This new paradigm (new for Microsoft development tools) gained

momentum as Microsoft Research started to work on a new functional programming language

called F#. The ﬁ rst community technology preview (CTP) of the language appeared in Visual Studio

2005 (take a look again at the last product item in Figure 1 - 3), and Visual Studio 2008 hosted a few

more new CTPs.

In addition to the main themes of .NET Framework 3.5, Visual Studio has other great features and

changes:

Built - in support for the three foundations released in .NET 3.0 and refreshed in 3.5:

WPF has a visual designer for XAML layouts.

WCF has a few project types out - of - the - box.

WF has visual a designer to create workﬂ ows graphically.

JavaScript programming is now supported with IntelliSense and a debugger.

Web developers can use a new and powerful XHTML/CSS editor.

After the initial release, Microsoft ’ s new technologies were also integrated with Visual Studio:

One of the new emerging technologies was Silverlight. With the initial Visual Studio release

in November 2007, only Silverlight 1.0 was available, and that was based on JavaScript.

In August 2008, Silverlight 2.0 was shipped, implementing the same full CLR version as

.NET Framework 3.0, and so it could execute programs written in any .NET language. In

July 2009, Silverlight 3.0 was released. All versions had their own toolset that can be down-

loaded and integrated with Visual Studio 2008.

In August 2008, a service release was issued with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Visual

Studio 2008 SP1. This version added new ADO.NET data features to the framework and

also designers to the IDE:

ADO.NET Entity Framework — This raises the level of abstraction at which pro-

grammers work with data to the conceptual level.

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Visual Studio 2008

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