VS Live

I was lucky enough to attend the VSLive Orlando conference early this week and despite the blatant MS propaganda I'm not severing my ties to open source software or Java. VS Live is a three day developer conference highlighting the new features that will be available to the Visual Studio 2005 developers.

Here's a rundown of some of the topics covered and my *ahem* initial reactions....

SOA Service Oriented Architecture
Hype: Connected Systems is here to stay. Leveraging Web Services will help to create a new interoperability among business function procedures.

To me: I think this is big, maybe not OOP big but Its certainly far from being a fad. Granted I have very limited experience, but am really exciting to implement this whenever I get a chance.

Databinding:
Hype: .NET has new controls that improve existing databinding features.

To me: I really havn't found a need to bind my controls so far, so I can't get to excited about this one.

Application Blocks
Hype: Microsoft got together and decided to offer "unsupported" add ins for features such as Security, Caching, Configuration Blocks, Exception Management etc.

To me: Same as above. Havn't used them but willing to give them a try especally for Security.

Rich Clients
Hype: Abandon the thin client model, to build a more effective UI.

To me: Seems like a good idea, why waste our blazing desktop CPU power loading thin Web Applications. There are definitely tradeoffs here and it looks like we'll bounce back and forth on this issue for awhile. I tend more towards the thin side, because I like its architectural benefits, and am usually less interested in my UI.

Code Snippets
Hype: With a simple mouse click you bring up frequently used code.

To me: Looks cool. But are we really that lazy we can't copy and paste this from a source file?

Visual Studio Team Systems
Hype: Integrate Designer, Developer, and Tester tools in a single software package.

To me: There's open source software out here that accomplishes most of these tasks as well if not better.

Visual Studio Express Edition
Hype: A nearly full version of VS for the hobbyist that is both faster to load and whole lot cheaper.

To me: Sign me up!


I'll stop my rants now till I actually use this stuff. However concerning my project load and upcoming features it looks like I"ll be playing in VS 2003 land for some time to come.