VisualStudioWhidbey (Visual Studio 2005) will be released later in 2005. Developer centre is located at http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/info/
SeptemberZeroFive information. VisualStudioOrcas is the NextBigThing
Changes
IDE
1. Code expansions Allows the programmer to create its own code templates - iterators, loops. XML extensible.
2. Smart tags MicrosoftWord-like spell-checking.
3. Beefed-up IntelliSense Can now filter code completion window (show only events/methods/properties). Can (finally!) show list of exceptions in Try/Catch block.
4. Code snippets Code-snippets, what else can I say?
5. Beefed-up background compilation Now it can generate exceptions and stuff.
Troubleshooting Tips
(Yep, degradation is the way to go)
6. Visual ReFactoring Now you can select a block of code and
7. User-defined syntax highlighting We have pimp clothing, now we have pimp IDEs.
Framework
Languages
MSBuild completely new ant/make replacement build framework.
MicrosoftOffice integration No more pesky VBA. Let your spreadsheets format hard drives!
SQL Server 2005 (codename Yukon) No more StructuredQueryLanguage. Write queries in .NET languages!
News and related developments
Beta2 available for download since Apr05 see http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/46090/46090.html
pre beta 2 VisualStudioWhidbey uninstall a prerequisite see http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/uninstall/
Resources
MS channel 9 wiki with beta code links, etc at http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.WhidbeyWiki
Hosting sites for Whidbey testing see http://www.wwwcoder.com/main/parentid/285/site/4949/266/default.aspx
.NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 (Beta) Compatibility see http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetdep/html/netfxcompat.asp
I'm using this now and finding it quite excruciating. It's very unproductive compared to IntelliJ. Lots of features are only accessible via the mouse -- for example, is there a way to invoke autocorrect with the keyboard instead of clicking the mouse on the little icons that indicate a problem?
No. What is excruciating about mouse movements and clicking?
see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/tour/vs2005_guided_tour/VS2005pro/Framework/AutoCorrect.htm
illustration: