There are a couple of things worth pointing out right off the bat. First you can (and may have to) install both VS 2002 and VS 2003 on the same machine at the same time. They will operate side-by-side just fine.
Wow! It's exceptionnal, a MS software that manages to not mess too much with the registry! Two rounds of applause!
You can even install Visual Studio 6, VS 2002, and VS 2003 Final Beta, all on Windows .NET Server RC2.
Who wants to install an IDE on a server? The free cash era is dead guys.
As usual, VB leads with productivity and IDE enhancements.
Followed by some stunning things:
- procedure separators: VB coders apparently need a line drawn between the methods
- context-sensitive object and method drop-down menu: champagne!
- automatic skeleton when implementing an interface: well, I've this for almost 3 years in JDEE...
- abbrev mode: type try and you've got a "Try catch end try"... hmm, abbrev.el, ©1985, 1986, 1987, 1992 Free Software Foundation, Inc... another killer feature...
One new feature with VB .NET is that you can now declare variables right inside of loops. [...] They've also added in bit shift operators for VB.NET.
The clone wasn't finished? I'm surprised.
You can now build mobile applications (which use either ASP .NET Mobile Controls for targeting browser-enabled cell phones, or Smart Device Applications for targeting the Pocket PC) without downloading any extra extensions.
So either you're online with a browser or you've got a Pocket PC... hmm... I think there are higher priorities right now. But it's nice you don't have to pay more (what's the price already? 1900€?) for such a little market share.
There's really nothing bad to say about VS 2003.
At least there is something new!
