Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Data Sheet Published: April 2008 (Version 1.08) For the latest information, please see http://www.microsoft.com/vstudio Note: This product comparison is for illustrative purposes only.
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This Data Sheet is for informational purposes only.
Table of Contents General ..........................................................................................................................................................................4 Languages ..................................................................................................................................................................4 Project System .............................................................................................................................
General Languages Visual Studio provides several programming languages for software development JScript 8.0 is an open implementation of JavaScript for creating active online content for the Web Visual Basic 2008 is an evolution of the Visual Basic language that is engineered for productively building type-safe and object-oriented applications Visual C# 2008 brings the expressiveness and elegance of C-style languages to enable rapid application development for the .
Extensibility Visual Studio is a highly-extensible and automatable integrated development environment Add-Ins enable you to create Visual Studio add-ins to extend or automate the functionality of Visual Studio Macros and Macros IDE enable you to create, manipulate, edit, and run macros to automate Visual Studio using Visual Studio’s automation model Visual Studio Add-in project template for creating an Add-in loadable into both the Visual Studio and the Visual Studio Macros IDE VSPackages enable you to crea
External Tools Visual Studio includes a number of core external tools to aid in developing and debugging your applications Team Explorer Integration enables you to install Team Explorer for use with Team Foundation Server, which also requires a Team Foundation Server CAL Team Foundation Server CAL included for accessing Team Foundation Server Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition included when purchasing Visual Studio Team System Editions with an MSDN Premium Subscription Visual Studio 2008 Image Library
Environment Options The many settings available enable you customize Visual Studio to better match your development style International Settings options enable you to change the default language when you have more than one language version of Visual Studio installed Visual Studio Settings enable you to choose from a number of predefined IDE settings Web Browser options enable you to sets options for both the internal Web browser and Internet Explorer ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Basic Tools Code Editing Tools The ability to write and modify text and code is a core function of Visual Studio 2008 Auto Using to detect when your code is missing a using statement to qualify a data type Bookmark window to display and navigate to bookmarks in your code Bookmarks enable you to mark lines of code and navigate to them Class Designer provides a visual design surface called a class diagram that you can use to work with classes and other types in a project Class View displays the symbols define
Code Editing Tools The ability to write and modify text and code is a core function of Visual Studio 2008 Resource Editors are specialized environments for creating, modifying, and previewing resources included in a Visual Studio project Source Code and Markup Formatting enables the text editor to format source code and markup on a per language basis Surround-With Code Snippets enable you to wrap selected lines of code a code snippet Tag Navigator represents the element that is currently selected in the doc
Debugging Tools Debugging tools in Visual Studio 2008 enable you to observe the run-time behavior of your program and locate logic errors Attach to Local Process enables you to attach the debugger to any process on the local computer Attach to Remote Process enables you to attach the debugger to processes on remote computers that have been set up for remote debugging Autos window displays variables used in the current statement and the previous statement Breakpoints enable you to tell the debugger that an a
Debugging Tools Debugging tools in Visual Studio 2008 enable you to observe the run-time behavior of your program and locate logic errors Immediate window enables you to enter expressions to be evaluated or executed by a development language Just-In-Time Debugging launches the Visual Studio debugger automatically when a program, running outside Visual Studio, encounters a fatal error Locals window displays the local variables and their values in the current stack frame Managed Debugging enables you to debug
Debugging Tools Debugging tools in Visual Studio 2008 enable you to observe the run-time behavior of your program and locate logic errors Registers window enables you to see register values change as your code executes with recently changed values appearing in red Remote Debugging enables debugging of a computer or device from another computer Script Debugging enables you to find and correct errors in scripts written in VBScript or JScript/JavaScript, including supports for debugging of client-side scripts
Build and Deployment Tools The tools provided with Visual Studio 2008 enable you to control builds and deploy applications & components CAB Project project template for creating a CAB project to which files can be added ClickOnce deployment enables you to publish Windows-based applications to a Web server or network file share for simplified installation ClickOnce Security Setting enables you to specify the code access security permissions that your ClickOnce application requires to run Compiler Support for
64-Bit Development Visual Studio enables you to create applications that take advantage of 64-bit capabilities and run specifically on Windows 64-bit computers 64-Bit Debugging (X64) enables you to debug 64-bit applications running on Windows 64-bit computers locally or remotely (remote debugging not available in Express and Standard Editions) 64-Bit Debugging (IA64) enables you to debug 64-bit applications running on Windows 64-bit computers remotely 64-Bit Visual C++ Tools in Visual Studio enable you to c
Data-Related Tools Data Tools Data tools help you build applications that access data, including LINQ, which brings new query capabilities to C# and Visual Basic Data Sources window displays the data sources in your project for creating data-bound controls Database Explorer enables you to open data connections and to log on to servers and explore their databases Database Project project template for direct manipulation of database objects and data Dataset Designer is a set of visual tools for creating and e
XML Tools Visual Studio 2008 includes a number of tools to help you work with XML documents, schema, and data XSLT Editing Enhancements in the XML Editor includes syntax coloring, XSLT syntax checking, standalone XSLT debugging, XSLT debugging integrated with the CLR, and script block support ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Reporting Tools Visual Studio 2008 includes tools to help you create reports in your applications Cr
Platform Tools Office Development The Visual Studio Tools for Office enable you to write applications that take advantage of functionality in the Microsoft Office system Excel 2003 Add-in project template for creating a managed code add-in for Excel 2003 Excel 2003 Template project template for creating managed code extensions behind a new or existing Excel 2007 template Excel 2003 Workbook project template for creating managed code extensions behind a new or existing Excel 2007 workbook Excel 2007 Add-in p
Office Development The Visual Studio Tools for Office enable you to write applications that take advantage of functionality in the Microsoft Office system Shared Add-in project template for creating an Addin loadable into multiple Microsoft Office applications SharePoint 2007 Sequential Workflow project template for creating a SharePoint sequential workflow SharePoint 2007 Sequential Workflow project template for creating a SharePoint sequential workflow SharePoint 2007 State Machine Console Application pro
Smart Device Development Tools and frameworks that help you develop applications for Pocket PC, Smartphone, and other Windows CE .
Smart Device Development Tools and frameworks that help you develop applications for Pocket PC, Smartphone, and other Windows CE .
Web & WCF Development Visual Studio 2008 includes enhancements and new features for improved Web development and Windows Communication Foundation development Empty Web Site project template for creating an empty Web site Generate Local Resources creates a local resource files (.resx) for all localizable properties in an ASP.
Windows Development Visual Studio 2008 offers several ways to develop Windows-based applications that run locally on Windows computers Empty Project project template for an empty project for creating a local application Empty Workflow Project project template for creating an empty project for creating a workflow Makefile Project project template for using an external build system MFC ActiveX Control project template for creating an ActiveX control that uses the Microsoft Foundation Class Library MFC Applica
Windows Development Visual Studio 2008 offers several ways to develop Windows-based applications that run locally on Windows computers Windows Forms Control Library project template for creating controls to use in Windows Forms applications Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Designer provides a visual design experience for creating WPF controls and applications with split view designer Windows Service project template for creating Windows services Workflow Activity Library project template for creating a
Advanced Tools Distributed System Design Tools Use the Distributed System Design tools to design, evaluate, and implement application systems Application Design project template to define and connect underlying applications for designing systems Application Designer to visually define serviceoriented applications and generate code Bind Application to identify that an application will be deployed on a particular server in the logical datacenter diagram Configure Connections to External Databases on the appli
Distributed System Design Tools Use the Distributed System Design tools to design, evaluate, and implement application systems Settings and Constraints Editor to specify requirements on the hosting environment in the Application Designer, or to specify constraints of the hosting environment in the Logical Datacenter Designer Synchronize with Datacenter to synchronize deployment diagrams with logical datacenter diagrams System Design project template to define the current system by adding and connecting syst
Database Development Tools Use the Database Development tools to create and maintain databases and manage data-driven applications Database Schema Build & Deployment Tools to deploy a new database, or changes to an existing database, from your database project to a database server Database Unit Testing to establish a baseline state for your database and then to verify any subsequent changes you make to database objects Offline Database Schema to make database schema changes in an isolated development enviro
Code Analysis Tools Use the Code Analysis tools to analyze your source code for potential issues arising from common coding errors C/C++ Code Analysis tool to identify possible defects in C/C++ source code caused by common coding errors, such as buffer overruns, un-initialized memory, null pointer dereference, memory and resource leaks Code Analysis Check-In Policy to requires that code analysis is run prior to check-in (This features requires Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server) Code Metr
Code Profiling Tools Use the Code Profiling tools to identify performance bottlenecks in your applications Line-Level Sampling to determine where in the code of a processor-intensive function the processor has to spend most of its time Load and Web Test Integration enable you to create performance sessions for Web and Load tests from Test View and Test Results (requires Development and Test Edition, or Team Suite) Portable CPU Counters decouples some of the performance counters and abstracts common performa
Code Quality Tools Use the Code Quality tools to create and work with test that can help assess the quality of your applications Call a Web Test from a Web Test enables you to modularize Web tests to compose complex Web tests Code Coverage to measure the effectiveness of tests on a line-by-line or even a block-by-block basis Code Coverage Results window to view statistics about the elements tested in a test run Create a Work Item from a Test Result to create a work item directly from a test result, using th
Code Quality Tools Use the Code Quality tools to create and work with test that can help assess the quality of your applications Smart Device Unit Testing enables you to run unit tests on devices Test Class Inheritance to support an inheritance hierarchy for test classes Test Generation Settings dialog box to change configuration settings for the current test generation Test List Editor to logically group tests and then work with those tests as groups instead of individually for improved test case manageme
Appendix Item Templates Item templates range in complexity from a single empty file to a multi-file item containing source code files with stub code and more About Box creates an About Box form for Windows Forms applications Action Pane Control creates a class for creating an actions pane control using the visual designer AJAX Client Behavior creates an AJAX client behavior for use in AJAX enabled Web applications AJAX Client Control creates an AJAX client control for use in AJAX enabled Web applications AJ
Item Templates Item templates range in complexity from a single empty file to a multi-file item containing source code files with stub code and more Crystal Report creates a Crystal Report file that publishes data to a Windows or Web form Cursor File creates an empty cursor file Custom Control creates a class for creating a userdrawn Windows Forms control Database Unit Test creates a database unit test to exercise database objects DataSet creates a DataSet for using data in your application Debugger Visuali
Item Templates Item templates range in complexity from a single empty file to a multi-file item containing source code files with stub code and more Login Form creates a login form for collecting a username and password Manual Test creates a Word or text document for capturing manual test instructions Master Page creates a Master Page for Web Applications MDI Parent Form creates a skeleton form for a Windows Forms Multiple Document Interface application Midl File creates an Interface Definition Language fil
Item Templates Item templates range in complexity from a single empty file to a multi-file item containing source code files with stub code and more Splash Screen creates a form preconfigured for use as a splash screen SQL Server Database creates an empty SQL Server database Static Discovery File creates a Web Service static discovery file Style Sheet creates a cascading style sheet used for rich HTML style definitions System Diagram creates an empty diagram for designing a system containing applications an
Item Templates Item templates range in complexity from a single empty file to a multi-file item containing source code files with stub code and more WPF Resource Dictionary creates a XAML resource dictionary WPF User Control creates a WPF user control WPF Window creates a WPF window XML File creates a blank XML document XML Schema creates a file used to define a schema for XML documents XSLT File creates a file used to transform XML documents ♦ ♦ 35 ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
