Today, April 12th 2010, it finally happens: Microsoft launches the somewhat delayed Visual Studio 2010. Should you upgrade? If you can spare the money then that’s a definite YES. If you’re a start-up or a student you can get the product for (virtually) nothing and the Express Edition remains free for everyone.
This new release isn’t a long time ago from the VS 2008 release. However, unlike its predecessor, it’s a major upgrade and introduces .NET Framework 4.0, C# 4.0 (aka Visual C# 2010), VB.NET 2010, ASP.NET 4.0, Silverlight 4.0, a new language F#, improved SharePoint integration and much more. Does it really make your life better? Once someone invents a screen that works in the bright sun it will make your life better. Visual Studio 2010 will make programming better, but not your life: you’ll be connected to your workstation ever longer, annoying your wife and kids and whatever social life you had left.
Here’s my attempt to list the features that will likely improve your productivity or change your way of working of code, per section:
- Part 1: an overview of Visual Studio’s key improvements
a summary of the new features that Visual Studio 2010 introduces focused on you, the professional programmer. - Part 2: .NET Framework 4.0 and CLR improvements
focuses on the framework and the CLR; what new features and improvements will change your life? - Part 3: C#.NET 4.0 improvements
(in a few hours) why the dynamic-keyword really matters and what other features you should look out for
