Features of VS 2008 and .NET 3.5

Hey Guys,

Microsoft has released Beta 2 release of VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 Beta 2 and is now available for download.

I have tried to list some of the features of VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 formally called as ".NET Framework Orcas"

1. Multi-Targeting Support
• That means VS 2008 will support for all the .net framework versions. It automatically supported for .NetFramework 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0.
• Now when you open an existing project or create a new one with VS 2008, you can pick which version of the .NET Framework to work with - and the IDE will update its compilers and feature-set to match this.

2. Web Designer and CSS Support
A few big tool features in the web development:
• JavaScript and CSS intellisense
• Much richer JavaScript debugging
• Nested ASP.NET master page support at design-time
• Rich CSS editing and layout support within the WYSIWYG designer
• Split-view designer support for having both source and design views open on a page at the same time
• A much faster ASP.NET page designer - with dramatic perf improvements in view-switches between source/design mode
• Automated .SQL script generation and hosting deployment support for databases on remote servers

3. ASP.NET AJAX and JavaScript Support
• JavaScript intellisense
• Simple solutions for Calling Services from JavaScript.
• JavaScript Debugging
• Update Panel support with Web Parts,
• WCF support for JSON,
• Number of bug fixes
• Performance improvements

4. Language Improvements and LINQ

5. Data Access Improvements with LINQ to SQL

6. Integrating with the Office 2007 ribbon

7. WCF and Workflow projects and designers are included

8. AJAX web testing (unit and load)

Cheers !!

Tushar