Customer Reviews:

5 out of 7 people found the following review helpful
Customer Id: A3F2LY027OAA7M 2008-08-24
 
Review Summary: The best professional development tool out there,
 
Review Content: Normally a new release of a development environment is just a small number of enhancements and a few minor changes to the language features. With this release of Visual Studio Microsoft have almost created an entirely new experience for the developer. Core language enhancements such as LINQ and extension methods combined with major changes to the tools such as IntelliSense for JavaScript make this a must have version of this already great development environment.

Ten reasons to upgrade to this version:
1. Work with data in a unified and integrated way (LINQ)
- Be more productive by using a single approach to querying and manipulating data that's integrated with the way you write code -- in the programming language.
- Use a single model to query and transform XML, SQL Server and object data with Language-Integrated Query, helping you focus on what you need the data to do rather than how you are going to access the data.

2. Work with user interface designers (Common Project Format with Expression products)
- Share user interface assets, such as design elements and controls, with graphic designers that use Microsoft Expression: both Microsoft Expression Web (ASP.NET) and Microsoft Expression Blend (WPF) are supported.

3. Employ the latest web user interface techniques
- New support for web server communication techniques for AJAX/JSON-enabled websites.
b. New ASP.NET controls that allow for better page management and templates.
- Native support for RSS and REST by the Windows Communication Foundation.

4. Build stunning applications for windows vista (improved WPF and Smart Client tools)
- Build powerful Windows-based applications that take advantage of Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation to make your applications really stand out.
- Benefit from Smart Client application enhancements that improve deployment and disconnected scenarios.

5. Build higher quality applications with integrated unit testing (Previously only available in team suite editions)
- Powerful unit-testing tools are now integrated directly into Visual Studio Professional.

6. ENJOY great support for designing web applications (Visual Studio Web Authoring Component)
- Cascading style sheet and HTML editors have been greatly enhanced for productivity gains.
- Breakthrough JavaScript support has been integrated within Visual Studio 2008, including IntelliSense and debugging.

7. Build applications that run on multiple versions of THE .net Framework (Multi-Targeted Complier)
- With previous versions of Visual Studio, you could only build applications that ran on one version of the .NET Framework; now you can use one tool - Visual Studio 2008 -- to build applications that work with .NET Framework versions 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5.

8. Build office-based applications (Enhanced Office development tools)
- Visual Studio 2008 Professional now includes tools for Office development.
- Built-in tools help make Office look-and-feel interfaces, like the "fluent ribbon", quickly and easily.
- Click-Once deployment for applications built for Office using Visual Studio 2008.

9. Use workflow and communication tools (integrated WF & WCF tools)
- Built-in tools for developing business logic using Windows Workflow Foundation enables modelling of real-world business processes in software. This includes a workflow designer, project templates and a workflow debugger.
- Built-in tools for implementing communications software with Windows Communication Foundation, providing support for a wide array of transports and protocols.

10. Benefit from performance and stability across the board
- The highest quality Visual Studio release ever ensures that you are more productive during development.

If you develop software using Microsoft technologies then you should use this new version of Visual Studio.