by Matt Milner
12. May 2008 12:50
Microsoft has rolled out the beta of SP1 for .NET Framework version 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. Now don't get confused, this is not just a simple set of bug fixes, this thing is big!
- Entity Framework and LINQ to entities
- ADO.NET Data Services (formerly project "Astoria")
- Dynamic data web sites (highly RAD data driven web sites)
- Performance improvements across the board (WCF, WPF, AJAX, debugging, etc.)
- New client profile (not quite the slimmed down CLR of silverlight, but gives you a smaller footprint without server technologies you don't need). Now, if they could do the opposite and remove the Windows UI stuff so I could run Windows Server 2008 Server Core with IIS and ASP.NET.
- a bunch of perf and usability improvements in VS 2008
I think the Entity stuff, plus the Dynamic data and data services is a killer combination for many web site developers to get their data modeled and quickly expose an admin tool for data maintenance and service endpoints for interaction.
Check out Soma's blog for some high level details and download links:Visual Studio 2008 and .NET FX 3.5 SP1 Beta available now
Scott Gu has details on many of the new features in the IDE and framework: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx
Brian Harry has the details on the TFS improvements in the SP: Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 Preview
A metric b*#&load of enhancements for a service pack - awesome job folks, I can't wait for the released bits this summer.
Subscribe