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Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

The second beta of Visual Studio 2008 hit the streets last week, and according to our upcoming news feature on the release, this is the version everybody has been waiting for.

In an exclusive online preview of a story to appear in the Aug. 15 issue of Redmond Developer News, Senior Editor Kathleen Richards reports that VS 2008 beta 2 is "99.9 percent feature-complete" -- this coming from Visual Studio Group Product Manager Prashant Sridharan.

The biggest new feature in the upcoming version of Visual Studio? Language Integrated Query (LINQ). If you've been following our coverage the past few months, you know that we've been all over LINQ like a cheap suit. Microsoft has spent years working up the new data programming model, which aims to resolve the violent disconnect between programming languages and databases. From what we're hearing, the company may be getting it right.

Other welcome arrivals include a stable and compelling version of WPF Designer, ASP.NET AJAX multi-targeting and a preview of the Visual Studio 2008 add-in for Silverlight 1.0. This is an important milestone for Visual Studio 2008 and one that bodes well for Microsoft's flagship IDE.

Have you been on the sidelines with Visual Studio 2008? If so, it's probably time to consider picking it up. Let us know your experience with the new beta and what you feel could be improved. E-mail me at [email protected].

Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/08/2007


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