Visual Studio Gets New Management
RDN Executive Editor Jeffrey Schwartz reported this week that Jason
Zander (formerly GM for the .NET Framework) has
taken
over as general manager of the Visual Studio Team at Microsoft. Schwartz
caught up with Zander at the VSLive New York conference. Here's an excerpt of
their conversation:
RDN: How do you feel about this change?
Zander: I am excited about this. The developer division on the framework
and tool sides has always worked closely and that will not change. I have worked
with a bunch of folks on the Visual Studio team for years so I know everyone
over there. There's a whole bunch of stuff we can do.
What's first on your agenda?
My first task, given [Visual Studio] 2008 is almost done, is to work on the
next version of Visual Studio. We are already working on product planning and
features, that also includes language features -- languages are now under me,
as well. That includes the next version of C#, VB and all the dynamic languages,
as well.
Moving forward, what will be the key areas of focus for Visual Studio?
To me there's a few things. One, just like we did factoring with the .NET CLR
for Silverlight, we made it more compact, and we made it really easy to deploy
on a machine. I'd like to see those same kind of attributes showing up in the
full .NET Framework as well as Visual Studio, so it gets easier and easier to
use the tools. It needs to be easier and more friction-free across the board.
Are you anticipating quick uptake to Visual Studio 2008, or will it be phased?
I think people will be interested. It solves some concrete problems, such as
JavaScript integration. If you're a JavaScript developer writing hundreds of
thousands of lines of codes, it's a painful proposition today.
Read the entire Q&A at the Redmond Developer News Web site here.
Where would you like to see Zander take Visual Studio next? Tell us at [email protected].
Posted by Michael Desmond on 09/19/2007