Visual studio 2008 new features

Visual Studio 2008 offers an improved developer experience through a number of new features, including an improved Designer, more modern CSS editing options, and enhanced JavaScript debugging and development support. Visual Studio 2008 can target web applications to the .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, or .NET 3.5 environments, meaning you can start using Visual Studio 2008 today to work on your ASP.NET 2.0 websites.

Let’s look at each of these new features individually.

In previous versions of Visual Studio, developers can choose to use the Designer or the Source view when editing the visual component of an ASP.NET page. The Designer provides a WYSIWYG display of the page, whereas the Source view displays the actual markup of the controls. Visual Studio 2008 offers a new Split screen feature, which shows the markup in one pane and the WYSIWYG display in another. When in Split mode, adding content to the Designer automatically updates the markup in the Source view. Unfortunately, the inverse is not true. If you enter new markup manually into the Source view, you either have to save the page or click a button to refresh the Designer view.

With Microsoft’s increasing commitment to AJAX, it comes as no surprise that Visual Studio 2008 offers much better JavaScript support. The design- and debug-time experiences have been greatly improved. When writing JavaScript through the Source view, developers are provided with the same level and functionality of IntelliSense support as they are accustomed to when writing server-side code. This includes IntelliSense support for both in-line JavaScript and for script referenced through external JavaScript files (i.e., script files referenced via syntax like ). You can even add IntelliSense “hints” to your JavaScript functions using XML comments, just like you can with C# and VB code.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Microsoft recently announced that they would be releasing the .NET Framework code the public. What’s especially cool is that you can point Visual Studio 2008 to a URL that contains the debugging symbols for the .NET Framework, at which point you can step into the .NET Framework code through the debugger. This should provide developers with a deeper understanding of what’s happening underneath the covers of the framework.