14 DAY TRIAL // Two excellent sessions from BUILD offer great insight into the technologies designed to spark app development for Windows 8, the next major iteration of the Windows client.
Microsoft offered early adopters a Developer Preview of not only Windows 8, but also Visual Studio 11 and .NET Framework 4.5.
Developers that attended BUILD in person had the chance to watch Softies explaining on the evolution of Visual Studio and .NET.
For those that did not, videos of the BUILD sessions are available on demand, but content can also be downloaded and viewed even offline.
The “What's new in Visual Studio 11” session was presented by Jason Zander, corporate vice president Microsoft.
“Microsoft Visual Studio 11 enable developers to take full advantage of the capability of Windows using the skills and technologies developers already know and love to deliver exceptional and compelling apps,” the session’s abstract reads.
“Whether working individually or in a small, medium or large development team the Visual Studio 11 sets a new standard for development tools, helping teams deliver superior results for their customers that help set them apart from their competitors. In this session we’ll walk through the new features in the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview to give you an understanding of the breadth of tooling available in this release.”
Devs can also get a sense of “What's new in .NET Framework 4.5” via a session presented by Joshua Goodman, Director of Program Management and Raja Krishnaswamy, director of Development.
Videos of both sessions are embedded at the bottom of this article, and it will be more than worth your while to take a couple of hours and watch them.
Of course, early adopters can also download all Developer Preview releases, including for Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11 and start testing them immediately.
"The next major release of the .NET Framework, .NET 4.5, allows you to easily use Windows 8 technologies, like Windows Runtime, directly from .NET 4.5. Accessing your data is easier than ever with support for the newest features in SQL Server and support for WebSockets," Microsoft reveals.
"Programs are more responsive, with the AWAIT keyword, faster ASP.NET startup and an improved server Garbage Collector. .NET 4.5 incorporates key customer feedback, with the newest MEF features, support for long running workflows with State Machines, and improved HTML 5 support in ASP.NET."
.NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview is available for download here.
Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview is available for download here.