Microsoft Bolsters .Net Strategy With Developer ToolsMicrosoft Bolsters .Net Strategy With Developer Tools

Microsoft's Windows XP kickoff in New York last Thursday drew lots of attention, but two days earlier in Los Angeles, chairman Bill Gates outlined a technology road map that's just as important to developers.

Gates used the occasion of its annual developers' confab to beat the drum for Microsoft's Visual Studio.Net, a major revision of its tool suite, and the .Net Framework object model. Developers at the conference received the near-final release of Visual Studio.Net, expected to ship early next year.

Gates previewed .Net My Services, Microsoft's vision of how software will be delivered as a service in the future. Microsoft also outlined the Global XML Web Services Architecture, a road map for building XML-compliant Web services at the conference. The vendor also unveiled four Web services specifications for handling security, license management, routing and referrals between components.

Gates also gave the first preview of the .Net Compact Framework, a scaled-down version of the component model for devices running Windows CE.Net operating system, code-named Talisker.

Microsoft plans to include .Net Framework run-time and component libraries with Windows .Net Server and Tablet PCs, which are slated to run an enhanced version of Windows XP that's due next year.

The tools mark a departure for Microsoft from traditional Windows-centric programming to a focus on Web services and the Internet. Developers are expected to have more of a learning curve with Visual Studio.Net, which will push Windows developers to write software that calls components and routines either locally or across the Internet.

Microsoft's ability to convince a large number of developers to write in .Net environments could mitigate some of the risk of adopting the new technology, says John Jahraus, chief technology officer at Bechtel Corp., a San Francisco engineering company, who plans to adopt .Net for some applications.