Microsoft Posts .Net Code OnlineMicrosoft Posts .Net Code Online

Microsoft Wednesday posted to its developer Web site downloadable code for the Visual Studio.Net development environment and the free .Net Framework software development kit.

Microsoft plans to generally release its development tool suite and .Net Framework execution environment Feb. 13. The new software addresses programmers' desire to build apps delivered through Web browsers that minimize the amount of software residing on users' client computers. Applications written in new .Net versions of Microsoft's development languages compile components to a common runtime, which can be executed without registering the app with Windows. Visual Studio.Net and the software development kit are available to subscribers to the Microsoft Developer Network.

Earlier this week, Microsoft released on the Web site a free Web-services toolkit that lets Office XP developers build the capability to find and import .Net applets.