If we choose the right tool at the right time we can gain significant advantage for our business, If we choose the wrong tool or choose too early or too late we are liable to suffer from development crisis and project delays. Microsoft themselves are ramping up developer expectations and interest but we think that it is timely for us to have our 'two penneth' on it all.

• What is Visual Studio.net? 
  
• How will it change the way we develop?
  
• When is it likely to affect us?
  
• Why bother? 
  
• What .net means to your current VB projects?
  
• What curriculum will be available for .net and VFP 7.0?

What is Visual Studio.net?

'Microsoft Visual Studio.net provides a complete development environment for building on the Microsoft .NET Framework. What is the .NET Framework? It is the Microsoft next-generation Web application development platform. Using Visual Studio.Net, developers can create secure, scalable applications and Web services faster than ever before and in the language of their choice, leveraging existing systems and skills'. Thus Speaketh Microsoft. 

In our opinion Visual Studio.net's unified interface should improve productivity and reduce error rates but at a cost of a major relearning and mindset changing of developers. They will no longer have to jump among applications and it should keep the coder's focus in one place. 

The management of projects that incorporate elements from different languages should result in getting cleaner, more creative code which can be coded faster. Time will tell if it achieves these lofty goals. (top of page)

How will it change the way we develop?

It is as fundamental a change as the average developer is likely to see in their lifetime. The current 'Skill focused' development teams will give way to more business focused teams. These will have a broader skill set and will be able to pick and mix the tools they use to achieve their business goals. (top of page)

When is it likely to affect us?

It depends on your particular circumstances. F1 has customers who are very eager to move to a single integrated internet focused environment. Other customers are far more cautious preferring the wait and see approach. Ultimately we think .Net has a high probability of succeeding but a lot will depend on Microsoft's ability to change the mindsets of both management and developers and excite them about the future and persuade them that it really can work for them.   

Why bother?

Indeed. Well, if you want a quite life, and persuade your management that, like dot coms of late, the internet way of doing things is not the 'be all and end all' of everything then staying put might well be the strategy to pursue over the coming year while the dust settles. 

However, if coding is your life and blood, and the promising new tools  excite you, and you have the time to prepare for the future then Visual Studio.net does indeed seem the way to go. At present there is nothing in the market place to compete with it. Whether you like or loath Microsoft, you have to admit that if anyone if going to make Internet development core to everyone's business, it is them. (top of page)

What .net means to your current VB or VFP development projects

For VB and SQL developers everything will change but it is ultimately up to you to decide if and when you want to use .net in anger. Given Microsoft's track record of pushing developers to move quickly to the next release of the development product, it might be safe to assume it will be quicker than later for most development teams. 

However, Microsoft have had a lot of feedback from worried developers and IT management along the lines of 'what is the true cost/benefit of migrating my development team and projects?'. Microsoft is going to have to work very hard to help developers move (and they again have a good track record of this). An example of this is the fact that they are intending to role out new conversion courses such as 2373 and 2307 which should provide encouragement to developers and build their confidence in .net and the tool of the future.   

In the case of VFP the problem is not so acute, as VFP 7 will now not be part of Visual Studio.net and will therefore not be subject to the rigours necessary in .net. The result is evolution not revolution. (top of page)

What curriculum will be available for .net and VFP 7.0?

With regards to VFP 7.0 we will be upgrading our own course curriculum in line with the launch of the product and its take up by our customers.

Microsoft themselves are putting a lot of effort into producing .net MOC and in particular courses to help developers convert their skill sets to the new technologies. Here is the position as at March 2001: