Microsoft Breaks New Ground in Helping Developers Build and Deploy Client, Web and Data-Driven Applications

Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Visual Studio 2008 SP1. These releases come just nine months after the release of the .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008, and include a substantial number of updates based directly on customer feedback. The service packs continue to address the needs of the developer community by making it even easier to develop applications for the latest platforms, with new features such as the .NET Framework Client Profile for faster deployment of Windows-based applications, multiple enhancements to ASP.NET, and unparalleled support for database application development through the ADO.NET Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services and integration with SQL Server 2008.

"Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 had an extremely positive impact on our ability to develop a Web-based application that our customer, Misys Healthcare Systems, could use to manage patients' records -- in fact, it helped us boost development speed by 60 percent," said Galen Murdock, president and CEO at Veracity Solutions Inc. "The Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX improvements and new capabilities such as ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services meant we didn't have to worry about any of the underlying plumbing and could simply focus on building a highly responsive and interactive experience for users."

The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 includes the new .NET Framework Client Profile -- the fastest and easiest way to deploy applications for Windows. With .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and the .NET Framework Client Profile, developers can more easily deploy client applications thanks to an 86.5 percent reduction (197 MB to 26.5 MB) in .NET Framework size. This means that end users will be able to download and install Windows-based applications significantly faster than before. The .NET Framework Client Profile also makes it possible to extend the improved download and installation experience to existing .NET applications.

Developers now can quickly and simply deploy new and existing rich-client applications to a broader audience. Any services connecting to these applications will also see up to 10 times the amount of performance improvement when running in Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7).

"The beauty of the .NET Framework has always been that it makes it easier for developers to build applications that are visually stunning, well connected and highly secure," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. "However, we want to make sure we are keeping the end-user experience in mind as well, which is why we created the .NET Framework Client Profile. The .NET Framework Client Profile significantly speeds up the installation of Windows and enables a much more consumer-friendly experience. This is a huge step forward for the more than 4 million .NET developers worldwide."

The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 includes several improvements to the common language runtime, such as the ability to generate managed code that improves application startup time by 20 percent to 45 percent and end-to-end application execution time up to 10 percent, and the ability of managed code to take advantage of the Address Space Layout Randomization security feature in Windows Vista. In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 has improvements for the creation of rich-client applications and line-of-business applications using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

The .NET Framework 3.5, released in November 2007, already contains significant improvements for developing Web 2.0 applications and dynamic Web sites, including new server controls and a client-script library for AJAX-style applications, as well as tight integration with IIS7. With .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, the .NET Framework now offers support for ASP.NET Dynamic Data, which provides a rich scaffolding framework that allows rapid data-driven development without writing code.

Furthermore, the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 includes ADO.NET Data Services and ADO.NET Entity Framework, which raise the level of abstraction for database programming and supply both a new model-based paradigm and a rich, standards-based framework for creating data-oriented Web services. With this service pack, Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 also support SQL Server 2008, making the Microsoft platform the most comprehensive environment for database application development.

"Using the Entity Framework has significantly sped up our development cycle by removing a lot of the custom code we have to write," said David Copple, lead developer, The Test Factory. "The Entity Framework took away the tedium of having to write standard data access code and business objects, which gave our team a big productivity boost."

The .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 also improves developer productivity by simplifying the requirements for creating, implementing, changing and scaling applications via delivery of a single framework for service development that spans enterprise-critical applications and emerging rich, interactive applications. Enhancements to the representational state transfer (REST) services functionality within Windows Communication Foundation expand the range of choices for developers and provide a more flexible programming model for building services to support both Web 2.0 and service-oriented architecture (SOA) applications. ADO.NET Data Services leverages the new REST capabilities in Windows Communication Foundation, giving developers dramatic productivity gains when creating data-centric REST-based services.

Enhancements in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 build on the new functionality in the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, offering developers improved performance and reliability. Improvements include better-performing designers for building WPF applications, improved tools for developing AJAX applications, improved designers for working with the ADO.NET Entity Framework, a richer JavaScript development environment and a streamlined Web site deployment experience. Visual Studio 2008 SP1 also extends the developer-focused innovations in SQL Server 2008, making the development of occasionally connected applications and spatial applications easier and offering developers additional controls for incorporating business intelligence into applications.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.