Programming ASP.NET 3.5, 4th Edition

Chapter 2. Visual Studio 2008

Visual Studio 2008 (VS2008) is the development environment of choice for .NET developers, allowing you to create applications for desktop, web, or mobile platforms, as simple or as complex as required. It comes in several different flavors, from the free-to-download Express editions (including Visual Web Developer) to the rather expensive enterprise-level Team System editions, but at their heart they all contain the same core features:

• A convenient, easy way to access many different code files at the same time

• Dockable toolbars and information windows you can customize as and how you require

• WYSIWYG editing views for the rapid development of Windows and web forms

• A unified code editor for all .NET languages and project types offering code completion; and IntelliSense to help you write syntax-error-free code; immediate flagging of syntax errors if you do write some; support for inline, code-behind, and mixed coding models; incremental search; code outlining; collapsing text; line numbering; color-coded keywords; simple code refactorings; and code snippets

• Dynamic, context-sensitive help, which allows you to view topics and samples relevant to the code you are writing at the moment

• A built-in web server for use in testing the websites you develop, and the ability to access them for development through the filesystem, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or Internet Information Services (IIS)

• An integrated debugger, which allows you to step through code, observe program ...