Review: Visual Studio.NET2003 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003, which is updated to exploit the built-in Web services capabilities in Microsoft's Windows Server 2003, is a promising new release to system integrators and professional developers. It has a practical development tool for creating next-generation applications. The addition of code access security to the ASP.NET application is a useful feature. It seems that Microsoft has continued to apply much of what it has learned to optimising performance. Even the hard disk loads up faster. To illustrate, systems administrators can now use code access security to further lock down the permission granted to ASP.NET Web applications and XML Web services. Although the operating system account under which an application runs imposes security restrictions on the application, the code access security system of the common language runtime can enforce additional restrictions on selected application resources based on policies specified by systems administrators. Developers can use this feature in a shared server environment, such as an Internet service provider hosting multiple Web applications on one server, to isolate separate applications from one another, as well as with stand-alone servers where you want applications to run with the minimum necessary privileges. Installation of Visual Studio .NET 2003 on .NET Server Enterprise went smoothly. In fact, the progress dialogues are very accurate. With an integrated development environment (IDE) for all languages, developers can take advantage of a common toolbox, debugger, and task window, greatly reducing their learning curve. The product contains an enhanced version of the .NET Framework (version 1.1), which builds on the previous version with new capabilities. It comes with integrated support for the .NET Compact Framework, which brings mobile and embedded devices powered by the Microsoft Windows CE .NET operating system to .NET. There are three editions - Visual Studio .NET 2003 Profession, Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer, and Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect. The 2003 version is capable of producing code that executes on the .NET Framework version 1.1 while Vision Studio .NET 2002 is capable of producing code that executes on the .NET Framework version 1.0. Each version of Visual Studio targets only the version of the .NET Framework with which it shipped. The .NET Framework 1.1 supports the emerging update to the Internet protocol, commonly referred to as IP version 6, or simply IPv6. This protocol is designed to significantly increase the address space used to identify communication endpoints in the Internet to accommodate its ongoing growth. Mobile device developers can easily build, debug, and deploy powerful applications for the Pocket PC Phone Edition and other smart devices powered by the .NET Compact Framework. Integrated emulation enables developers to easily program and debug their applications without requiring a device. Mobile applications on your PC using a hardware and software Pocket PC emulator that comes with Visual Studio .NET 2003 can be debugged. You do not even need a device to write the code. To use Visual Studio .NET 2003, you need to have a computer with a minimum of 450-megahertz Pentium II-class processor. VS can be installed on to a personal computer running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home Edition, Windows 2000 Profession (SP3 or later required) and Windows 2000 Server (SP3 or later). The minimum random access memory required is 160 megabytes for Windows Server 2003, 160MB for Windows XP Professional, 96MB for Windows XP Home Edition, 96MB for Windows 2000 Professional and 192MB for Windows 2000 Server. A total of 900MB of available hard disk space is required on the system drive and 3.3GB of available hard disk space is required on the installation drive. An additional 1.9GB of available space is needed for optional MSDN Library documentation. Visual Studio .NET 2003 is now available at major software outlets. VS.NET 2003 Professional sells for HK$8,420 (full package product) or HK$4,280 (version upgrade); VS .NET 2003 Enterprise Developer costs HK$14,030 (full package product) or HK$8,420 (version upgrade); VS .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect is priced at HK$19,490 (full package product) or HK$14,030 (version upgrade).
