| VS 2008 brings goodies, gotchas to embedded devs |
Nov. 20, 2007
 Following yesterday's release of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2008, more information has come to light about the impact on developers targeting the Microsoft's Windows Embedded OSes. Some things work but others don't, observes Windows Embedded software architect Mike Hall in a post on his blog.
Visual Studio (VS) 2008, downloadable as of yesterday, was originally promised for the "end of November" but arrived ahead of schedule. A rare occurrence for the software industry, this happened due partly to the developers' use of Microsoft's Team Foundation Server (TFS) software, according to S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate VP of Microsoft's developer division.
"Just adopting TFS was not the silver bullet," Somasegar wrote on his blog. "Both our customer input and our renewed focus on intentional engineering allowed us to release a great product in the timeline that we originally set out to hit."
But according to Somasegar, since TFS is part of VS 2008, the development platform was in effect used to build itself -- on time in just 24 months. This success has led a number of other teams at Microsoft, including SQL Server, Office, and Windows, to use TFS for some of their own development, he added.
New features in Visual Studio 2008
In a statement released by Microsoft earlier this month, Somasegar highlighted some new features in VS 2008 that "developers told us they are looking forward to." His list includes the following:- New visual designers -- "Microsoft has delivered visual design surfaces that enable developers to graphically author even the most complex applications," for .NET Framework 3.5 components such as Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).
- Workflow enabled services -- "Building connected applications is much easier with workflow-enabled services in the .NET Framework, enabling developers to build business logic for a service using WF and expose messaging from that service using WCF.
- Multitargeting -- "In Visual Studio 2008 developers can choose to target the .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5. This should help you use the latest tools to maintain your existing applications even as you start building new applications."
- Language Integrated Query (LINQ) -- "With the improved data capabilities provided ... it's now easier for individual programmers to build solutions that analyze and act on information regardless of the source of that data."
- Office development -- VS 2008 Professional now includes Visual Stodio Tools for Office (VSTO), which allows developers to create applications that "leverage the capabilities of Microsoft Office and integrate with the world's most popular desktop productivity suite."
- Workflow with Expression Studio -- Developers and designers can now share user interface assets, such as design elements and controls, with both Microsoft Expression Web (ASP.NET) and Microsoft Expression Blend (WPF).
- Web development features -- VS 2008's general improvements to JavaScript coding (IntelliSense, syntax check, debugging) help with writing JavaScript code. The ASP.NET AJAX library is also included, helping "create a first-class experience for building next-generation Web applications."
- Code Annotations -- This feature of TFS provides "revision marks for source code," showing who last changed a particular line of code and see why they changed it.
- Continuous Integration -- Another TFS feature, this automatically generate a build whenever a programmer checks code into the source control server. "This sort of real time information helps programmers identify problems early on when they're easier to fix rather than waiting for the nightly (or weekly) build to complete before learning of problems."
VS 2008 vs. embedded development
Since previous VS 2008 coverage stressed the benefits for developers of Windows Mobile devices, what do those developing for the Microsoft's other embedded operating systems have to gain?
Hall provides part of the answer in his blog post, though as he notes, there is much more that will need to be explained. With regard to Windows XP Embedded, Hall writes, "Windows XP Embedded can be considered to be a componentized version of Windows XP, which means that any technologies supported by Windows XP 'desktop' will also work with Windows XP Embedded."
But, Hall warns, the .NET Framework 3.5 is not yet componentized: "This means that you would need to either manually integrate the framework with your operating system image, or install the framework on your embedded device."
As for Windows CE, Hall explains, there are two parts to the story -- operating system development, and application development. Regarding the former, he writes, "the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 [story] tools are a plug in to Visual Studio 2005, and the plug in doesn't work with Visual Studio 2008. This means that operating system configuration, build, download, and debug requires Visual Studio 2005 SP1 to work."
There are fewer problems with application development, suggests Hall. VS 2008 ships with "Smart Device" support, so developers can create applications that target either Windows CE or Windows Mobile devices. "The same process of device authentication exists from Visual Studio 2008, so you will still need ConManClient2, and CmAccept running on your embedded target before deploying an application," Hall writes.
Finally, .NET Micro Framework development tools are currently incompatible with VS 2008, according to Hall. The tools are currently at version 2.0 SP1, and, like the Windows CE 6.0 R2 tools, they require VS 2005 SP1 to work.
Hall writes that he's planning at least two additional blog posts to elucidate all this. One will explain how to integrate the .NET Framework 3.5 with a Windows XP Embedded OS image; a second will provide similar information on integrating .NET CF 3.5 into a Windows CE 6.0 image.
Availability and further information
Those who are current MSDN professional or premium subscribers can download Visual Studio 2008 from the MSDN subscriber downloads page, here. Non-subscribers can access 90-day trial editions of "Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite," "Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server," or "Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Load Agent" from Microsoft's website, here.
Mike Hall's blog post can be found on his Windows Embedded blog, here. To see Soma Somasegar's blog entry about the advantages of TFS, go here.
An overview of VS 2008 and other information is available on MSDN's Visual Studio 2008 site, here.
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