The .NET express, destination Longhorn

It’s been over three years now since Microsoft unveiled its .NET platform, and whilst many of us are now familiar with the framework, development and server tools, Microsoft is now steaming ahead with the .NET locomotive with many more surprises in store. With the .NET framework version 2 in beta, and the imminent release of Visual Studio ‘Whidbey’ in 2005, we can already expect some exciting changes in the next instalment of the .NET saga.

However, looking beyond this to 2006, we can expect to wave goodbye to the component-based Win32 architecture, and hail the arrival of Microsoft’s pure .NET service-based WinFX architecture, in the form of Windows ‘Longhorn’, ‘Avalon’, and ‘Indigo’. The following is a preview of what the .NET locomotive has to offer as it rolls on towards destination Longhorn and beyond.

Win16 to WinFX

Over the last decade we have witnessed the shift from Win16 APIs, to the WIN32 component-based COM architecture, to the service-orientated architecture made possible with the .NET framework and web services. Microsoft has continued its commitment to .NET, and the next stop on the journey is Whidbey, after which there lies a new land called Longhorn and WinFX.

Next stop, Whidbey

The next stop on the .NET express is the .NET Framework version 2.0 and Visual Studio.NET 2005 (code-named ‘Whidbey’). Here we will see significant extensions and improvements to the framework and Visual Studio. In summary, we can at least expect:

• Base enhancements
  • Support for 64-bit processors
  • Myriad of library enhancements
  • Generics, fewer lines of code, greater productivity
• Data Access Enhancements
  • SQL Server 2005 (‘Yukon’) – Extends SQL’s type system by being able to write stored procedures, functions and triggers, all in managed .NET code.
  • Object Spaces – builds on ADO.NET to allow database tables and fields to be referenced as domain objects in code, e.g. Customer, Account and Employee classes all derived directly from underlying tables.
• Web enhancements
  • ASP.NET Building Blocks – Goodbye fiddly DataGrid and duplicated data plumbing code, welcome DataSources, the GridView and DetailView
  • ASP.NET Page Framework – Page inheritance, layout and navigation management.
  • SQL Cache invalidation – ASP.NET and SQL Server data caching providing up to 10 times performance boost with SQL Server data changed notifications.
  • ASP.NET version 2 will reduce coding effort by up to 70%
  • Advanced Web Services – Latest industry standards
• Windows Forms Enhancements
  • New controls – Managed .NET Office documents containers, web browser control and new layout controls.
  • XP style and themes – XP / Office style toolbars and tree views.
  • ClickOnce – deployment strategy that avoids overhead of registering assemblies.
  • Form editor enhancements – Smart tags, Snap Lines and Data preview

In addition to some of the new features listed above, we can also expect to see further integration of .NET with Office products, with the release of Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005.

Finally, to complete the ‘Whidbey’ experience we can also expect a host of new design, process, management, analysis and deployment tools in the form of Visual Studio 2005 Team System, which will boast the following tools:

• Distributed Services Design and Modelling
• Static Code Analyzer
• Team Test
• Project Management and Process Management
• Product Build and Deployment

For more information on Visual Studio 2005 Team System please see the Whidbey roadmap in the further reading section, or if you’re planning to attend DevWeek 2005 in February, check out Dave Wheeler’s two-part talk in the new ‘Architecture’ track.

Destination Longhorn

After Whidbey, it’s full steam ahead to our next and final destination, Windows Longhorn. This brand new operating system will represent one of the greatest leaps in technology since Win32 and Windows 95. Since we are on the .NET express, you should have guessed it, this will be a .NET-managed operating system built from the ground up. Here WinFX replaces Win32, Indigo replaces COM+, and Avalon replaces Windows Forms and the 2D graphics we know today. Sometime after, we can also expect to see ‘Orcas’, the Longhorn successor to Visual Studio 2005, and last but not least WinFS – a new SQL Server based file system that it now seems will ship after Longhorn.

Farewell Win32, welcome WinFX

By now any seasoned .NET developer is used to getting their hands dirty by mixing Win32 unmanaged code (necessary for shell/OS integration) with pure .NET managed code. Fortunately this will all soon change with WinFX, a pure .NET “managed” operating system and API, that will finally remove the dependence on Interop, and provide access to the base operating system in managed .NET code. All in all, Longhorn’s WinFX API will amount to a veritable sweet shop of functionality, all available for us to subclass and customise. WinFX will also provide full access to the two new technologies or pillars of Longhorn; Avalon and Indigo.

Avalon

‘Avalon’ is the code name for the next generation of the windows presentation system. This will provide a whole new vector-based 3D graphics system that will combine windows, documents and media content into a new rich presentation layer that can be programmed using XAML (Extensible Application Mark-up Language – pronounced “zammel”).

Avalon takes and combines the relative strengths of programming with WinFX and mark-up language (XAML) to provide a greater level of abstraction between data and rendering in the user interface. This all amounts to a more lightweight and easier-to-program 3D graphical interface. Existing .NET Windows applications will apparently run smoothly on Avalon, and when it’s released with Longhorn in 2006, it will also be made available to existing Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users.

Indigo

Indigo is a new set of service-oriented .NET technologies built to unify existing Remoting, Web Service and Enterprise Service technologies via the WinFX API. Here, emphasis is on reliability, security and deep .NET support for standard protocols such as HTTP, TCP, UDP, XML and SOAP. This new extension to the .NET Framework will provide a rich object model to create, consume, process and transmit messages asynchronously across distributed inhomogeneous networks.

Conclusion

To conclude my whirlwind .NET express trip to Longhorn, we have seen in brief what’s in store regarding the imminent release of Whidbey in 2005. We then had a quick high-level look at Longhorn, including the new WinFX API, Avalon and Indigo, hopefully providing an exciting glimpse of what’s in store for Windows and the .NET framework over the next few years.

---

Dan Brown is a Principle Consultant with Dunstan Thomas Consulting, a company that helps companies build better software through three main disciplines – the way software is designed, structured and developed. Dan specialises in OOAD Delphi, VB, and .NET architecture, and has a broad professional experience of business automation and ecommerce solutions. He can be reached at [email protected].

Resources Whidbey Roadmap .NET Framework Overview: A Roadmap – PowerPoint presentation MSTV WinFX video Longhorn Developer Centre Indigo Avalon