2005 Betas

I've had lots of fun here in the last few days playing with the beta releases for Whidbey (Visual Studio 2005) and Yukon (Sql Server 2005). Actually, I haven't had much time. Been doing house stuff (see two posts ago). But here are my thoughts so far.

Class Designer for Visual Studio
I dig it. It allows you to define your classes in a cool Visio-like designer. The really cool feature is that it syncs up with your class files. So a change in one is automatically a change in the other. Pretty cool. Obviously, not necesssary. But cool.

Sql Server Management Studio
Definitely the coolest thing I've seen so far. What is it? Basically, it is a merge of Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer. My two favorite features? Tab display for organizing your queries. Nice. Don't like navigating between various queries in 2000's Query Analyzer. Also, solution files. This is very nice, because it gives you a good way to organize your queries within the tool. Sure, you could use Sql Server projects in VS2003, I know. But this allows you to do it within the DB tools themselves. A very nice feature.

Also, you can manage your 2000 installation as well as your 2005 installation. Nice.

Team System
Definitely the stuff I am most anxious to see, but as of yet have not. I have a developer license for Windows Server 2003, which Team System requires, but I don't have it currently installed on anything. I guess I'll have to do that. Can't wait to see the defect item tracking, code coverage, automatic build stuff, etc., that you get with it. Rockin' stuff in the demos.

Yes, I am a geek.