Soma posts on the awesome SharePoint developer support in Visual Studio 2010. It’s almost cruel, like dangling cool toys in front of a kid and saying “you have to wait.”
http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2009/02/19/sharepoint-tools-support-in-visual-studio.aspx
This is going to be a huge timesaver and will definitely help developers be more productive developing with SharePoint.
In the meantime, there are the Visual Studio Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 1.3 as an option to help make you more productive as a SharePoint developer.
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I've found a few issues with the new VSeWSS 1.3 CTP tools, interested to see your opinions:
http://wss.made4the.net/archive/2009/02/21/vsewss-1-3-ctp-why-does-it-require-sql-access.aspx
Also there is a comparison of this tool against the community tools here:
http://www.sharepointdevwiki.com/display/public/Solution+package+development+tool+comparisons
Thanks for the pointers, Jeremy. I think this assessment provides a clearer picture.
http://www.sharepointdevwiki.com/display/public/The+Ultimate+SharePoint+Development+Tool
Each tool takes a different approach, with the ultimate goal of making things a little easier on the developer.
As for why VSeWSS 1.3 requires SQL access, I am not sure why. I have sent this to the PM in charge of VSeWSS, but would also suggest that comments be posted to the Microsoft Connect site (https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=428).