By Amanda Silver I just wanted to let you know that we’re working furiously on turning the VB9 features into an actual product, understanding how the debugger and editor should support them, and getting another CTP out to you all. Your feedback...

I’m very excited to announce that the next tech preview of Visual Basic 9.0 which includes support for Language INtegrated Query (codename LINQ) and XML integration atop the XLinq API is now available on the VB Future and the LINQ project websites. This is the result of a ton of hard work for a significant portion of the team and we’re very happy to get it out to you. ...

Running Code at Design Time from the Immediate Window Back in Visual Basic 6.0, developers were able to evaluate expressions from the Immediate Window at design time (we’ll call this feature ‘DTEE’ – Design Time Express Evaluation from now on)....

In Visual Studio 2003 it was sometimes difficult to examine large complicated objects in the debugger (since it is simply impossible for any debugger to analyze arbitrary objects and figure out what the developer is really interested in knowing). To...

By Amanda Silver John Rivard , one of the two tech leads on the Visual Basic team, has entered the blogosphere! His first post is a doosey – it explains why Visual Studio 8.0 doesn’t cross target (let you target version 1.0 and 1.1 of the CLR and...

by Mike Carter Some subtle changes were made in Visual Basic .Net 2005 to make code generation of overidden methods a little easier. In Visual Basic .Net 2003 and earlier, you used the code dropdowns as in Figure 1 below. Figure 1 When overriding...

Jackie GoldStein , our partner and friend, just created a great post talking about the new resources created by the MS Patterns and Practices Team. I think these are must have assets for any team thinking about an upgrade. Here are a few more notes...

Pleased to announce that the Visual Basic 2005 Language Specification is now live and available here . Also, be sure to check out Ken Levy’s channel9 interview of S. Somasegar , the Vice President of the Developer Division, where he talks about none other...

by Bill Horst Edit and Continue is a new VB debugging feature which allows the user to make edits to code while the debugger is in "Break Mode" and then to continue debugging with the new edits applied, without having to start execution over again...

Here's a great Channel 9 video with Program Manager Jay Schmelzer, that demonstrates a number of the VB 2005 IDE features mentioned below . In his 40 min interview with Ken Levy, Jay talks about what it's like to work on the VB team, shows how to use...

For our first VB IDE post on the VB team blog , I’d like to give you my list of the top 10 new features in the Visual Studio 2005 IDE. Now that the product has been released, you can take advantage of these today! 1. Edit and Continue You are again...

Hi. My name is Lisa Feigenbaum and I am a program manager on the VB IDE. The VB IDE feature team (including testers, developers, and program managers) has been hosting a blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/vbide . However, we have decided to merge our efforts...

Today is the official launch day of the new version of Visual Basic: This page links to the relevant information (how to get it, what's new, etc…) http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/ You can also download the FREE Visual Basic 2005 Express...

We just released the VB Snippet Editor RTM RC ! This release includes lots of new great features: - Code Snippet treeview; lets you browse through your registered snippet directories - 'Save as .vsi' option; lets you save your snippet as a .vsi...

We’ve posted a new video on Channel9 about Code Snippets in VS2005. Click here to check out the 38min show. Here are some of the exciting topics that you can look forward to hearing about: · What code snippets are and why they were created in...

Some videos on VB futures have been posted on Channel9 at: · Paul Vick and Amanda Silver - VB Language Futures : http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=116700 · Paul Vick and Erik Meijer - Dynamic Programming in Visual Basic http:/...

We've gotten asked a few times what the VB 9.0 preview bits available here work on. It works on the RC candidate that's available on the PDC CD & for download on MSDN. Enjoy! - Amanda

Waiting for my ridiculously priced latte this morning (I am a Seattleite , after all) made me miss the intro to Eric’s keynote session. As I was walking toward exhibit Hall A, I noticed people conspicuously looking at me. I thought it was because I had...

The first preview of the next version of Visual Basic goes live this morning! I’m sitting in Bill and Jim’s keynote right now, waiting for our announcement to be made public. The release is part of the .NET Language Integrated Query Framework, code-named...

I'm *really* excited to be at the PDC this year. I've been to a few PDCs in the past and I think that this one is going to be the best, by far. In addition to the great demos, panels, and meet the team events, there will be a lot of buzz and discussion...

Please check out the new post on my blog , which talks about some of the VB teams plans, content, and highlights at PDC '05 this week. Stay tuned for announcements & updates! --Paul Yuknewicz http://blogs.msdn.com/pauly/

(posted by Adam Braden) In case you missed it, there are some sweet new Starterkits available for download . Checkout the info in PaulY's latest post .

As part of the explore program, myself as well as the other VB Explorers have been developing an application to deploy onto the Pocket PC. One of the necessary components of our application is to be able to store information that the user inputs as well...

Since the Whidbey product cycle is winding down, it’s time for “VB War” – the process of reviewing every bug and determining which ones are to be fixed. Each of us Visual Basic Explorers got the chance to experience it firsthand to get some idea of what...

posted by Emily Yaich Hello everyone! I am Emily Yaich and I am another one of the Microsoft Explorers working on the visual basic team. I have been here since the second week in June, and I am loving every minute of it! We haven't gotten into the...