The VSX team has just released VS SDK Orcas June 2007 CTP and is now available for download. This CTP must be installed together with Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1. Orcas is the code name for Visual Studio 2008.

What's New since the previous version of the VS SDK SDK for Orcas beta 1
  • Run As Normal User (RANU). When the Visual Studio SDK is already installed on a computer, a user with non-administrator permissions now can create a package by using the wizard, and then press F5 to open the new package in the experimental hive. The following RANU work items have been completed:
    • RANU option added to RegPkg build target.
    • RANU switches added to Regit, RegPkg.
    • RANU support added to VSRegEx.
    • Start menu shortcut for experimental hive updated to use RANU.
    • Samples updated to use the new RANU RegPkg/RegIt switches.
  • Changes to DSL Tools include new path editing. In DSL Tools, paths are used in a DSL definition to specify diagram element maps and explorer behavior. This CTP adds richer path editing to the DSL Designer, in the form of a drop-down tree control. You can now either type the path syntax, or you can display a tree view of all the valid paths from the current starting point.
  • Release month, for example 2007.04, is removed from the SDK folder structure and “Microsoft” was added to the VS SDK shortcut and root folder name.

Known Issues

  • Devenv /RANU /setup is not yet fully functional because it depends on some platform work items that have not yet been completed.
     
  • Help Integration Wizard is not yet functional.
     
  • Integration tests in the C# Example.EditorWithToolbox and the C# Reference.ComboBox samples are not yet functional.
     
  • The C# Example.VSIDEHostAdapter sample unit-test project is not yet functional.
     
  • The native archive samples will not work with the RANU hive. To use these samples, you must have administrator rights and you must use the VSRegEx tool to manually create a copy of the experimental hive in the registry under HKLM.
     
  • Under RANU, to run DSL Tools, you must run the following command to create the experimental hive:

        "<Program Files>\Microsoft Visual Studio Orcas SDK\VisualStudioIntegration\Tools\Bin\VsRegEx.exe" GetOrig 9.0 Exp.
     
  • The following C# samples have some failing unit tests: Reference.ComboBox, Example.NestedProject, and Example.SccProvider.
  • Namespace.exe is not yet included in the Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” SDK.

As always, please let us know what you think of the VS SDK by sending email to vssdkfbk@microsoft.com or post a comment to this blog entry.