Visual Studio 98 to ship in stages

Visual Studio 98--code-named "Aspen"--will ship in stages over the nextyear, with the final components due in mid-1998. The next version of Microsoft's popular development suite will include support for InternetExplorer 4.0's ActiveX controls, Dynamic HTML, and Windows NT 5.0/DNA, according to Paul Gross, the Microsoft VP of developer tools. Gross willhighlight new features in Visual Studio 98 during his keynote address atthe Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on Friday.

A future version of Visual Studio--code-named "Ranier"--will support COM+,the next version of COM. Ranier will include the next version of SQLServer, code-named Sphinx and extensive OLE-DB support. It is expected in mid-1999.

Gross also cleared up a misconception about a project code-named "Vegas,"which many people took to be the next version of Visual J++. Actually,Gross said, Vegas is the code-name for the new Visual Studio 98 userinterface, which will be based on work started with the Visual Basic 5.0user interface, not the existing Developer Studio IDE.

"It's the code word for some RAD features for the integrated development environment," he said