Microsoft Corp. today outlined the road map for future versions of its flagship development tool, Visual Studio� .NET, and the Microsoft� .NET Framework. By providing details on the direction of its development products, Microsoft is helping its customers plan future investments in Microsoft .NET-connected software. Forthcoming versions of Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework take advantage of their relationship with important platform milestones including Microsoft Windows� .NET Server and the next version of SQL Server (TM) , code-named "Yukon." "Developers are one of the software industry's most important assets and they constantly have their eyes on the future," said Eric Rudder, senior vice president of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Division at Microsoft. "By providing the road map for Visual Studio, our goal is to give developers the clarity they need to be successful on the Microsoft platform."

Microsoft plans to synchronize the next version of Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework, code-named "Everett," with Windows .NET Server, which incorporates the .NET Framework into the Windows platform infrastructure. Visual Studio "Everett," an incremental release, will focus on delivering enhanced reliability, stability, security and performance for enterprise organizations. In addition, Visual J# (TM) .NET will be included with the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) along with Visual Basic� .NET, Visual C++� .NET and Visual C# (TM) .NET. Visual J# .NET was previously available as a download and began shipping with Visual Studio .NET in July 2002.