Microsoft official unveiled the Visual Studio 97 suite, a multiple-language programming package that combines all of their Internet and applications development tools. The package was formerly known as "Boston." The components of Visual Studio 97 include: • Visual Basic 5.0 • Visual InterDev • Visual C++ 5.0 • Visual J++ 1.1 • Visual FoxPro 5.0 • MSDN documentation Visual Studio 97 will be available on March 19th, when Microsoft kicks off their biggest-ever Developer Days conference. There will be Professional and Enterprise Editions of the package, though pricing has not yet been determined. In its first iteration, the product offers minimal cross-tool integration, much like the first Microsoft Office suite. Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro still sport separate, non-integrated IDEs, for example, while Visual J++, Visual C++, MSDN, and Visual InterDev share the Developer Studio IDE. Microsoft intends to bring the products closer together for the next release. For now, the biggest incentive to buy the whole package is price. Visual Studio 97 is targeted at professional developers, not the casual programming crowd, who will still be able to buy each of the components separately
