Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2008

This academic edition has the same features and capabilities of the retail version, and is shipped to you in a factory sealed retail box. However, this version is able to be sold below the retail price because of an educational discount.

In Visual Studio 2008, developer productivity doesn’t end with the code editor and wizards. By extending the focus on productivity to application architectures and the underlying platform, Visual Studio 2008 enables you to tackle new business problems while decreasing the total cost of building applications.

Data at your fingertips

Visual Studio 2008 revolutionizes the way developers interact with their data. With the introduction of Language Integrated Query (LINQ), you can now deal with data of all types with a consistent approach and perform data access with new data designers. LINQ makes data access easier for developers through a set of extensions to the C# and Visual Basic programming languages as well as the Microsoft .NET Framework. These extensions provide integrated querying for objects, databases and XML data. Using LINQ, you will be able to write queries natively in C# or Visual Basic without having to use specialized languages, such as SQL and XPath. Building data-driven applications has never been easier.

Give your applications a facelift

For the first time ever developers can use the latest version of Visual Studio to build and enhance applications built on previous versions of the .NET Framework. Visual Studio 2008 will adjust available project templates, toolbox controls, and IntelliSense to match the version of the .NET Framework (2.0, 3.0, or 3.5) that a developer chooses to target. Visual Studio makes it easy for you to extend these applications to deliver high quality user experiences. For example, enhancements to the Windows Forms designer enable the creation of applications that leverage Windows Forms, .NET Framework 3.5, and XAML in one application.

Free your inner designer

In addition to the design surfaces in Visual Studio, user interface designers can use familiar tools like the Microsoft Expression Suite to manipulate layouts, controls, and data binding. The solution files generated by the Expression tools can be opened and edited in Visual Studio. Designers and developers will also be able to build libraries of common user interface designs, formats and elements that can be easily managed and reused.