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DSL Tools with Visual Studio 2005 RTM

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Now that Visual Studio 2005 has been released to manufacture (RTM), folks are asking us when to expect a version of DSL Tools that works with the RTM release. Well, you won't have to wait long - it should be available within the next two or three weeks. And we've got two new features lined up for you as well:

Deployment, where you create a setup project for your designer authoring solution using a new DSL Tools Setup project template, which, when built, will generate a setup.exe and a .msi for installing your designer on another machine on which VS2005 standard or above is installed.

Validation, where it's now possible to add constraints to your DSL definition which can be validated against models built using your designer. Errors and warnings get posted in the VS errors window. We support various launch points for validation - Open, Save, Validate menu, and these are configurable. All the plumbing is generated for you - all you have to do is write validation methods in partial classes - one per domain class to which you want to attach constraints - which follow a fairly straightforward pattern.

We're also going to release our first end to end sample about the same time. The sample is a designer for modelling the flow in Wizard UI's (it's state chart like), from which working code is generated.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2005
    Sounds great! Hopefully there is some documentation explaining the different validation options.
  • Anonymous
    November 10, 2005
    Hi Stuart,

    Will we be able to deploy the runtime DSL (i.e. the one that currently gets launched into an experimental instance of VS2005) into the Premier Partner Edition of VS2005?

    Also, as I understand it, the deployed version requires a VSIP license key. Our company is a Premier Partner, any suggestions on how or who I can contact with respect to VSIP license key pricing?

    Regards,

    Mitch
  • Anonymous
    November 10, 2005
    Mitch, we're still discussing what we will license re. the PPE shell, so we haven't tested this scenario. However, it might work technically.

    You can deploy the designer for testing purposes onto a machine with the VS SDK installed (and VS2005, of course), and it will work fine. To deploy to a machine without the VS SDK, you'll need a package load key, which you can apply for online once you are a VSIP partner (which you are), subject to licensing conditions of course.

    With regard to your query about license key pricing, I suggest you send me email through the blog, and then I'll follow up directly.

    Our announced position is that to author you need VS professional or above (and the VS SDK, of course), but deployed designers are licensed for use with VS standard or above. As I said, no decision has been made about the PPE shell.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    Hi Stuart,

    Now that's been a couple weeks since your post - do you think we will see an RTM release this week or next?

    thx,

    Mark
  • Anonymous
    November 24, 2005
    Mark

    We're very close now, but Thanksgiving in the US has intervened. Should be up early next week.
  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2005
    Any idea when you'll have the DSLTools available for VS2005 RTM and a WinFX/SDK November CTP compatible build?