Developer Days '98
Draws More Than 75,000
Developers Worldwide
REDMOND, WASHINGTON - Expanding the tools available
for developers to create business software applications, Microsoft announced two
new products at Developer Days '98 this week.
The company announced the availability of Visual Studio 6.0, a suite
of software development tools that enables developers to create solutions for Windows
and the Web. It also announced a new version of Microsoft Office 2000 Developer,which
provides developers with the tools needed to build and deploy solutions that work
with Microsoft Office 2000.
Microsoft made the announcements at its annual Developer Days conference,
held at 33 sites throughout North America. The conference is a one-day event intended
to educate the developer community about new Microsoft technology offerings. Held
in more than 120 cities in 51 countries, Developer
Days draws more than 75,000 attendees worldwide, making it the largest
one-day developer event in the industry.
"The mission really is to go out and touch developers with great
information and give them some level of insight into Microsoft's newest technologies,"
said Morris Beton, director of Microsoft's Developer Relations Group.
"We're trying to reach a lot of people in a way that's comfortable and convenient,
and update them on the latest things going on."
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates discussed Microsoft's commitment
to enterprise computing during the conference, and demonstrated new features of
Visual Studio 6.0. These include new versions of the tools needed to build enterprise
and Web-based applications as well as improved integration among these tools to
make it easier to integrate applications within the corporation.
He also announced Microsoft 2000 Developer, which includes new features
that will make it quicker for developers to build custom solutions that work with
Office.
Gates used Developer Days as an opportunity outline his vision for
a corporate "digital nervous system," in which all of a company's information
systems work together efficiently, in much the same way as the human nervous system.
Microsoft is helping developers build digital nervous systems by providing them
with the tools needed to integrate their computer
systems and leverage the Web, Gates said.
"The digital nervous system vision is a transformation in the
way business is done," Gates said. "It's an opportunity to take advantage
of the talents of employees in a new way and reach out to customers."
Following Gates' keynote speech, developers had the opportunity to
attend seven product sessions led by Microsoft Developer Network regional directors-volunteer
experts who educate developers about Microsoft technologies. These sessions were
designed to help developers understand how they can use Visual Studio to build distributed,
Web-based solutions on top of the Windows NT operating system and integrate
these solutions with their existing systems.
Developer Days is one of many developer education and training events
that Microsoft offers through MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network. More than 2
million developers use resources provided by MSDN, which include conferences, software
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