In Brief
Even though an IDE such as Visual Studio .NET isn't required for development, it provides a number of productivity-enhancement features for multiple developers to work together on a business problem and rapidly develop applications.
Unlike Visual Studio 6.0, Visual Studio .NET provides a single environment for developing different kinds of solutions—Windows applications, Web applications, Web services, and even Smart Device applications.
Visual Studio .NET supports development in multiple programming languages. Four languages are supported inherently by Microsoft: Visual C#, Visual Basic .NET, Visual C++ .NET, and Visual J# .NET. Various third parties have also provided plug-ins and add-ons to Visual Studio .NET to support other programming ...