Chapter 1. History of Visual Studio
Although this book is dedicated to Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0, having a good historical background in Visual Studio can help you better understand the features treated in the subsequent chapters. Regardless of whether you are old friends with Visual Studio or it is new for you, it is always worth knowing where it started and how it's been evolving.
The roots of Visual Studio go back for almost 19 years, back to the point somewhere between the release of Windows 3.0 and 3.1. It is incredible how the development tool has evolved enormously during almost two decades! The road behind Visual Studio was never smooth or flat; it was full of bumps and curves. However, one thing stayed constant during the years: Microsoft created this tool with developers in mind, and made amazing efforts to build a strong developer community surrounding the product.
In this chapter, you'll read a short story of Visual Studio's past and present, with emphasis on the roots of this great tool, as well as the situations and motivations that led to the integrated development environment (IDE) you use today.
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