Visual Studio 2008 developers will be able to host custom tools and programming languages with a stripped-down version of the IDE known as Visual Studio Shell, Microsoft announced at Tech Ed 2007. The simplified development environment emerged as Microsoft continued to evolve its partner programs and meet the challenge posed by other stripped-down IDEs, such as the open-source Eclipse kit.
In essence, Visual Studio Shell is the IDE reduced down to its bare framework, said Joe Marini, group manager of VS Industry Partners (VSIP) at Microsoft. "For some time now our partners and developers have been asking for this," he added. The shell does not support a language [such as VB or C#] but does offer key IDE services such as Dif services are debugging and editing.
The shell, which will be available as a free download, offers two flavors of Visual Studio compatibility.
In Integrated mode, developers and third-party software makers can use the shell much as they would a Visual Studio plug-in today.
On the other hand, in Isolated mode, the Visual Studio Shell can take on the appearance and branding favored by the developer or software maker. If a Visual Studio instance is already running, the Isolated mode version will run separately.
“You can still build your Visual Studio plug in like you could before, but now you can build it independently and it can run independently,” said Marini.
Visual Studio Shell is part of the first Visual Studio 2008 SDK, which will be released this summer as part of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. (The company also announced at Tech Ed that
Visual Studio Orcas is now Visual Studio 2008 but will nonetheless be released by the end of 2007.)
Microsoft's SDKs, or Software Development Kits, are targeted at developers who, by and large, build Visual Studio plug-ins. This group consists mainly of ISVs but also includes enterprise, academic and shared-source developers.
The fourth and final SDK for Visual Studio 2005 came out earlier this year.
As a backdrop to the Windows Shell announcement came word of recent controversy in some developer ranks regarding Microsoft tool licensing practices.
Microsoft has responded with the tool set with the nice price, Express. But clearly its vision on open source is limited. Express does not equal Eclipse. But there may be pressure to continue to take on features of open source software - and developer plug-ins look like an area where the pressure is beginning to be felt.
British developer and former Microsoft MVP Jamie Cansdale said he was threatened with litigation by Microsoft on his implementation of the TestDriven.NET Visual Studio Add-in for Microsoft’s Visual Studio Express Edition. Microsft disables extensibility options in the free Express product line.
Microsoft’s marketing of the Express line is seen in some quarters as a response to inroads made by the Eclipse IDE, which originator IBM ceded to the open-source community. Moves like the creation of Visual Studio Shell also may be viewed as a response to free tools like Eclipse. Pressure may continue for Microsoft to open up its Express package, enabling extensibility of the entry level kit.
虽然期望是美好的，但是我相信到了2008年Eclipse的平台将会进入一个新的阶段。而被人诟病的Visual Studio IDE是否一如既往的让人失望呢，我们拭目以待。
http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon.skeet/archive/2005/12/22/79631.aspx