Microsoft updates Visual Studio Lightswitch developer beta

SOFTWARE MACHINE Microsoft has released the second beta of its Visual Studio Lightswitch software development tool for building applications.

The release is available to MSDN subscribers now and has had a bit of a polish and a range of improvements added to its existing features.

The release was hinted about at the TED event in Dubai last week where S. Somasegar, SVP of the Vole's developer division, blogged that it was due soon.

"Visual Studio LightSwitch offers a simple way to develop line of business applications for the desktop and cloud. Since the launch of Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 1, we have seen over 100,000 downloads of the tool and a lot of developer excitement," he said.

"In the coming weeks, we will make available Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2. With this second beta, we will also enable you to build line of business applications that target Windows Azure and SQL Azure."

Those coming weeks became days and the release will be made available to non-MSDN subscribers from Thursday.

The Lightswitch beta is available for users of Visual Studio 2010 SP1 RTM version and Microsoft said that it comes with go-to licenses, meaning any apps can be quickly published to the web, as well as tools for publishing direct to Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

Runtime and system performance have also been improved since the first beta and the Vole claimed 50 per cent faster build times and a 30 per cent improvement in application start-up times.

Microsoft has also improved the user interface with neat little features like autocomplete and better keyboard innovation, whatever it means by that, while user access has been eased with the ability to quickly add an already authenticated Windows user.

Architecturally Lightswitch mimics the Vole's .NET framework and Microsoft has released a raft of user information and guidance for any prospective users it might lure into its software web.

Two installation options are offered, one a straight download and the other an ISO installer than can be burned to disc. µ