How Is This Book Organized?

You can read this book cover to cover, or you can pick the chapters that apply most to your current need. We sometimes reference content between chapters, but for the most part, each chapter can stand by itself. This organization allows you to jump around and read as time (and interest) permits. There are four parts to the book; each part is described next.

Part I: An Introduction to Visual Studio 2005/.NET

The chapters in this part provide an overview of what to expect from Visual Studio 2005. Readers who are familiar only with prior versions of .NET will want to review these chapters. In addition, we cover the new language enhancement for the 2005 versions of VB and C#.

Part II: The Visual Studio 2005 Environment: In-depth

This part covers the core development experience relative to Visual Studio. It provides developers with a base understanding of the rich features of their primary tool. The chapters walk through the many menus and windows that define each tool. We cover projects, solutions, editors, designers, and other productivity tools and aids. We also dig into refactoring code, using the debugging toolset, working with the automation model inside Visual Studio, and preparing your code for sharing.

Part III: Visual Studio 2005 at Work

Part III focuses on how to work with the tools to write your applications. Each chapter provides an in-depth overview of how to use the IDE to help you get your application to production. We cover writing applications using ASP .NET, Web Services, Windows forms, and working with data and databases.

Part IV: Visual Studio 2005 Team System

Finally, Part IV covers how you can leverage Visual Studio Team System to enable better project visibility and team collaboration. These tools are totally new with Visual Studio 2005. We provide an in-depth exploration of team system projects, collaboration, and work item tracking. We also cover related features and tools that are brought to you by Team Systems, such as source code control, automated testing and test case management, visual modeling, and Team Foundation Build.