The .NET Framework and Visual Studio

Your choice of which version of the .NET Framework to use has perhaps the greatest impact of any decision under your control. Obviously, the .NET Framework 2.0 has significantly better internationalization support than the .NET Framework 1.1. Take a look at Appendix A, "New Internationalization Features in the .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005," for a complete list of the differences. Some of these new features can be retrofitted into the .NET Framework 1.1 (e.g., strongly typed resources and IDN mapping); others can be simulated with varying degrees of success (e.g., WinRes Visual Studio File Mode and custom cultures). However, others are solely the domain of the newer version of the framework (for example, TableLayoutPanel).

The version of the .NET Framework (i.e., 1.1 or 2.0) dictates the version of Visual Studio (2003 or 2005, respectively). The functionality of Visual Studio 2005 is obviously superior to that of Visual Studio 2003. The Resource Editor has greater functionality; support for strongly typed resources is built into the IDE; and Windows Forms support a new property reflection model. Of greatest significance to ASP.NET applications is that Visual Studio 2005 supports localizing ASP.NET applications. In Visual Studio 2003, localizing an ASP.NET application is all your own work.