Tools You Will Need

All code examples featured in this book have been developed using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003. Detailed system requirements for Visual Studio .NET are specified at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/productinfo/sysreqs/default.aspx, and you are encouraged to check it out to see if your development workstation or notebook meets those requirements.

In particular, all examples have been developed and tested on a notebook with the following configuration ”Pentium 4 processor, 512MB RAM, 40GB hard disk, Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect Edition running on Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition. In addition, Windows 2000 Server SP3 has also been used specifically for servers that don't (yet!) support the Windows 2003 Server platform.

It is important to point out that Visual Studio .NET 2003 uses .NET Framework 1.1, which is also used as the basis for the code samples in the book. Also, even though Visual Studio .NET provides enhanced capabilities and tools for developing .NET applications, it is not a requirement. Microsoft provides a freely downloadable Software Development Kit (SDK) for command-line style development of .NET applications and Web services. System Requirements for .NET Framework 1.1 SDK are available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/productinfo/sysreqs/default.aspx. The URL also provides the system requirements for the .NET Framework 1.1 redistributable, which is required for deploying .NET applications (except browser-based applications, where the requirement is typically a standard Web browser).