Lost In Tangent

This morning, Cameron Skinner presented a demo in Bob Muglia’s keynote at the PDC. The demo focused on some of the most exciting new features coming in Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4, SQL Server 2008 R2, and the new Windows Server AppFabric. We felt that the demo did a great job of highlighting the value of the next wave of Microsoft developer tools and as such we wanted to make sure that it was readily available to everyone.You can now download the Tailspin Travel application from Codeplex (download here). In addition to the feature use cases that were presented in the demo, the released version of Tailspin contains many additional scenarios to help developers see a broader view of possibilities with the respective technologies.

Technologies Covered

The Tailspin Travel application covers a pretty substantial set of functionality, but ultimately seeks to provide a holistic perspective of how Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4, and the server platform can be used together. The following is a list of the exact features that are shown in the application:

System Requirements

Tailspin was built using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, and there are a few features in use in the demo that require that version (e.g. coded-UI tests). If you’re using a different SKU, you’ll still be able to run the solution, but there will be some features you won’t be able to take advantage of.Because we consider the new Windows Server AppFabric a key part to the Tailspin Travel application, we also require that you have it installed. This is what enables the memory-caching, as well as the service/workflow containers, and monitoring support.SQL Server 2008 R2 isn’t a hard requirement, but if you don’t have it installed you won’t be able to deploy the Data-Tier Application (DAC).

Next Steps

We plan on doing at least a couple more iterations on Tailspin Travel. There are a few tweaks we’d like to make, plus I’m confident we’ll get some great feedback from you guys that will help make it even better.