When I first started working on COBOL I was told that COBOL was a business oriented language that even managers could use 
It looks like Microsoft are wanting to do something similar in a modern manor using Visual Studio + supper duper templates…
Here is what Computer World UK has to say about “Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch”.
Microsoft turns on Visual Studio LightSwitch
Visual Studio LightSwitch is easy enough for business managers
Microsoft is gearing up to release a version of its Visual Studio integrated developer environment that it promises will be easy enough for even business managers to use.
I understand this is not COBOL but the reasons sound very familiar…
From: Computer World UK – Microsoft turns on Visual Studio LightSwitch
Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch
I get the feeling this is aimed at I.T. developer than wants to create in house applications.
The Visual Studio LightSwitch approach is a little different to the normal template + wizard approach that previously existed in VS.
The approach from what I can gather is along the lines of:
– ability to consume multiple different types as one pseudo data source and extend/redefine the new source
– meta language for creating and customising a UI, can even be customised during execution/debugging
– eco system in place to provide UI skins, customisations and data providers
– resulting application can be used on the desktop, web hosted and Azure rather than being forced to choose a UI model up front
– user created customisations provide via C# and VB.NET
This could be a good step forward for the I.T. developer that is trying to knit together different types of systems/data sources into one unified system.
However, I guess we will know more when the beta is available…