Microsoft Announces Second Beta of Visual Studio 2008 with SilverLight 1.0 and .Net 3.5

Microsoft announced the availability a new beta version of its upcoming Visual Studio 2008 developer tools and the last version of its Silverlight rich media software code.

According to Scott Guthrie, general manager of Microsoft’s Developer Division, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 will feature a “dramatically improved HTML designer” and rich Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) support.

The second version of VS 2008 allows developers to start building Silverlight rich Internet applications in Visual Studio 2008 and work with designers using the new Expression Web design tool. With this beta release, VS 2008, is 99 percent complete, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman.

Visual Studio 2008 is expected to ship by the end of the year.