Microsoft releases Volta

In September, Joel (on software) wrote a thought-provoking piece; JavaScript and the DOM is the new "native", and anyone who creates the development tool which successfully targets this new universal runtime will win. Fast forward to 3 months later and Microsoft releases Volta, "a developer toolset for building multi-tier web applications" which compiles .NET code for the browser. Well, the user interface bits. Sort of like the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and Script# then? So, how is Volta different?

Script# [and I'm thinking the GWT as well] only targets JavaScript. Volta leverages the entire .NET suite of languages and libraries including VB and C#. Volta targets multiple platforms, including JavaScript and .NET runtimes.

So, besides browser-based JavaScript, Volta is also able to target Silverlight! And probably Mono-based runtimes!

Anyway, Volta uses declarative programming (think attributes) to split .NET code for multiple tiers. You first program your application as a vanilla .NET client application, and then decide much later which parts of your code goes where (as in to client tier, or to the server tier) by labeling the classes and methods with appropriate Volta attributes. I wonder how this will affect patterns which have evolved out of traditional web application architectures.

More information can be found at the Microsoft Live Labs site. You'll need Visual Studio 2008 to try the technology preview.

Somewhat related:
Reactions (and more) to Joel's Strategy Letter;