On Tuesday, Microsoft officially took the wraps off a new line of low-priced tools aimed at non-professional programmers.

The first betas of both the full Visual Studio tool suite and the so-called "Express" versions of Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, Visual J# and SQL Server (as well as a new product, Visual WebDev Express) will be available this week for download from the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) site here. (Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 will be available to MSDN testers only; the Express betas will be open to anyone.)

Visual Studio 2005 (code-named "Whidbey"), SQL Server 2005 (code-named "Yukon") and the Express family of tools are due to ship by mid-2005.

The Express tools are an outgrowth of Microsoft's ASP.Net Web Matrix hobbyist tool, which Microsoft introduced a couple of years ago.

Microsoft estimates the non-professional programmer pool to be about 18 million strong, or three times the size of the professional programming one. Via Web Matrix, Microsoft learned that this community was interested in tools for absolute beginners, said John Montgomery, director of marketing for Microsoft's developer division. Microsoft also learned that these hobbyists and entry-level programmers wanted a product that looked and felt like Visual Studio, so that they could maintain a familiar environment if and when they "traded up."

The Express tools fulfill that goal, Montgomery said. And with Microsoft expected to price each of the Express languages in the "tens of dollars" range, With Express, Microsoft thinks it's found the right combination of price and functionality for people who are interested in dabbling in new languages and writing simple but useful programs over a weekend, he added. (To encourage these "weekend warriors" to write simple programs, Microsoft is including starter kits built in conjunction with three content providers: eBay, Amazon.com and PayPal.)

Besides attracting a new cadre of customers, the Express tools will help Microsoft fulfill another mission. Microsoft has designed the Express versions of VB and VC++ so that programmers canuse them to write Windows client applications only. (Individuals who want to write Web applications will be directed to use Visual Web Developer Express.)

"One of the core reasons we did these Express SKUs is to get hobbyists skilled in writing Web services and also in writing managed code," Montgomery said.

Managed code is Microsoft's name for the new programming model that will be baked into Longhorn, its next major version of Windows.

Microsoft is stripping a number of features out of each Express product and reducing the download size of each language to about 30 MB. With the Express programming languages, Microsoft is eliminating higher-end features, such as source-code control, said Montgomery.

With SQL Server Express — which Microsoft officials said they plan to offer for free and to allow developers to redistribute for free — Microsoft will still include the Common Language Runtime, the database engine and XML support. But Microsoft will limit the Express version to run on systems with 1 CPU, 1 GB of memory and 4 GB of storage per database.

Microsoft is positioning SQL Server Express as the eventual replacement for its MSDE (Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine) embedded database. Microsoft will continue to support MSDE for as long as it supports SQL Server 2000, officials said. But watch for Microsoft divisions that currently embed MSDE in their products to replace it with SQL Server Express in the coming months and years, officials added.

Microsoft also is positioning the Visual WebDev Express product as the natural successor to its FrontPage product. The company is pushing the WebDev Express tool as the best way to build simple Web apps, personal Web sites and blogs.

Microsoft made the Express announcement on the opening day of its Tech Ed Europe show in Amsterdam.