With so many different versions of Visual Stuidio coming out it can be difficult figuring out which one is right for you. This article shows you what you need to know.
Which Visual Studio Edition Is Right for Me?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Maybe the worst experience I have ever had with a software install (thank God I never had to install Oracle in the good old days, nor anything as complex), was with an installation of VS.Net which used 5 CDs. Since then, they have streamlined the installation quite a bit, and I favor the separated choices that they offer.
That said, I am waiting Windows Vista before I will use anything .Net.
VS.NET 2003 is 4 discs and quite slow. Its basically a lot of waiting, but gets a lot of groans from my fellow programmers if we have to install it fresh (formatted / new machine). It tends to blow at least an hour.
Additionally: People forget to disable antivirus software before installing VS.Net, anti-virus software can make installation of VS.Net 10X as long as it should.
This applies to all software which installs lots of little files.
nod for the installation of VS 2003….It’s a royal pita, I had to install the pre instal steps, then uninstall these steps, to reinstall them before being able to install VS 2003…
And the fact that you can’t develop asp.net applications on windows xp home just blows really. ( I know the trick with 2000 server but f–k it ).
And it’s definitly 5 or 6 CD : 1 CD for pre installation, 2 CD for VS, and 2 or 3 CD for the msdn.
VCC6 was the last decent compiler MS made.
VS2003 was OK if you’re only doing .NET, the C++ compiler was crap.
VS2005 is OK if you ignore the Express edition, but where is Python.NET (IronPython)?!
http://www.ironpython.com/
VCC6 was the last decent compiler MS made.
I hope you are not refering to the C++ compiler. VC++ 6 is still causing major headaches for anyone trying to write standards-compliant C++ of slightly above average complexity.
I was thinking more like MSC 3.0, no wait that was made by Lattice.
Is anybody tired it ? The Express and the Professional has a trial editation, but the Standard isn’t. I have two important questions:
1. The integrated MS SQL stored procedure debugging is supported in the standard editation ?
2. Can I set the tab size of the text editor ? In the professional editation I can set the tab size to 2 from 4, but there isn’t any similar in the configuration of the Express versions.
You can set the tab sizes in the express editions.
Tools->Options. (Ensure you have Show all settings checked)
TextEditor->C#->Tabs etc.. etc..
Thank you! I am a stupid… But the first question is still alive: Can I debug a MS-SQL stored proc with the Standard editation ?
Use Code::Blocks http://www.codeblocks.org/
I completely agree, VS is a pain in the arse to install and it takes hours.
Since I only use C++, I decided to download the Express Edition from MSDN, only to find that it doesn’t include the standard WIN32 headers and libraries. So, I also had to download the Windows Server 2003 SDK from Microsoft’s site. To top it all of, the executables wouldn’t work on other machines with .DLL files provided. I ended up, removing the express edition, and downloading the Professional Edition, which took a few hours, and a further 45 minutes to install.
I’m impressed with the speed of the compiler and the size of the executables compared to G++. But installing this thing is a right bitch.
Oh yes it is, here are the reasons
1) Gives u IDE, u miss the feel of command line.
2) Has excellent debugger, OH my gdb is wasted.
3) Connects to almost all Databases natively, What then what do I use ODBC for ??
4) Has integrated source Control support, Oh but I am used to of working on command line and do not like the changed icon in VS.
5) It simply works– what I do not get to extensively tweak it in order to get a “hello World” ?
6) Most of the developers work on this — this makes me just one of them, and I want to be different.
7) It has excellent features and options, so what Kdevelop on linux also has.
Taking about Linux, VS is not ther on Linux (natively) so I cannot install and work with VS.
Please someone think of more reasons to hate VS and MS, this was my best effort.
You’re right, Visual Studio in a fantastic product. It’s one of the few MS products that the Linux crowd avoid slating because they know there’s no open source app around to come even close.
Here’s some other reasons to hate it 😉
1) It’s got Intellisense. Now I won’t need to run ctags
2) Project management is too easy. Now I won’t get to write make files
3) Did I mention the debugger…!
8) VS works so well that I don’t need any help doing my job, so I miss the tools that I need to find help for.
9) VS let me program in seven different languages and I can share the same libraries among them. By the morning, I feel like coding in IronPython. By night, I feel like coding in C#. On Linux, I have to choose my language.
10) Windows.Forms are awesome. ASP.Net is awesome. Avalon and XAML will be awesome. You see? I have choices right there on the IDE. All I need to know is one tool: VS.
11) Auto-formatting of the code is great. I don’t need to think how to indent my code anymore. All I need to do is use the same tool to edit it: VS. It’s almost like Emacs for some. 🙂
12) I’m a pro. Don’t need to think while I code, just need a powerful IDE: VS. You little editors users, you aren’t pros. You haven’t built Operating Systems or anything like that. I have created the best Desktop Apps and Web Apps by only using _VS_.
BTW, I just replied because I’m reinstalling my Linux on another machine. I created the LiveCD myself, which comes with more software that I care about thah the other LiveCDs. It means that in 10 minutes I can have a development machine ready. 🙂 That’s more or less how google takes care of their 18000 servers.
14) VS.Ney is too productive – leaves you enough free time to be posting messages on OSnews.
Edited 2005-11-30 13:51
Linsux fanboy replies counter:
1
We don’t want to hear your troll; you only ruin the thread. Though I work mostly with FreeBSD and Delphi/Java in WinXP, I don’t bash VS.
I have written device driver on both FreeBSD and OSX.
I liked writing driver in FreeBSD, Oh I have my fav “vi” to work on, did I forget to mention emacs, sorry.
On OSX I used XCode to make network driver, God was I using a GUI based IDE to make driver. No!!
How can I use a user friendly thing for making geeky things like Driver. What is this IOBuffer and all ? why has apple provided API like IOMemoryDescriptor::getPhysicalAddress64(), Oh no this makes life so easy and so non-geeky. This is so un-cool.
Comming to VS, I work on *nix at work, but wanted to try windows programming too, I simply downloaded VC# Express and SQL Express, yes VS 2005 is my first attempt of programming with windows.
Having used XCode, I found VS even easier, and I was able to make half of my Windows application in 2 Weekends ( I use VC# only on Sat/Sun).
-The included samples were like hand holding and teaching me how to program. This is almost untolerable.. After 4 years of programming do I need these samples? ? disgusting . These are the things I do not like about MS, forcing me to go throught those samples.
-On top of it there are a few videos, which demonstrate doing some easy tasks like connecting to database, If I can write driver, I can connect to database too, without MS Help. It might have taken me 3 weeks, but I would have the satisfaction of doing things on my own.
MS Took that pleasure out of me and gave me the time to go out with my wife.
I hate VS , I hate MS.
I would choose Borland’s Developer Studio (aka Delphi 2006) any time over any Microsoft product. Delphi, C#Builder and C++Builder in one pack.
The last BDS what I tied was the d2k5. But it is very sssssllllloooooowwwww…
right man
But the new BDS 2006 is blazzing fast (believe me) !
After the Kylix advendure I never will use Borland stuff.
And (although not publicized), VB.NET. Yep! That’s right. Go to File->New->Other Files. See those VB.NET items?!?
I haven’t actually used them so I don’t know how useful they are. Oh wait, it’s VB, so they aren’t useful at all. 😛
I personally prefer the Delphi languag. Regardless, Borland Developer Studio 2006 ROCKS for all your Win32 and .NET Development needs.
None , you’d better try Eclipse/MingwStudio/DevC++/Kdevelop/Anjuta or even UPP. Please post more alternatives
And don’t forget VI 🙂
then us VS.
If you are a pro, use X-Code.
.V
We tried upgrading to VS2003 at work and it hasn’t gone well. We write high performance server apps and it seems to have introduced instability with no increase in performance so back to VC6 we go.
I liked the dsp/dsw format better because you could read it and it handled merges well. The new “solution” files are obfuscated with SIDS all over the place and are just plain impossible to read. When you want to see all the settings and overrides in a dsp you just open it up in a text editor. Now you’ve gotta do the dialog dance to see everything.
VS2003 is also pig dog slow. Our goofy company thinks developers machines should be the same as users so we’re stuck at a half gig of memory. That’s great for VC6 (and Eclipse for that matter) but VS2003 just bogs down.
The biggest gotcha in VC6 was the borked STL. Under a heavy load the deque would blow up your program. If you patch that (Dinkum has a patch that MS would not ship) or, better yet, replace it with STLPORT. It works great.
I just wish they would make a good lightweight debugger. VS is just too dang big to run on a server. I still use windbg more then VS for debugging and it’s a pain.
>and Eclipse for that matter
That’s a joke I hope?
yeah, all his post is joke. i use vs2003 here with 256 megs of ram + apache and postgresql running on the same machine. and everything runs just fine. maybe they have too many spyware running on their machines, haha… vs2003 right now only takes 20megs of ram and runs very fine. so he must be joking.
Everyone should take a look at Borland BDS Studio (Delphi 2006),
it includes Delphi for win32 and .net, C# and C++.
For developing rich client GUIs the win32 Delphi is the best and blows winforms out of the water, and all this has been available for the last 10 years. Yes you could have had many of these “new” .net features 10 years ago with Delphi 1.0 🙂
VS is nice, but if you want to be really productive and not have to worry about what .net version is installed and not to mention deploying the massive 20mb .net install with your apps, you again need to take a look at Delphi 2006, it lets you create win32 stand alone executables that are a joy to maintain and deploy.
And real programmers DO use Pascal 🙂
I hear a lot of developers complain about the number of CD’s and the length of the Visual Studio .NET install, but it seems like all of them insert the CD and just click install, instead of streamlining it down to what you need. I recently got a new work laptop and installed Visual Studio .NET 2003 on it. The team I am on only works on .NET WinForm C# development, so I unchecked installing any VB.NET, C++.NET, J# stuff. The other big thing to make sure you don’t install is Code Samples. That’s a huge chunk of the install. Next I remove the install of the obfuscator, Crystal Reports since we don’t use that, Web Development stuff, etc. In the end the install was about 15 Minutes and has everything I use. Now everyone has different needs for development, but I’m just saying spend a moment picking and choosing what you need and it may not end up being so bad.
vs2003 was easy on the RAM. VS2005 is not though
Hi
Well,there is not “just” microsoft in the development world !
YI highly recommend you Borland Developper Studio 2006.
It is a rock solid fast and reliable IDE.
It is open to Delphi / C++ / C# / ASP / my connectivity to ANY database server ….
A lot of third party component are available for Delphi (and a lot more of really good free components).
http://www.gotdotnet.com/workspaces/workspace.aspx?id=ad7acff7-ab1e…
_www.ironpython.com_ is the old home and is not being updated anymore… i don’t know why it doesn’t redirect… but anyway, go get it and whatch the videos, they are really nice.
VS.NET 2003 is solid.
Get over it…some day, you linux fan boys will have an equivalent.
And when that day comes, you will all be cheering about how it’s the greatest thing since ‘sliced bread’.
What’s so great about sliced bread????
Edited 2005-11-30 18:08
i never knew that the boxes looked so cool.
Someone bad-mouthed the express editions, but they don’t seem so bad to me. The c++ compiler for vs2005 is finally very standards-compliant. It can be used as a backup for gcc – to program QT4 on windows.
Trolltech got burned bad by Borland with the Kylix fiasco, it seems. They don’t support bcc at all anymore – at least not formally. But no, the c++ express won’t do MFC. I wonder if it will do GTK? Anybody try?
I’d recommend everyone wanting to try out VS 2005 download the Express editions to give them a little free spin. You have nothing to lose buts lots of disk space.
I have installed VC# Express and SQL Express and am doing some development in my free time.
VC# is simply too good and easy to use, even for a unix programmer like me and the best part, it is Free.
I have also installed MSDN ( Free Version) and that contains much better explanations than man pages.
God, will this turn me towards MS, not sure, but I will definately like VC# Express and SQL Express.
I am using TortoiseSVN as source control- with this all my dev needs are fulfilled.
I hear that. I have 2GB in my development machine at work, and VS2005 still manages easily to make my machine start thrashing. Sigh.