Free microsoft IDE

#1 Whats the catch?

#2 Yeah, I just bought .net 2003 two days ago, and I havent installed it yet, or even opened it, why is this free!? Should I stay with 2003 or use the freebie?

maybe I can get my money back :)

#3 From the FAQ:

Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?

Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using the Express Editions.

Do customers who acquire the Visual Studio Express products during the free promotional pricing period have to pay after the first year if they want to continue to use them?

No, as long as you download Visual Studio Express on or before November 7th 2006, you will not have to pay for it.

#4 If you are interested in it, there are already several threads and resources dealing with configuring Visual Studio 2005 Express for use with T2D, TGE, and TSE.

#5 The catch?
Market Share.

#6 If something is good, market share is irrelevant. You use a tool because it does the job.

Noolness made a recent resource on Building Torque 1.4 on Visual Studio 2005 Professional, and I added in my extra steps to compile 1.4 with the Express addition in the first post.

#7 I am having a problem, I got the express, and the platform SDK, and when I build the window, it says this;

"Unable to start program 'c:\documents and settings\dylan jones\test\debug\TEST.exe'

the system cannot find the file specified.

I have followed every step of their tutorial that they have, what do I do?

#8 You should probably be building to the example folder?

Try this (copy and pasted from Matt Fairfax's example on getting Visual Studio 2005 express running):

Quote:
11) Now right-click on Torque Demo in the Solution Explorer and choose "Properties" (at the bottom). Under "Configuration Properties" on the left click on "Debugging". On the right put in ../example in the "Working Directory" property. Next, choose "Release" from the "Configuration" drop down at the top left. Put in ../example in the "Working Directory" property here also.

#9 The catch is that it's harder to build programs with it. the full version does alot that the express doesnt do. one of the things in noticed right away is that it only has support to start with win32 console projects. it does work for torque obviously, but it's harder to work with. i already have the vc++ 2k3 std so i'm probably not going to use it much. i just figured i'd share and let anyone just starting know that there was a free version available.

sorry if it was posted already.

#10 The secret that some people realize is that part of their goal with this is to destroy the market share of another compiler.

The super secret bit of the plan that most people overlook is that the compiler they're trying to kill is their own: VC6. :)

#11 The 'express' edition is missing many things that you might want in the end. a comparison is located at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/default.aspx