HOw out of date am I
by Michael Rowley · in Technical Issues · 06/28/2006 (1:06 pm) · 4 replies
My visual C++ is versoin 6
I was on the microsoft web site looking for any patches and it basicly made me thing that visual 2005 Express is better then what i had.
I have C++ professional edition but hell it must be super old.
They don't even carry the patches for it that i have on CD.?
any advice?
I was on the microsoft web site looking for any patches and it basicly made me thing that visual 2005 Express is better then what i had.
I have C++ professional edition but hell it must be super old.
They don't even carry the patches for it that i have on CD.?
any advice?
About the author
#2
For a professional programmer, Express is not really a viable option. On the other hand, Express is great for hobbyists. A lot of the people in these forums that reccomend Express fall into the hobbyist category. Check the comparison chart and make up your own mind. Personally, I can't live with anything less then Pro - but I need things like remote debugging. Standard is a good and cheap option if you need more then Express but don't need Pro.
T.
06/28/2006 (2:06 pm)
If you use the professional version (any version of VC) then it's likely the express version will annoy you. If you *need* what the professional version gives you, then get VS2005 Pro. If you don't really need Pro then Standard might be more up your alley. Obviously, the Standard and Pro versions cost. There is a comparison chart on msdn.microsoft.com/ that may help you make up your mind. For a professional programmer, Express is not really a viable option. On the other hand, Express is great for hobbyists. A lot of the people in these forums that reccomend Express fall into the hobbyist category. Check the comparison chart and make up your own mind. Personally, I can't live with anything less then Pro - but I need things like remote debugging. Standard is a good and cheap option if you need more then Express but don't need Pro.
T.
#3
are you referring to the lack of mfc?
just what exactly is there that the "professional" needs?
I bought visual studio 6 pro. and use it at home and work.
then express now I use that at home and vs2006pro at work.
and the difference I have found is mfc.
what am I missing?
Edit:
guess I missed the remote debugging, not really a professional programmer requirement.
I am the only programmer here who works with any remote debugging. and I havent had to in a long time.
anything else?
06/28/2006 (2:25 pm)
Tom, are you referring to the lack of mfc?
just what exactly is there that the "professional" needs?
I bought visual studio 6 pro. and use it at home and work.
then express now I use that at home and vs2006pro at work.
and the difference I have found is mfc.
what am I missing?
Edit:
guess I missed the remote debugging, not really a professional programmer requirement.
I am the only programmer here who works with any remote debugging. and I havent had to in a long time.
anything else?
#4
Standard and above have better integration of all the languages. For Express, you have to install each one seperately. Probably not that much of a biggy if all you use is C++, but the other languages (especially C#) can be useful too and installing them all seperately is a pain in the ass.
According to the comparison, the Express environment is "simplified" ... I'm not really sure what they mean by this since I havent really used Express. However, there are a number of incredibly useful tools in Pro (and probably Standard) for code browsing and various other things. I couldn't live without those. "Simplified environment" sounds like they've cut out a lot of the useful tools that I use daily and take for granted.
Express does not support extensions or macros. I use VisualAssist and I use macros extensively. Neither of these will work on Express, and minimum requirements for them is Standard.
I use remote debugging extensively, as I already mentioned.
Standard and above can also target x64 processors ... although not that useful for right now, over time my need for that is going to increase.
There are other differences that arent mentioned in the comparison, for example Pro's optimizer is better. As far as I'm aware, Whole Program Optimization is only supported in Pro and above. Although you wouldnt need that for day to day dev (hell, with that turned on for TGE linking alone takes 3 minutes ... I can do a full rebuild in less then that with it turned off) - but, it is usefull for shipping builds.
There is so much to Pro it's hard to list all the differences, but those are the main ones off the top of my head. For me personally, Express' lack of extension support and macros mean it's useless for my needs. I could probably live with Standard, but I use remote debugging a lot and that clinches it for me.
I don't really know what you mean that remote debugging is not a professional programmer requirement. Most professional programmers that I've worked with in the past use it a lot. There are also times that it's the only way to effectively debug something ... for an example from recent memory, I was having issues recently with computers that didnt have XInput installed. Since the only way I could build (and thus, debug) the game was on a box with XInput, the only way I could debug on a box that didn't have XInput was using remote debugging. Sure, I could probably have eventually figured out the problem without remote debugging, but it took 10 minutes to fix using it and it would have taken significantly longer without it.
As I said though, everybody's requirements are different. The above are my requirements, yours are probably different. Oh, and no, I don't use MFC.
T.
06/28/2006 (3:35 pm)
OK, so going by msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/default.aspx ... Standard and above have better integration of all the languages. For Express, you have to install each one seperately. Probably not that much of a biggy if all you use is C++, but the other languages (especially C#) can be useful too and installing them all seperately is a pain in the ass.
According to the comparison, the Express environment is "simplified" ... I'm not really sure what they mean by this since I havent really used Express. However, there are a number of incredibly useful tools in Pro (and probably Standard) for code browsing and various other things. I couldn't live without those. "Simplified environment" sounds like they've cut out a lot of the useful tools that I use daily and take for granted.
Express does not support extensions or macros. I use VisualAssist and I use macros extensively. Neither of these will work on Express, and minimum requirements for them is Standard.
I use remote debugging extensively, as I already mentioned.
Standard and above can also target x64 processors ... although not that useful for right now, over time my need for that is going to increase.
There are other differences that arent mentioned in the comparison, for example Pro's optimizer is better. As far as I'm aware, Whole Program Optimization is only supported in Pro and above. Although you wouldnt need that for day to day dev (hell, with that turned on for TGE linking alone takes 3 minutes ... I can do a full rebuild in less then that with it turned off) - but, it is usefull for shipping builds.
There is so much to Pro it's hard to list all the differences, but those are the main ones off the top of my head. For me personally, Express' lack of extension support and macros mean it's useless for my needs. I could probably live with Standard, but I use remote debugging a lot and that clinches it for me.
I don't really know what you mean that remote debugging is not a professional programmer requirement. Most professional programmers that I've worked with in the past use it a lot. There are also times that it's the only way to effectively debug something ... for an example from recent memory, I was having issues recently with computers that didnt have XInput installed. Since the only way I could build (and thus, debug) the game was on a box with XInput, the only way I could debug on a box that didn't have XInput was using remote debugging. Sure, I could probably have eventually figured out the problem without remote debugging, but it took 10 minutes to fix using it and it would have taken significantly longer without it.
As I said though, everybody's requirements are different. The above are my requirements, yours are probably different. Oh, and no, I don't use MFC.
T.
Torque Owner Badguy
and coming from someone who despises m$...
if you dont move to say VS 2005 then your going to have alot of trouble making use of the newer code.
get express going, other than being so dog slow, it is a much better compiler much more compliant to the standards..
sure there are annoyances but for the most part it will be an upgrade.
Manual Install Files
go grab it up and get to it.
lots of Open Source projects are dropping vs6 and so is ms lots of people are.
I am moving our company from vs6 to 2005, already got the boss into it. (his code is compiling)
I am forced to clean up a whole lot of code on my project...
no not my code, my code is already cross platform.
my 2 cents.