( 9 reviews )
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Jul 10 2009
VS2008 is an excellent development tool. I couldn't survive without it. In case you're wondering the main difference between Standard and Professional is that Standard doesn't have the Tools for Office development (which I didn't care about).
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Posted: Jun 25 2009
By all counts Visual Studio is a good development environment for C++ programming on Windows, and it is the standard to which others are compared. However VS2008 compatibility issues with VS2005 compiled .lib files have bitten me on several projects as an independent contract programmer in the game industry, and it seems that extremely few companies (at least in the game industry) actually migrate to VS2008, so this product has proven far less useful than I had hoped, as it can not compile most of them without significant work (recompiling libpng/zlib/libjpeg and others that are frequently included as a .lib file in projects, and requesting updated SDKs from middleware vendors). Be warned that this slow adoptance afflicts other software industries as well, they simply do not update to each new VisualStudio version, if you are an independent contractor you may want to purchase VS2005 instead (or in addition to VS2008). Overall I like VS2008 more than VS2005, it just does not suit my needs as well as I would hope. Reasons to buy Visual Studio 2008 Standard when compared to the free Express version: ATL and MFC libraries - necessary to compile IE ActiveX plugins and most graphical applications. x64 compilers and debugging environment - VS2008 Express can be patched with the VS2005 Platform SDK to do x64 compiling but it's a hassle to use, and has no x64 debugger. Features I really wish Visual Studio had but it does not: A performance profiler - I recommend AMD Code Analyst if you're looking for a free one, I hear that Intel VTune is worth it if you can afford it. A memory debugger - I develop cross-platform, so I simply use valgrind for this on a Linux system, but it is a sorely missed feature in Visual Studio (there are many commercial packages available, but all inferior to valgrind). Visual Studio 2008 is well worth the money, just watch out if you are an independent contractor and may need 2005 as well.
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Posted: Jun 9 2009
For those who are interested in programming in Microsoft only tools or building programs this will be a great tool for you offering a vast amount of tools and resources quite unlike any other I have ever seen. For those who already have a good knowledge of web programming (And is all you require it for) , you may want to stay away from this tool. It is expensive and proprietary. The output code (much like Dreamweaver) is not compatible with anything other than Microsoft and maybe Firefox. If you are this person, just use Notepad ++. It's free and works like a charm!
