justifucation for visual studio

Hi.

I have to write a dll to interface between an old product and a vendor.
I don't believe there is any .net or active X involved.

I'm supposed to use Visual Studio... probably the latest and greatest one.. I
have VC 6.0 already.

Can someone give me justification on why I should buy visual studio for c++
rather than using the free version?
as far as I can tell they both have a debugger, and the only thing I can see
off hand (I know this depends on the work involved) is that the pro version
gives the user the ability to use the T-SQL debugger.

Is even that a correct assumption?

I actually don't need the T-SQL debugger for the job, but I have other things
that would be easier if I had the debugger available.

thanks
Jeff Kish

Victor
Thu May 31 15:32:40 CDT 2007

Jeff Kish wrote:
> I have to write a dll to interface between an old product and a
> vendor.
> I don't believe there is any .net or active X involved.
>
> I'm supposed to use Visual Studio... probably the latest and greatest
> one.. I have VC 6.0 already.

You need to find out what kind of interfacing you're supposed to do,
and which of the applications is going to load your DLL. That will
govern the settings you should use, like what kind of the RT library
your DLL is supposed to link in, etc.

> Can someone give me justification on why I should buy visual studio
> for c++ rather than using the free version?

I can't. I don't have enough information. Assumption is the mother
of all f***-ups.

> as far as I can tell they both have a debugger, and the only thing I
> can see off hand (I know this depends on the work involved) is that
> the pro version gives the user the ability to use the T-SQL debugger.

Creation of a DLL using the free version is a bit convoluted, but
possible, IIRC.

> Is even that a correct assumption?

Probably not. Microsoft has comparison matrix on their web-site.

> I actually don't need the T-SQL debugger for the job, but I have
> other things that would be easier if I had the debugger available.

_A_ debugger is available in the free version. It's actually quite
decent.

V
--
Please remove capital 'A's when replying by e-mail
I do not respond to top-posted replies, please don't ask

Duane
Thu May 31 15:49:17 CDT 2007


"Jeff Kish" <jeff.kish@mro.com> wrote in message
news:g1bu531tga1qtbb24jtj775ihspl8545hh@4ax.com...
> Hi.
>
> I have to write a dll to interface between an old product and a vendor.
> I don't believe there is any .net or active X involved.
>
> I'm supposed to use Visual Studio... probably the latest and greatest
> one.. I
> have VC 6.0 already.
>
> Can someone give me justification on why I should buy visual studio for
> c++
> rather than using the free version?

One thing may be the license issues with the free version.

Jeff
Thu May 31 15:58:56 CDT 2007

On Thu, 31 May 2007 16:49:17 -0400, "Duane Hebert" <spoo@flarn.com> wrote:

>
>"Jeff Kish" <jeff.kish@mro.com> wrote in message
>news:g1bu531tga1qtbb24jtj775ihspl8545hh@4ax.com...
>> Hi.
>>
>> I have to write a dll to interface between an old product and a vendor.
>> I don't believe there is any .net or active X involved.
>>
>> I'm supposed to use Visual Studio... probably the latest and greatest
>> one.. I
>> have VC 6.0 already.
>>
>> Can someone give me justification on why I should buy visual studio for
>> c++
>> rather than using the free version?
>
>One thing may be the license issues with the free version.
>
mm that sounds potentially nasty.
Do you know anything for sure, or just covering the bases?
thanks
Jeff Kish

Scott
Thu May 31 18:13:19 CDT 2007

Jeff Kish wrote:
>>One thing may be the license issues with the free version.
>>
>
> mm that sounds potentially nasty.
> Do you know anything for sure, or just covering the bases?
> thanks
> Jeff Kish

I don't think licensing is an issue. See this page and scroll down to
select "Read the FAQ" for the free version.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

--
Scott McPhillips [MVP VC++]

Bruno
Fri Jun 01 00:57:31 CDT 2007

>>>One thing may be the license issues with the free version.
>> mm that sounds potentially nasty.
>> Do you know anything for sure, or just covering the bases?
>> thanks
>> Jeff Kish
>
> I don't think licensing is an issue. See this page and scroll down to
> select "Read the FAQ" for the free version.
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

I thought that licensing was an issue too.
Maybe the beta versions had a clause for non commercial use only, but this
was discussed among MVPs sometime ago, and it turns out that no such
restrictions apply today.
The only limitation is in the functionality of the express version.

--
Kind regards,
Bruno van Dooren MVP - VC++
http://msmvps.com/blogs/vanDooren
bruno_nos_pam_van_dooren@hotmail.com

Tom
Fri Jun 01 02:10:00 CDT 2007

One big limitation is that it doesn't include MFC so if the previous project
relied on MFC it would be difficult to upgrade using the free (Express)
version.

I'd purchase at least the Professional level version to do any professional
work.

Tom

"Bruno van Dooren" <bruno_nos_pam_van_dooren@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:u8pBAHBpHHA.4424@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>>One thing may be the license issues with the free version.
>>> mm that sounds potentially nasty.
>>> Do you know anything for sure, or just covering the bases?
>>> thanks
>>> Jeff Kish
>>
>> I don't think licensing is an issue. See this page and scroll down to
>> select "Read the FAQ" for the free version.
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
>
> I thought that licensing was an issue too.
> Maybe the beta versions had a clause for non commercial use only, but this
> was discussed among MVPs sometime ago, and it turns out that no such
> restrictions apply today.
> The only limitation is in the functionality of the express version.
>
> --
> Kind regards,
> Bruno van Dooren MVP - VC++
> http://msmvps.com/blogs/vanDooren
> bruno_nos_pam_van_dooren@hotmail.com
>

Bruno
Fri Jun 01 03:46:55 CDT 2007

> One big limitation is that it doesn't include MFC so if the previous
> project relied on MFC it would be difficult to upgrade using the free
> (Express) version.
>
> I'd purchase at least the Professional level version to do any
> professional work.

If you do consulting or professional development, then I agree.
But for in-house development, a lot of companies use express versions if
they fullfil the requirements, simply because they are free AND save you the
hassle of licensing.
We use SQL express for internal databases because it does everything we
need.

The professional is good value for money though.
Team suite otoh...

--
Kind regards,
Bruno van Dooren MVP - VC++
http://msmvps.com/blogs/vanDooren
bruno_nos_pam_van_dooren@hotmail.com

Jeff
Fri Jun 01 07:17:57 CDT 2007

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:10:00 -0700, "Tom Serface" <tom.nospam@camaswood.com>
wrote:

>One big limitation is that it doesn't include MFC so if the previous project
>relied on MFC it would be difficult to upgrade using the free (Express)
>version.
>
>I'd purchase at least the Professional level version to do any professional
>work.
>
>Tom
>
<snip>
no MFC eh?

OK I think thats a fairly strong case for the pro version.

Can anyone verify my 'observation' that if I get the pro c++ version I get
T-SQL debugger also? (I'd like to know I can debug stored procedures and
triggers if I need to). Thats what I thought I saw on the MS web site.

thanks Jeff
Jeff Kish

Ben
Fri Jun 01 08:47:06 CDT 2007


"Tom Serface" <tom.nospam@camaswood.com> wrote in message
news:DF3CD9A1-84B0-46BA-B821-5D0402A44F7D@microsoft.com...
> One big limitation is that it doesn't include MFC so if the previous
> project relied on MFC it would be difficult to upgrade using the free
> (Express) version.
>
> I'd purchase at least the Professional level version to do any
> professional work.

You might start out with a free copy of Standard here:
http://www.microsoft.com/business/vb2005upgrade/offers.mspx

Standard supports third-party plugins, which can be a pretty big deal.

>
> Tom
>
> "Bruno van Dooren" <bruno_nos_pam_van_dooren@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:u8pBAHBpHHA.4424@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>>>One thing may be the license issues with the free version.
>>>> mm that sounds potentially nasty.
>>>> Do you know anything for sure, or just covering the bases?
>>>> thanks
>>>> Jeff Kish
>>>
>>> I don't think licensing is an issue. See this page and scroll down to
>>> select "Read the FAQ" for the free version.
>>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
>>
>> I thought that licensing was an issue too.
>> Maybe the beta versions had a clause for non commercial use only, but
>> this was discussed among MVPs sometime ago, and it turns out that no such
>> restrictions apply today.
>> The only limitation is in the functionality of the express version.
>>
>> --
>> Kind regards,
>> Bruno van Dooren MVP - VC++
>> http://msmvps.com/blogs/vanDooren
>> bruno_nos_pam_van_dooren@hotmail.com
>>
>

Carl
Fri Jun 01 09:01:14 CDT 2007

Jeff Kish wrote:
> On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:10:00 -0700, "Tom Serface"
> <tom.nospam@camaswood.com> wrote:
>
>> One big limitation is that it doesn't include MFC so if the previous
>> project relied on MFC it would be difficult to upgrade using the
>> free (Express) version.
>>
>> I'd purchase at least the Professional level version to do any
>> professional work.
>>
>> Tom
>>
> <snip>
> no MFC eh?
>
> OK I think thats a fairly strong case for the pro version.
>
> Can anyone verify my 'observation' that if I get the pro c++ version
> I get T-SQL debugger also? (I'd like to know I can debug stored
> procedures and triggers if I need to). Thats what I thought I saw on
> the MS web site.

Pro definitely includes SQL debugging. I'm not sure if Standard does as
well - the feature comparison page at

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700921.aspx

doesn't appear to list T-SQL debugging as a differentiating feature (unless
I'm just reading over it - which is entirely possible).

-cd

Tom
Fri Jun 01 09:30:05 CDT 2007

Hi Jeff,

If SQL Express is working for you the VS 2005 Standard version may be OK for
your use. Perhaps you could download the trial and see if that will compile
your code??? I don't think there is a trial copy of the Standard version,
but this one lasts for 90 days.

Pro version:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718668.aspx

Tom

"Jeff Kish" <jeff.kish@mro.com> wrote in message
news:1h30639nsp9rq8sn0g9cr8frbeoka7cib1@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:10:00 -0700, "Tom Serface"
> <tom.nospam@camaswood.com>
> wrote:
>
>>One big limitation is that it doesn't include MFC so if the previous
>>project
>>relied on MFC it would be difficult to upgrade using the free (Express)
>>version.
>>
>>I'd purchase at least the Professional level version to do any
>>professional
>>work.
>>
>>Tom
>>
> <snip>
> no MFC eh?
>
> OK I think thats a fairly strong case for the pro version.
>
> Can anyone verify my 'observation' that if I get the pro c++ version I get
> T-SQL debugger also? (I'd like to know I can debug stored procedures and
> triggers if I need to). Thats what I thought I saw on the MS web site.
>
> thanks Jeff
> Jeff Kish

Tom
Fri Jun 01 09:30:57 CDT 2007

Yikes, you have to sit through VB lab casts? I think I'd rather pay for it
:o) This one seems a bit over priced.

Tom

"Ben Voigt [C++ MVP]" <rbv@nospam.nospam> wrote in message
news:uokfIOFpHHA.3252@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

> You might start out with a free copy of Standard here:
> http://www.microsoft.com/business/vb2005upgrade/offers.mspx
>
> Standard supports third-party plugins, which can be a pretty big deal.
>

Duane
Fri Jun 01 09:35:45 CDT 2007


> mm that sounds potentially nasty.
> Do you know anything for sure, or just covering the bases?
> thanks

Doesn't seem to be a problem according to information
posted down thread <g>

Last time I looked I probably had the beta version.