Visual Studio Express Editions - Free for a year.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

Microsoft have released the Visual Studio Express Editions for free, but only for a year. If you don't grab them now then you'll lose out later on.

They still offering them? I downloaded this about 10 months ago.

These are the brand new visualstudio8 / 2005 versions.

Yup, I believe these are the Gen yoo ine article and not the Beta versions.....

Right... one of yoo chaps or chapesses with Multi Gigaquad Broadband do the download and let us know :)

Cheers

Garion

I was about to install the beta, but now I can install the release version. Woo.

I heard the IDE was fantastic and even anti MS coders I know are all but wetting themselves over it :)

That's pretty cool. I'm downloading it now, will have a peek at it when I get chance (maybe tomorrow).

Thanks to point out amon, that's a great offer. Downloaded anything I was interested, that makes 1.7 GB ^^ And wow, these servers are incredibly fast.

For anyone with a broadband I suggest going for the offline install (.img files), not the default (online) one. The obvious advantage being not te be forced to download again when reinstalling. The not so obvious advantage being that (according to some guy on the forum) you then don't need to go through their registration process (especially given that they say keys are tied to a given machine doh).

Right - gangway - stampeding hippo coming through

I've downloaded C# Express and VB Express this spring and it was one of the best decisions I've made this year. Programming environment is excellent and I must say that C# and managed DirectX is one of the best combinations for writing 3D games.

The best part of using MS programming tools is tons of documentation that comes with it and that is available for it. Products like Blitz3D, BMax, DBPro or IBPro just can't compare with MS Visual Studio Express offerings when it comes down to documenation.

I'll keep on buying indy development products because I like to help people that are creating them but it looks like most of my work will be done with one of the Express tools.

Oh, yes. .NET does have one great advantage over other stuff. It's so easy to write one's own language compiler, so there's really no reason not to write another BASIC like game development system using .NET and managed DX.

Barney

Is there a hidden catch though with the express editions? ie. are you allowed to make commercial products?

From the FAQ:

Thanks.



Any dev sites that show where to begin with something like this?

Thanks for the link, Amon.

I don't know of any site that specifically deals with the creation of .NET compilers. There are some books (a good one is "Compiling for the .NET Common Language Runtime") on the subject and there's really a ton of info in the .NET framework, which unfortunately follows typical MS habit of scattering everything around. So it takes time to find out what one needs. Basically, your compiler must be able to create the MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language), which can be linked into a special exe file by the .NET linker. Obviously you have to know a lot about the innards of .NET runtime package as most of the time it's just the question of what .NET functions you'll be using behind the scenes. Parsing of the source code prior to the translation phase is up to you and it's just the same as in creation of any kind of compiler.

Barney

thanks for the link.. hehe, weird thing, but the only reason I will download this is for some GUI action :)

I've been using VS2005 for quite a while now - as an IDE it is awesome! Really love the language (VB.Net).

The team developer edition (from our MSDN) includes the Code Analysis tool which analysis and advises how to code properly - really helps your knowledge.

Recommend it to anyone (without impacting on Blitz or course!)

I dont get the "Free for a year" part, does that mean they're offering the suite free for a year, or that you can only use the programs themselves freely for a year? Their FAQ didn't quite help clear that up for me.

Either way, downloading them all right now (the images that is for offline installation, for my other PC, and to avoid the need of registration keys), currently hoping their Web Developer is comparable to DreamWeaver.

It just means that when the year is up they will not be available for free anymore. You'll have to buy them.

But not if you allready own them. Their FAQ was silly, I know.


Nooo, that's what FrontPage is for! =]

Anyone says even ONE bad thing about Visual Studio 2005 and I will hunt them down and do very bad things to various orifices.

Also, Microsoft is God.

I have a vision that FlameDuck will post saying the Eclipse IDE pawns the Visual Studio IDE.

Visual Studio 2005 is crap and stuff.

Expect me to show up at your doorstep in a suit not unlike the Gimp's, Toby.

Then I can point and laugh! =]

To clarify

o You can download Visual Studio Express components until Nov 6 2006 and use them freely forever.

o Express editions do not include MFC or ATL, which might hinder some people trying to create large Windows applications (apparently, I have no idea what MFC or ATL do).

o Anything you create using Visual Studio Express edition is yours and there are no licensing issues waiting to bite you.

Considering my interest in VC++ is entirely about packaging code off the internet into dlls for use with Blitz, this is a godsend to me.

No it's not. You don't want to make your dll's dependant on the .Net runtime, witch you will if you make them in VSE.

VC++ is the only one that can make both managed and native programs

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/default.aspx tells you how to set up the compiler to create native Win32 and Dlls.

I got the beta a while ago to use C# and I love the IDE. I'll have to get this version too, hope the app's don't "expire" after 1 year, other languages such as Delphi have done this before.

Really? Well that's good to know, before this came back to bite me in the ass.

well it seems aeiou knows better than I ^^ , but only in C++ ?

what a minute, surely the dlls will only be dependant on .net if you make them in c#, c++ ones should be fine or am I missing some poopy thing MS have done now?

Correct, only C++.net can create both native and managed. Although for some reason you have to change some settings to unlock the ability to create Win32 and Dlls in express.

Oh, I already knew about the platform sdk dependencies; I set that up too. Thanks all for the heads ups though; even if there's no problem, now I know what to look out for.

Incorrect. It takes some tweaking of the MSIL, but you can make standard windows DLLs in VB.NET or C# as well. I'd have to dig for a while to find the technique to do it and frankly... I'm just not that ambitious this early in the morning.

Standard as in works just like a normal dll, or completely native x86 code independent of .NET runtimes?

I read it as "independent of .Net"

All these different platforms and runtimes and standards... why can't there just be a language that 'runs on a computer'? What are we, animals?

That right there is why I never got significantly involved in C++ programming.


Thing is, Blitz doesn't need as much documentation. For example, the aforementioned fiddly dependencies (includes, libraries, aargh) are important setting menus in C++ but don't apply to Blitz. All the mountains of documentation for VC++ overwhelmed me when I first started programming, whereas Blitz was a joy to learn both because the documentation is clear and easy to follow, and because things are just fundamentally simpler to understand.

Hate to hi-jack the thread slightly, but anyone know of any free image converting or burning tools? My copy of Nero Express doesnt support .img for some reason....

[EDIT] Nvm, seemed renaming the extension of the files to .ISO worked so far, currently burning my disc, will see in a minute.

[EDIT2] Weird, tossed a write-error at the end of the session, but the disc works, now to install it and see if there aint any probs.

[EDIT3] Yep, died out on me partly through installation, now to determine if it was a corrupted download, or Nero's fault.

[EDIT4] I'm on an edit roll. Looks like my copy of Nero sucks, as it installed fine via virtual-drive.

Yet another of the small niceties of Macs; burning disk images to CD is supported through the included Disk Utility app.

Genexi2 - I just found myself in a similar situation with Nero Express. After your edit-odyssey (which was indeed helpful), I found that IsoBuster (from isobuster.com) nicely fixed things for me. With it, I was able to extract the .img file into a normal folder and setup from that off my hard drive. IsoBuster is [a http://isobuster.com/recover.htm?http://isobuster.com/freeshareware.htm]freeware for its basic features[/a] like this.

Paranoid that I am, I did the VB Express install and a little testing while offline to make sure that it doesn't have to "phone home" to work (it wants to, of course, but seems to work OK if it can't). I also ran the clock forward two years after installing to make really sure that it won't stop working after a year. All seems well.

Genexi2: Download WinRAR! Not only will you be able to open all kinds of archives (zip, rar, etc.), it supports the exploring and extraction from ISO CD images. It works for me!

I can't seem to find any ISO download. :( All I found was a ~2 MB download install program that obviously downloads other stuff. It says:


"lightweight development environment"?? Does tihs mean that this is a limited version? I'd appreciate it if someone could direct me to the ISO download.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/install/

Wendell & John :

Thx, will check out IsoBuster to see if the images downloaded correctly (and hope my virtual-drive just didnt ignore anything), didn't know WinRAR was capable of opening IMG as well.

Thanks for the link Genexi2. Microsoft's website seems a little confusing to me some times. :)


Yeah, I didn't know it either until I downloaded an IMG file and renamed it to ISO for Nero (which doesn't work for me either very well), and saw WinRAR's icon next to it. So I double-clicked it and found I could install right from the ISO files (WinRAR will extract everything for you into a temp. folder if you click on a setup file)

You can also download a freeware utility, DaemonTools, which will allow you to 'mount' an ISO, IMG and some other formats to a driveletter. You can then install directly from the image without having to burn it or extract it to a temp folder.

What's funny is, there was a warez release of the Visual Studio Express components about a week ago :)

Of course, there are also a warez releases of all the other Visual Studio 2005 versions :-/

Or you could just use your virtual drive you mentioned earlier and copy the files across to Nero manuallt [funny looks]

In some ways (it is the 'Express' version). In a lot of ways, it's less limited than say VC2003 Standard.

The main things I've seen so far are:

Lack of deployment features (not really important for the independent developer)
Lack of database auto-magic stuff
(here's the biggie)
Limited support for third-party programs (Like Visual Assist. Oh, the humanity!)

But from what I understand, the compiler is the same optimizing compiler used by all versions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/default.aspx

Without tweaking, you can't make binaries that don't rely on the .NET framework 2.0.

Happily, I've recorded a DVD containing all the express products together with the Win32 platform SDK and instructions on how to tweak Visual C++ into letting you create standard apps.

You miss MFC and ATL, but what the hey, it's all for free :)

How do you warez something that's free?

If that counts, I'll be marching through SourceForge releasing a new ware every day. I am teh supar pirate!!1!

WarrenM: That was kind of the point of my post. Oh, the irony.

If anyone UK-based has downloaded all five Express image files and wants to put them on a DVD, I'd be happy to give em a fiver for their trouble. I kinda don't fancy downloading 2.3 gigs on dialup. Not that I haven't done it before, but that's before I was using my PC for work. No doubt PC Plus will them on the cover DVD at some point, but either way I'm paying a fiver for em.

Theoretically by the time you actually get the DVD you *could* have already downloaded whatever you need to get started. Then download the rest while your working on whatever.

No I *couldn't* because work involves using the net connection pretty heavily. The days when I was playing games or doing non-net stuff and could download in the background are long gone.

Just get a better internet connection then :/

If you can get a better internet connection for a fiver, I'd highly recommend it.

I'd love to send you a DVD of goodies, but surely there's someone closer than the other side of the planet that's feeling equally generous.

If not, email me. :o)

Or I could just do what I've said.

Thanks LineOf7's, will do if no one closer offers. Or if I can find the time, I'll download them one at a time and burn to CD at the local library.

Gabriel: Send me an email with yer address and I will pop a DvD in the post to yoo.

Just use the email address in my profile.

and. keep yer fiver for christmas :)

Cheers

Garion
The Tight fisted Scot is melting :)