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Is it worth it to upgrade from Visual Studio 6?

Kyteland

Kyteland

Diamond Member
We are currently using Visual Studio 6 at work. We are trying to budget software upgrades and this is one of the programs that we're looking at. I'd love some opinions on wherther it's worth doing or if we should just stick with what we have.

I work at a company that makes video slot machines. The people we're looking to upgrade aren't the software developers, but the math department. There's only a couple of us so upgrading wouldn't be terribly expensive. We don't do a lot of application development, but we do write math simulators in c++ as well as some game demos in Basic. We do a lot of work in Excel so some integration with that would be nice.

It looks like a new version of Visual Studio is coming out at the end of the year. Since we aren't in any rush to buy, just budget, we would porbably wait for that. The full blown version of VS is probably overkill for what we do, but we could probably do wiith just the new version of VC++ or perhaps even the Express version. I'm going to download that and give it a try.

So anyone who has used both versions, (VS6 and .NET or the new beta) is the latest, greatest worth using? Does it make life easier or offer any features that that make the upgade a must?
 
VS sounds like its overkill for what you do and sounds like the "express" version is all you would really need really. I dont think it would be worth the upgrade to .NET unless you were looking into getting into web development which it doesn't look like you are...
 
If you plan on using the .Net libraries then it's a no-brainer. Also VS6 isn't very compliant with C++ standards, VS.Net fixes a lot of those issues so if you ever want to move to another compiler VS.Net should make that easier. If you're not doing any GUI deveopment, why pay for VS at all? IIRC you can get the compilers for free, you'd just have to find a decent text editor and possibly debugger. I've never tried to work with just the free tools from MS.

Also know that VS.Net is bigger and slower than VS6, if your machines can't keep up that'll offset any other gains you would have gotten.
 
No. It's a totally different infrastructure, paradigm, whatever. Unless you are spending excessive amounts of time in VB6, it's not worth it. .Net is a whole different animal and would require a lot of learning/training to even be reasonably competent at it.
 
why pay for VS at all? IIRC you can get the compilers for free, you'd just have to find a decent text editor and possibly debugger.
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We use the editor/debugger in VC++6 a lot. I'm the only mathematician with a software degree, so a lot of bugs sneak in to our code base. Also the VS6 editor is what everyone else is used to. I guess I should take suggestions on that as well. Suggestions for editor/debugger combos that are non-programmer friendly would be helpful.
 
The learning curve for VS.Net for efficiency may be steep. I wasted time (20%) over my productivity using VS6.

Was glad when I could switch back.

VS2005 has had changes made to the user interface based on feedback. Rumor has that it may be more user friendly to veterans of VS6.

DaveSimmons is another professional here on the boards that has not also moved from VS6 to .Net.

I myself have not had a project that requires what .Net provides.

I did order the beta version (free 😀) of the 2005 to play with it to see how it feels and may pick up a book on what the featurs/enahncments that it may provide for me on my projects.

Only slot machine vendor based out of Chicago that I know of is IGT.
 
Yes, at work our two main products (both content creation apps) are both coded using VS6 / VC++ 6 and we currently see no value in moving them to .Net.

We're also working on a new (unannounced) application, also written in VC++ 6.

I could see using .Net for a new product if its libraries gave you a good head start, or if you wanted to write managed code and worry less about memory allocation and buffer overruns (except in MS' own code, as in the JPEG buffer overrun exploit).

It's also true that most component development is done for the corporate market, which means it's now more for .Net than MFC. Dundas, for example, turned over their MFC products to another company (CodeProject folks) so they could focus entirely on .Net. So if you want the best selection of up-to-date commercial components then .Net has some value.
 
There is significantly more value in going from VB6 to .net than there is from C++ to .net. Going from C++ you lose a lot in addition to gaining a lot. In VB6 you lose almost nothing, and gain a lot.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Suggestions for editor/debugger combos that are non-programmer friendly would be helpful
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That's like asking which rifles are non-hunter friendly...
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Heh, so to rephrase using this terminology, what rifles are best for novice hunters. 😉
 
The editing and especially debugging in the Visual Studio IDE is quite good for VC++ 6, especially if you show the non-programmers how to: set breakpoints, single-step through code, and use the auto and watch windows. If using MFC, also show them TRACE and ASSERT, but remind them that ASSERT code disappears in release builds.

 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
The editing and especially debugging in the Visual Studio IDE is quite good for VC++ 6, especially if you show the non-programmers how to: set breakpoints, single-step through code, and use the auto and watch windows. If using MFC, also show them TRACE and ASSERT, but remind them that ASSERT code disappears in release builds.
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Yeah we've done all of the debugging stuff. I've even showed them how to compile in release mode instead of debug mode making our math simulations run almost 4 times faster. 😉

That was the single greatest "optimization" to our math code that we've ever done. The scary thing is that I've know about that since I first started using VS for a 3D class in college, but it took me over a year of grinding through long simulations before it dawned on me that I could be doing that to cut the time down. 😱
 
Originally posted by: Kyteland
Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Only slot machine vendor based out of Chicago that I know of is IGT.
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IGT is based in Reno. WMS is in Chicago
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My fault. I knew that one of them was and the other in Reno.😱

 
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