Visual Studio .NET worth getting?

[Gooberlx2]

...is it? I have Visual Studio 6 right now, and pretty much never use it 'cause I think the IDEs suck compared to alternatives. Is VS .NET any better? I'm curious 'cause I can get it for $30 through school.

 

[ProviaFan]

Yea, and get me a copy too.
Nah, seriously, I don't know. I'm more of a GNU C++ guy.

 

[singh]

If you can get it that cheap, I can't think of any reason not to get it I wish I could get it for $30

 

[RSMemphis]

I've used both 6 and .NET. Here's a summary (and I got it for free at one of the Academic events!)

The IDE is largely improved. Debugging (step to cursor) is much easier now, once you find it. Right click on the line and there you go.
Resting the cursor over a variable or function will show it's type.
The help is integrated better into the system.
You can use different languages together - this means that projects are now called solutions, which can consist of several projects.
The "autocomplete" sometimes did not work for pointers to objects for me in VS6. This works flawlessly now in VS.NET

Cons: It's TOUGH to get used to it. I am still spending a lot of time looking for certain functions.


Summary: If you just program in one language, VC++ or VisualBasic, and you don't want to get used to a new IDE, that is VERY different, then stay with VS6. Otherwise .NET is the way to go. I don't regret updating.

 

[Nothinman]

VS.NET has a lot of C++ improvements with reguards to templates and just conforming more to the standard.

The main thing I don't like is everything has the XP look to it (I mean the flat Office XP look, not the playschool WinXP look) and it uses HTML in a lot places where it shouldn't which makes it slow even on my PIII 1Ghz 256M laptop.

If you have $30 to spare, why not?

 

[RSMemphis]

Odd, it runs as fast as VS6 on my PIII 667MHz with 192 MB... Only when I activate the help/resource for the first time it takes a bit. But that's due to the HD.

 

[Nothinman]

After it's up and running using the IDE is fine. The main annoyance with speed (and accuracy) is the help and all the wizards are pseudo-HTML things, like the add member MFC wizard.

And I still can't figure out why MS can't write a decent search engine. If I search for NetUser you would think I would get hits on all the NetUser* functions, but I don't, but if I search for NetUserEnum it's the first hit.

 

[manly]

Another problem with HTML-based help is that the help content's CSS defines the display fonts used. You can't easily override it, and if you did, it affects all IE browsing from what I've seen.

Way to go MS innovation.

 

[joohang]

<< Another problem with HTML-based help is that the help content's CSS defines the display fonts used. You can't easily override it, and if you did, it affects all IE browsing from what I've seen.

Way to go MS innovation. >>


I'll budge in again since I love to disagree with you.

If you are talking about resizing font size through the browser, that's not a CSS problem but a result of poor coding that didn't take accessibility into account. The problem is that there is so much CSS code out there that uses a fixed font size.

And CSS is a W3C standard, although it is true that it was heavily pushed by MS.

 

[manly]

I see your point but in this case, if MS implemented both the HTML-based help system and the help content, then they are at fault.

Also, without getting into too many details, how would CSS be used to better support accessibility and also users' varying preferences for font faces and size?

 

[joohang]

<< I see your point but in this case, if MS implemented both the HTML-based help system and the help content, then they are at fault. >>


I agree with that, assuming that the HTML-based help system developed by MS is coded that way.



<< Also, without getting into too many details, how would CSS be used to better support accessibility and also users' varying preferences for font faces and size? >>


Give a relative unit to the font-size property.

Direct Link to the W3C spec

I just coded this one up to verify this:

<html>
<head>
<style>
#fixed
{
font-size: 36pt;
}

#relative
{
font-size: medium;
}
</style>
</head>

<body>
<p id="fixed">Fixed text</p>
<p id="relative">Relative text</p>
</body>
</html>

Edit: For font faces, the developer may want to use a generic font family.
Linkie