Which VS 2005 version?

Hi Everyone,

I've been away from programming for a couple of years. I recently downloaded the VS 2005 Express Edition from the MS web site and tried compiling some old programs (which compile fine with VS 2003). To my dismay they all fail to compile. The basic problem seems to be that many include files related to MFC are missing (e.g. afxwin.h). A quick web search suggests that VS 2005 Express does not include MFC support.

I am now debating which version of VS 2005 to get. Does the "Standard Edition" include full MFC support? I am confused by the multitude of different versions for VS 2005. Which one will work best (and still be affordable). My programs are all written with Visual C++ and use MFC, though there are some that use the older Win API and not MFC.

Thanks for any advice. I am leaning towards VS 2005 Standard Edition but don't want to find something crucial is missing later on.

Visual Studio Express Edition is free, and contains no MFC and ATL frameworks. So, your MFC application created using an older version is destined to fail on this.

Of course, the sold-version of VS 2005 features MFC, and should compile your applications created using VS 2003.

Thanks for replying. I gathered as much from a web search. My real question is, (a) Is MFC and ATL fully functional in the VS 2005 "standard edition" and (b) What is missing from the "standard edition", considering there are multiple other editions.

I am esp. interested in a first-hand report, i.e. from someone who has compiled several projects in VS 2005.

What does this -

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Originally Posted by kochhar

I gathered as much from a web search.

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...mean? :D

Next time, please search before you ask.
That'll save those who answer their precious time! ;)

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Originally Posted by kochhar

(a) Is MFC and ATL fully functional in the VS 2005 "standard edition"

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Yes, it is.

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Originally Posted by kochhar

(b) What is missing from the "standard edition", considering there are multiple other editions.

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Again, a search would have given you your answer.

So, I might as well direct you to - Visual Studio 2005 Product Feature Comparisons

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The VS 2005 compiler is better and is highly C++ Standard Compliant when compared to it's predecessors. One should expect some warnings to come up with usage of functions like strcpy, etc - functions that are deprecated. The programmer is expected to replace these with a safer version like strcpy_s. One can turn these warnings off (which I dont recommend).

The MFC / ATL frameworks as such are AFAIK backward compliant.
Those bits of code in your application may not pose problems.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that the Solution and Project files (SLN and VCPROJ) in VS 2005 are not backward compliant. i.e. You cannot open those created-in / converted-by VS 2005 in VS 2003... VS 2005 will convert MSVC 6.0 as well as VS 2003 Workspace / Solution / Project files before you can use them.
(So, VS 2003 files get converted for good as extensions have not been changed.)

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Originally Posted by kochhar

I am esp. interested in a first-hand report, i.e. from someone who has compiled several projects in VS 2005.

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You got it.

"What does this -
....
...mean?"

It means that I had already discovered as much in my initial search. Note the last sentence of the first paragraph of my first post.

"You got it."

Yes, thanks for the posts. They do help. I have seen the official MS product table but am looking for a first-hand report from someone who has used both the Standard Edition and the more expensive other editions and can say why one should buy one edition and not the other. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by kochhar

Yes, thanks for the posts. They do help.

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Good to know this... You are welcome. ;)

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Originally Posted by kochhar

I have seen the official MS product table but am looking for a first-hand report from someone who has used both the Standard Edition and the more expensive other editions and can say why one should buy one edition and not the other.

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The table in the link I supplied above tells that as far as pure C++ Development goes, there is no real addition in value to the programmer (if one ignores the "User Experience" part) supplied by a better-than-Standard Edition of VS 2005.

Note that Professional Editions come with XML / XSLT support which are very advanced (especially the latter) and make VS 2005 Professional an alternative to Altova's XML Spy - thus giving a programmer the added facility of developing XML applications in one editor instead of having another expensive one for just XML / XSLT.

So, I would say that if your needs are pure C++ Development, go for the Standard Edition... Verify details with MS' Sales Support.

I must add that I have / use the Professional Edition, and hence never felt the need to use the Standard Edition.

Thank you again. Very helpful. :)

I am planning to get the standard edition on Monday but will monitor the thread until then in case someone comes up with a reason not to.

My programs are almost all using Visual C++ with much use of MFC. May dabble in C# in small ways for future web based apps.

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Originally Posted by kochhar

Thank you again. Very helpful. :)

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Great!

You are welcome... :)

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Originally Posted by kochhar

My programs are almost all using Visual C++ with much use of MFC. May dabble in C# in small ways for future web based apps.

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With the Standard Edition, dabbling in C# or even creating professional, quality applications in any of the languages it supports (VC++, C++.NET, C#, VB.NET, etc) will not be a problem.

EDIT: Just noted that Professional Edition also comes with SQL Server 2005 integration (so, you need to evaluate how important this is for you).

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Siddhartha

So, I might as well direct you to - Visual Studio 2005 Product Feature Comparisons

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An in-deep comparison can be found here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hs24szh9.aspx

Thank you Siddhartha and Cilu. Your comments and links have made me more confident about the VS 2005 "standard edition" so I am going to order that today. (Not planning to do anything serious with SQL 2005 so that isn't an issue, thanks).

This has been an interesting post to read. I have been using Visual C++ V6 up until now and have just received the 180-day free trial of Visual Studio 2005 Professional. I was about to ask similar questions.

I plan to buy the upgrade to VS Standard after a (hopefully) successful evaluation of the trial. Well, I might wait the full six months to get my money's worth, unless there is likely to be a price hike. From the product comparison, it looks as though I can happily develop using Professional for now and nothing I need will be missing when I go over to Standard. (My applications are mostly MFC-based Win32).

The one thing that is not clear to me is the section on User Experience (evil jargon!). What will I miss with "simplified menu options and defaults"?

Also "click once" deployment tools sounds a bit restrictive, as though I would have no control here.

Finally, I also contribute to a project using embedded Visual C++ for handheld PDA's. This enables remote debugging on my iPaq. It looks like support for handhelds is included in VS2005, but Standard only has local debugging, whereas Pro has local/remote. Does this mean what I think it does?

Thanks for reading all this!
Jeff.

Edit: one more thing: will I need to include the new MFC libraries in my deployment? Everyone has mfc42.dll, but probably not the new ones.