This is a follow-up to a post I made earlier about Visual C++ 6.0 and it was suggested I just upgrade. I was wondering If I should go for the free 2005 beta, can anyone reccomend it (how beta is it :P)?

It's awesome. It doesn't feel beta at all. There are no words to describe how highly I recommend this product.

I don't know if you read my response to your last thread if not the reason for not using VC++ 6.0 has very little to do with the IDE it's the compiler itself its defunct.

Anyways back to the issue in terms of standard c++ compliancey VC++ 8.0 (aka .NET 2k5) hasn't changed abit if at all from VC++ 7.1 thats 98% standard compliant, VC++ 8.0 adds a new standardized language called C++/CLI (that is still being finalized) but that doesn't really concern you for the time being your not required to use it besides.

I'd suggest getting VC++ .NET 2k3 toolkit (it's free, no IDE check my signature) for anything serious until VC++ 2k5 express is finally released. You can hook VC++ 7.1 toolkit with VC++ 6.0's IDE if you want.

The lastest express beta is number 2 (february 2005 community technical preview release), the IDE is very nice (updated quite abit from 1) but seems quite unstable at the moment to me how-ever the compiler adds fixes & updates mainly todo with C++/CLI and implements the new secure versions of the C I/O functions. Express beta 1 is more stable but quite abit out of date.

Quote:Original post by snk_kid
I don't know if you read my response to your last thread if not the reason for not using VC++ 6.0 has very little to do with the IDE it's the compiler itself its defunct.

Anyways back to the issue in terms of standard c++ compliancey VC++ 8.0 (aka .NET 2k5) hasn't changed abit if at all from VC++ 7.1 thats 98% standard compliant, VC++ 8.0 adds a new standardized language called C++/CLI (that is still being finalized) but that doesn't really concern you for the time being your not required to use it besides.

I'd suggest getting VC++ .NET 2k3 toolkit (it's free, no IDE check my signature) for anything serious until VC++ 2k5 express is finally released. You can hook VC++ 7.1 toolkit with VC++ 6.0's IDE if you want.

The lastest express beta is number 2 (february 2005 community technical preview release), the IDE is very nice (updated quite abit from 1) but seems quite unstable at the moment to me how-ever the compiler adds fixes & updates mainly todo with C++/CLI. Express beta 1 is more stable but alittle out of date.

Ya I understand that. In addition to the compiler being defunct, in the original post I was also annoyed with some missing features in the 6.0 IDE (error highlighting and lack of line numbers in the left margin).

with vs2005 i would definitely until beta2 when the verifiable stl is expected to be shown off (if you're interested in the managed side of c++, that is). if you're not going to be writing managed code then there's no need to wait. the current drop of vc++2005 is quite stable and the compiler does its work nicely.

Quote:Original post by DrZoidberg
i'm using visual c++ express 2005 beta, and it's the best ide i've ever used. period.

*shudder*. Erm, i'd disagree - I used it for about 6 months, and my conclusions are this :

1. I can't use visual assist with it. damn.
2. The compiler is nowhere near as good as the VC++ 2003 toolkit compiler.
3. I coudn't get the 2003 compiler to work with the 2005 IDE cos they seem to have changed some flags around to prevent that.
4. It's a tad crippled if you want to do anything serious.
5. How many crappy files does it generate? I don't want all that crap in my code directories!
6. The 2005 compiler produces large and slow executables. I'm sure they'll fix that by the time of final release, but that's a problem if you want to use it now for anything serious.

The only plus as far as the current .NET IDE goes is that it's (currently) available for free. If you haven't got VC++ .NET and don't want to spend money, then get it. If you have got VC++ .NET, then you've already got a much better IDE & the free 2003 toolkit gives you all the optimisations you'll need. It's the compiler that's my biggest bug bear about 2005. It's cack. I'm sure when it's all finished then it will no doubt be good, until then it's ok for home coders but not much else....

my 2 cents.