Upgrading from VS 2005 to 2008

Jim Crafton

I found out that at work I can get my copy of VS 2005 upgraded to 2008. Given that most of what I do is C++ (about 50% MFC, 50% non-MFC server based code), with some newer projects being written in C# (absolutely *NO* WPF), is there any burning reason to bother upgrading? Any hidden gotchas waiting for me if I do upgrade?

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Rama Krishna Vavilala

Jim Crafton wrote:

is there any burning reason to bother upgrading?

Yes, there is a shortage of "VS2008 sucks" posts in the lounge. You can make some contribution in that area.

Jim Crafton

Are you implying that I would vent, whine, and bitch about VS 2008 publicly? I'm outraged, outraged I tell you!

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Nish Nishant

Code Analysis would be an advantage (if you use it).

Regards, Nish

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0x3c0

AFAIK, you must have VS 2008 in order to use the new language features in .Net 3.5. If you don't need those sort of things, I don't personally see any need to bother

Jim Crafton

That would be a C# only thing right? Based on how 2005 works, I would assume there's little to no support for C++ there.

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N a v a n e e t h

Intellisense support is better for C++ projects in VS2008 compared to 2005.

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Nish Nishant

Yeah I don't know if it supports C++ at all - never used it for that.

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link

Douglas Troy

Jim, I've not used C++/MFC stuffs in VS2008, so I cannot speak to what the advantages/disadvantages would be, however, with the pending release of VS 2010, you might consider just waiting. "They" (being Microsoft) are claiming that VS2010 is the next VS6; if that turns out to be the case, I would think that's the release you would want. My two cents. (Perhaps you could download the VS2010 CTP and check into it? Just a thought)

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Rama Krishna Vavilala

Jim Crafton wrote:

no support for C++ there.

There is support via Microsoft SAL (it was in VS2005 too). Basically, you decorate your code with annotations such as the following:

_Check_return_ _CRTIMP _CONST_RETURN void * __cdecl memchr( _In_opt_bytecount_(_MaxCount) const void * _Buf , _In_ int _Val, _In_ size_t _MaxCount);

More on this here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235402(VS.80).aspx[^]

Jim Crafton

Holy crap, I just looked at that link. I think my eyes are bleeding now. Who was the fail pony that approved that monstrosity!? Definitely not going to be using that.

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Nemanja Trifunovic

MFC Feature Pack[^] and TR1 support would be some of the reasons to switch.

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Jim Crafton

Douglas Troy wrote:

(Perhaps you could download the VS2010 CTP and check into it? Just a thought)

I did actually try it a bit. I fail to see how it lives up to the claim of "VS2010 is the next VS6". I have no idea how soon we would see that at work, so it might take a good while before it's even available to me.

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Rama Krishna Vavilala

Imagine the plight of the poor developer who had to fix all the header files.

Jim Crafton

Ick, what a nightmare. I'll bet the swearing by that guy must have reached epic proportions!

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leppie

VS2008 is indeed the prettiest editor available (only to be equaled by xacc.ide :) )

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Todd Smith

Those new language features are really nice imho for C#. For C++ I have no clue. We abandoned that platform several years ago :\

Todd Smith

0x3c0

Yeah, they're delightful. I use LINQ in all of my personal projects nowadays

Douglas Troy

Emmm ... well, from reading what others have said about Intellisense, it might be worth the jump. Wouldn't hurt to get on 2008, so you could get all these new fang-dangled WPF/WCF articles, compile them and then join the plethora of ranting about how badly it all sucks and how the world is going to end in a fiery pit of hell spawn mac lovers. ... or something along those lines, anyway.

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Joe Woodbury

I use both (and VC++ 6.) For C++, VS 2008 is a marginal improvement over VS 2005. I don't think it's worth purchasing the upgrade, but definitely worthwhile if you already have a copy. (If upgrading from VC++ 6, it's worth skipping VS 2005, though we're taking so long where I'm at, I figure VS 2010 will be out. [FYI, it has to do with out installed base of XPe systems and getting the runtimes down.])

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