NQPQ: Which versions of Visual Studio are acceptable for articles?

[Marco Bertschi]

Articles written with VS 2008 are worth posting. VS 2010, 2012 and 2013 offer a compliant converting mechanism.

Veni, vidi, caecus | Everything summarizes to Assembly code

[Brisingr Aerowing]

VS2013 is actually very stable, and is much faster than VS2010 and VS2012. It has quite a few cool features (notifications of updates and other things being one), and opens most VS solutions out there. The only real issues I have had are the weird line count for an error (posted in the Weird and the Wonderful), and the Git integration bug that causes repository creation to fail if another repository was deleted in the same VS instance. E.g. I have a test project in an instance of VS, close it, delete the folder, and try to use the same instance of VS to create a new project. Most of the time it will fail, sometimes it won't show an error, and sometimes it will work as expected.

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. - Mitchell Kapor

[Simon ORiordan from UK]

Answering your QUESTION, I would definitely read an article for software written in VS2008, or even 2005. If you want to use the CODE, it should be easy to port as all previous versions of .NET will be compatible. People who worry about upgrading projects are obviously lazy or they can't programme for toffee. People who are telling you which version to upgrade to cannot read. ;) Me? I'm thinking of submitting an article written in .Net 4(Mono/VS) about a tiny encryption pad I wrote for sport a few years ago. It will be bare code and people can make it compatible with whatever.

[glennPattonWork3]

I still use 2008 mostly because it works for what I need and is compatible with Windows XP and up. The fact that I can't justify the expense to the management for an upgrade 'it works, why change it?' attitude (I'm the only one in the company who does Windows programming). The chances are the bit you reference hasn't had changes or the interface hasn't changed. I for one haven't had to use a database in anger, but it's looking like I might have to soon. Go For It :) :-D

[shillbot1]

Go ahead. It's not like the same principles will suddenly not apply. My company was still using VS 2008 for the project I work on until a few months ago.

[gggustafson]

All of my articles were written using a development environment that included only VS2008. I find nothing in later versions of VS that I cannot program in VS2008. Also, writing an article in the later VS versions effectively limits your article's audience. Although it is possible to convert down to VS2008, why ask a reader to do so? VS2008 is my choice.

Gus Gustafson

[Gregory Gadow]

DbToolbox: Utilities for data access and management[^] In case anyone still cares :zzz:

[KP Lee]

:laugh:

[KP Lee]

When I went to VS 2005, my code wouldn't compile because it used an outdated delegate mode that worked great in 2004. Of course this was from a class using 500 MH CPUs and I had no clue about VS levels while taking the class. I think this is the kind of thing that might upset some readers and what the original question was about. Of course I say, let the readers squawk. (Well it works on MY machine!)

[ClockMeister]

No, I don't think it's outdated at all. It's a solid platform. I've standardized all my development on it with attendant tools and I, too, find the idea of "upgrading" unpalatable. I write to the desktop and have a massive library I've developed over the years there's no reason, at all, to consider an upgrade. My code runs on everything from XP to Windows 8 desktop with no issues. Upgrading would be a colossal waste of money. IMHO, just hunker down and stick with it unless you find something you REALLY need to do but is only offered in later versions. I can see you're doing similar work with your database toolkit. I've done same. Why retool and/or re-invent the wheel at this stage? Write your article. I suspect there are many people that would use it. Besides, as someone else has already said: if you're using a later version the techniques won't change.

[JamesHurst]

I'd suggest - yes. Your articles should not be unworthy just because they're in Vs2008. Many (but not all) projects seem to load into later versions of Visual Studio without any problem. In fact, in a way it makes more sense, as I get responses to my Vs2012 projects like "can you please provide a Vs2008 version?" It's easier to go up a version than it is to go down.

James Hurst "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mahatma Gandhi