Are there any porting problems with VS.Net?

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07-24-2003
jdinger

Are there any porting problems with VS.Net?

Now that I'm FINALLY going back to school I can get student discounts on software (YEAH!!!), and I can buy Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic from my school's book store for $99 (retails for $1079). Hoping someone here's tried it out.

A couple of questions:
Can I compile standard C++ code with it? (ie: not having anything to do with the .NET framework and all)

I've heard that you can only compile for 2K/XP with it. Is that only if you use the .NET framework or is that anything compiled with it?

Is there any restrictions to the Academic version like the old VS 6 Learning Edition? Like where you can't distribute anything compiled with it, etc.?

Also, I can get Metroworks Codewarrior Pro 8 for $119 (retail $600) and Borland C++ Builder Pro 6 for $119 (retail $999). Does anyone have any experience with either of those and would recommend them over VS.NET? Both in terms of compiler and IDE.

Thanks in advance!
07-24-2003
Terrance

Re: Are there any porting problems with VS.Net?

Quote:

Originally posted by jdinger

A couple of questions:
Can I compile standard C++ code with it? (ie: not having anything to do with the .NET framework and all)

I've heard that you can only compile for 2K/XP with it. Is that only if you use the .NET framework or is that anything compiled with it?

Is there any restrictions to the Academic version like the old VS 6 Learning Edition? Like where you can't distribute anything compiled with it, etc.?

Thanks in advance!

I haven't used vs.net 2003, but I will tell you that you won't be able to distribute any programs with the academic license.

You couldn't compile standard c++ in the .net framework in the original vs.net, so I'm going to guess it's the same in vs.net 2003. You would have to use managed c++ to compile it into the CLR(common language runtime, so all different .net languages can work together). But if you want to use standard c++ with other .net languages (i.e. c#, vb.net) you have to connect the two with a COM wrapper.

Although, vs.net 2003 will come with a standard c++ compiler. So yes, you can compile regular c++ code on vs.net 2003. It just won't be converted into the clr.
07-24-2003
Terrance

Re: Are there any porting problems with VS.Net?

Quote:

Originally posted by jdinger
I've heard that you can only compile for 2K/XP with it.

And yes, you can only use vs.net/vs.net 2003 on Windows NT/2000/XP.
07-24-2003
nvoigt

uote

Quote:

Can I compile standard C++ code with it? (ie: not having anything to do with the .NET framework and all)

Yes. You can still code Win32 or MFC applications with VS2003.

Quote:

I've heard that you can only compile for 2K/XP with it. Is that only if you use the .NET framework or is that anything compiled with it?

I don't have experience with it, as I haven't seen a 9x system in years, but as far as I know, you can only install VS2003 on 2K/XP systems. The compiled applications should run anywhere ( pure C/C++ ) or anywhere the framework is running ( for .NET executables ).

Quote:

Is there any restrictions to the Academic version like the old VS 6 Learning Edition? Like where you can't distribute anything compiled with it, etc.?

I guess it goes for any learning version of any software that you may not distribute your products created with that version.
07-24-2003
golfinguy4

AFAIK, it is pretty standards compliant. No, you don't have to use winforms. Also, it only works on those platforms you mentioned. There are no problems compiling for other platforms using unmanaged code.

In my experience, Codewarriors IDEs (past versions, not this one) have been more simplistic. I haven't used this one. If you like simple designs, you might like Codewarrior a bit better than MSVS.