switch to visual studio 2005 or stick to dev-c++?

right now im using dev-c++ compiler from bloodshed but i am thinking about switching to visual studio 2005. i found a copy of VS 05 on ebay for $60 and i am considering purchasing it. is it worth it the cash?

Visual C++ Express Edition 2005 is free. Also the edition on eBay could be academic/have a used key. ;)

the copy i found on ebay is visual studio 2005 standard edition. whats academic?

If I were you, I would take the Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition for free off of Microsoft's website before buying a version for $60 off of ebay. It has everything you will need.

"Academic" is normally Visual Studio standard edition priced at a special price for students...mainly university students.

If you in fact are a student at a univeristy, check and see if your university is a member of the MSDNAA, because you could be entitled to even better deals. If your university is a member of the MSDNAA you could get the 2005 Professional version of MS Visual Studio completely for free.

Regarding whether you should change over from Dev-C++:

Dev-C++ is a good IDE, but there are better that have been released lately, and the production of Dev-C++ has been stopped. It is still good to have, however, because it uses gcc as its compiler. If you develop your code for gcc, it will be very portable, and in theory should compile successfully on Linux and other platforms as well...as long as you dont use any platform specific functions (Windows API, etc.). So Dev-C++ is good for portability in that sense.

Many people are suggesting Code::Blocks these days. I downloaded and it seems like a nice IDE.

My main IDE is Visual Studio.

If you are a fan of Dev-C++, I suggest moving to Code::Blocks. Best part about CB is if you prefer the Microsoft Compiler, you can install and use that with CB, it is extremely flexible!

The only gripe I have with code::blocks is the fact you have to zoom in on the editor to get the text a resonable size, and it takes a while to configure. But thats just me being fussy :)

Never had that problem, though it has been a long time since I have had to redo my configuration. Worst case though, just up the size of the font.

I also just set up CDT with eclipse and while it doesn't have too many features it does have a refractory unlike code blocks and it is very adaptive and has the automatic compiling.

I use mainly code blocks because it's very damned good, and eclipse still hasn't reached to the level where it has most of eclipse's features for the JDT. You can change the text size in the editor preferences though.

And I just don't like visual studio, those damned Just-in-time debugger buggers don't dissapear even after you uninstall it.