Visual C# Express | The Coffeehouse

I'm starting to like it more than Visual Studio. It's faster starting, the editor is more tweakable in certain ways, and it seems to do nearly everything Visual Studio does in C# that I ever need it for.

Of course sometimes I need things like Crystal Reports and MSI, but I'm mainly using C# Express now.

Weird, wasn't .NET some evil conspiracy to sell more copies of Visual Studio?

JasonOlson

reinux wrote:

I'm starting to like it more than Visual Studio. It's faster starting, the editor is more tweakable in certain ways, and it seems to do nearly everything Visual Studio does in C# that I ever need it for.

Of course sometimes I need things like Crystal Reports and MSI, but I'm mainly using C# Express now.

Weird, wasn't .NET some evil conspiracy to sell more copies of Visual Studio?

I fricken' LOVE Visual C# Express. It's really the main IDE I use now at home. Of course, it doesn't help that XNA GSE is only supported on C# Express right now.

There definitely are some things I miss from Visual Studio though, like Resharper support, Class Diagramming, setting watches for breakpoints, Subversion integration (via a 3rd party plug in that doesn't support Express SKUs), etc. However, C# Express is a very capable IDE, and all free of charge Smiley

.

In the grand scheme of things, I believe Visual Studio has some "growth" to go through as Eclipse is quickly catching up (although some would argue that Eclipse has surpassed Visual Studio).

To me, Team System just feels to "bloated" for me.

W3bbo

reinux wrote:

I'm starting to like it more than Visual Studio. It's faster starting, the editor is more tweakable in certain ways, and it seems to do nearly everything Visual Studio does in C# that I ever need it for.

Seeming as C# Express is a strict subset of Visual Studio 2005, in what ways is it more tweakable?

Faster starting I can understand, but VS05 loads in under 3 seconds (but 13 seconds from a cold start) on my machine.

reinux

W3bbo wrote:

Seeming as C# Express is a strict subset of Visual Studio 2005, in what ways is it more tweakable?

Yah weird eh?

The editor options in VC# Express lets you tweak a lot of the auto indent and bracketing, which is sort of nice. I mean it's not a big deal but evidently it's not just a subset of VS2005. There's some new code in there too.

W3bbo wrote:

Faster starting I can understand, but VS05 loads in under 3 seconds (but 13 seconds from a cold start) on my machine.

My machine's getting sorta old Smiley

Switching between documents seems to slow down VS2005 for me too.

The UI seems less glitchy in C# Express. The DataSet designer doesn't go haywire and the toolbars don't flicker. But I don't know, that might have been just my previous install.

JasonOlson wrote:

There definitely are some things I miss from Visual Studio though, like Resharper support, Class Diagramming, setting watches for breakpoints, Subversion integration (via a 3rd party plug in that doesn't support Express SKUs), etc. However, C# Express is a very capable IDE, and all free of charge .

Ahh, yeah I might miss class diagramming and svn.

Bas

I'm using it at home too, and it's almost all I really need. The only thing I really, really miss is attaching the debugger to a process. I used to think that this was a feature you didn't need in a 'home/student' edition of Visual Studio, until I started creating gadgets and needed to debug the javascript.

It's impossible to do that in VS Express, and buying a full version of VS just for gadgets? Erm, no. Maybe this could be an Orcas Express feature? Tongue Out

Edit: Hmm, forgot about the class diagrams. I sort of miss having those, too, but they're not absolutely essential.

Angus

JasonOlson wrote:

I fricken' LOVE Visual C# Express. It's really the main IDE I use now at home.

I have to agree. I have beta tested other versions, but the fact that Visual C# Express is free just makes it so accessible. I am very thankful that Microsoft made it free as without it I would have to pay a fairly large amount of money for something which is just a small hobby of mine.

Angus Higgins

reinux

Bas wrote:

Edit: Hmm, forgot about the class diagrams. I sort of miss having those, too, but they're not absolutely essential.

It's always fun when you're done a huge project (not while you're working on it) to generate a class diagram and go "Holy shxt I did all that?!"

Bas

That's absolutely true. Hmm, now I really miss the diagrams. Tongue Out

reinux

Then again, you can always fire up Visual Studio whenever you want a diagram, since they both use the same project file format.

Which is yet another nice thing about VC# Express Smiley

Bas

reinux wrote:

Then again, you can always fire up Visual Studio whenever you want a diagram, since they both use the same project file format.

...if I could afford that at home. Tongue Out

JChung2006

Not being able to create Web Application Projects in Visual Web Developer Express is a huge minus when comparing it to Visual Studio 2005.

Not being able to create data sources from non-Express SQL Server editions is a minus when comparing C# or VB.NET Express to Visual Studio 2005. You can work around it by duplicating your schema in an Express database with something like the SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard on Codeplex and then changing the connection string in your App.config so it is not a huge disadvantage.

What really hurts (and I probably sound like a broken record) is that they won't be releasing Express Editions of Orcas when it ships, not even for the nominal fee they originally intended to charge for the 2005 Express Editions.

reinux

JChung2006 wrote:

Not being able to create Web Application Projects in Visual Web Developer Express is a huge minus when comparing it to Visual Studio 2005.

Not being able to create data sources from non-Express SQL Server editions is a minus when comparing C# or VB.NET Express to Visual Studio 2005. You can work around it by duplicating your schema in an Express database with something like the SQL Server Database Publishing Wizard on Codeplex and then changing the connection string in your App.config so it is not a huge disadvantage.

What really hurts (and I probably sound like a broken record) is that they won't be releasing Express Editions of Orcas when it ships, not even for the nominal fee they originally intended to charge for the 2005 Express Editions.

Whaaaaat all that sucks!

I seriously hope they do Orcas sometime in the near future.

CannotResolveSymbol

JChung2006 wrote:

What really hurts (and I probably sound like a broken record) is that they won't be releasing Express Editions of Orcas when it ships, not even for the nominal fee they originally intended to charge for the 2005 Express Editions.

You've said this several times, but you can't provide a source, beyond rumor and speculation!!

However, there are several references to Orcas Express editions in the Orcas CTP release notes, and just doing a quick Google search, I find that Scott Guthrie has explicitly said that there will be Express Editions of Orcas [Link].

Not to say that I don't believe you, but... okay, I don't believe you. [6]

reinux

Speak of the devil... look what just showed up on Code Project!

http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/AutoDiagrammer.asp

Dan

JChung2006 wrote:

What really hurts (and I probably sound like a broken record) is that they won't be releasing Express Editions of Orcas when it ships, not even for the nominal fee they originally intended to charge for the 2005 Express Editions.

As my team owns Visual Studio Express, this is flat out false. Hell, Doug on my team even has comps of what the site will look like for downloading pre-RTM versions.

Can you please tell me where you heard we weren't going to release Orcas Express so I can go squash rumors?

Thanks,
-Dan Fernandez
Lead Product Manager
Non-Professional Tools

Bas

Dan wrote:

JChung2006 wrote:
What really hurts (and I probably sound like a broken record) is that they won't be releasing Express Editions of Orcas when it ships, not even for the nominal fee they originally intended to charge for the 2005 Express Editions.

As my team owns Visual Studio Express, this is flat out false. Hell, Doug on my team even has comps of what the site will look like for downloading pre-RTM versions.

Can you please tell me where you heard we weren't going to release Orcas Express so I can go squash rumors?

Thanks,
-Dan Fernandez
Lead Product Manager
Non-Professional Tools

And this is what makes Channel 9 worthwile. Answers on specific questions and rumors straight from the source.