[Visual Studio] Advantages of upgrading from VS2003?

[th3rEsa]

Hi,

I'm currently thinking about if it has any advantages to upgrade from VS7.1 to VS8.0. "Advantages" are meant concerning the compiled application, not the IDE.

Who can help?

[azcodemonkey]

Generics(better type safety and no more (un)boxing penalty), language integrated query(LINQ), anonymous types, type inference, nullable types, better XML API, better framework as a whole( ASP.NET is greatly improved, new frameworks for master pages, skins, themes, membership API, web parts, improved controls, AJAX ). There are new extensions for 3.5 including MVC for ASP.NET, entity framework, dynamic data, and few more things. Then there are WPF, WCF, Workflow, Silverlight, and probably more things I'm forgetting. It's just flat out better. You're working with technology that is 6 years old (1.1. is essentially 1.0 with some minor tweaks). Everything is better in 2008.

[itsnotabigtruck]

VS2008/.NET 3.5 doesn't add much to VS2005/.NET 2.0 but VS2005/.NET 2.0 was a massive improvement over VS2003/.NET 1.1. The rule about Microsoft 1.x products really does apply.

[Antaris Veteran]

Ohhh...where to start...

.NET 2.0/3.0/3.5

C# 2.0/3.0

ASP.NET 2.0

WPF

WCF

ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET Entities, ASP.NET MVC Framework

There has been sooooo many improvements since .NET 1.1, I'm genuinely surprised you haven't upgraded sooner. 2003? 2008 is the big one now. In fact, if you are going to update, go straight to 2008, there are some serious issues with VS2005 (random hangs, etc.). 2008 is miles better.

If you want to get a taste of a VS2008 style IDE, and the new mechanics that go with it, try one of the express editions first.

.NET 2.0 brought in Generics, which I couldn't live without these days.

[th3rEsa]

I'm genuinely surprised you haven't upgraded sooner.

I have been quite contented with it...

2003? 2008 is the big one now.

I was told 2008 is still half-baked, and maybe I should wait for the first service pack(s)...

edit:

Again, I was primarily talking about the compiler, not the IDE... mainly I want to compile my VS2003 applications, new development is not really planned at the moment.

;)

[azcodemonkey]

I have been quite contented with it...

I was told 2008 is still half-baked, and maybe I should wait for the first service pack(s)...

edit:

Again, I was primarily talking about the compiler, not the IDE... mainly I want to compile my VS2003 applications, new development is not really planned at the moment.

;)

Then you really won't gain much.

[Andre S. Veteran]

I heard a lot of professional developpers still use Visual Studio 6, and as a matter of fact it is installed on my machine at work, alongside with VS 2005 (phew!).

[Richardo]

I heard a lot of professional developpers still use Visual Studio 6, and as a matter of fact it is installed on my machine at work, alongside with VS 2005 (phew!).

It will remain that way as there are thousands of apps that were built in the 90s using VB, and converting them to .NET is more troublesome than maintaining them in VB6. This is especially true of in-house business solutions that were thrown together using VB6 that would not justify the time and effort required to "upgrade" to .NET.

It doesn't look like Microsoft will ever make another VB Classic [and at this point it would be a step back] so VB6 will be on developers machines until those old programs become obsolete or get converted.

[Angel Blue01]

VS2008/.NET 3.5 doesn't add much to VS2005/.NET 2.0 but VS2005/.NET 2.0 was a massive improvement over VS2003/.NET 1.1. The rule about Microsoft 1.x products really does apply.

Agreed, I loved the jump from Visual Studio 2003 to 2005! :) Havn't tried 2008 yet.

Might still be worth upgrading, its just a nice environment to work with.

[Brian M. Veteran]

Agreed, I loved the jump from Visual Studio 2003 to 2005! :) Havn't tried 2008 yet.

Might still be worth upgrading, its just a nice environment to work with.

I made the jump from 2005 to 2008 a while back, and I'd say it was worth every penny.

Much nicer to work with, much more responsive when working with insanely large projects, and the build time seems to be a bit quicker compared to 2005 (on the same machine).

[neufuse Veteran]

Hi,

I'm currently thinking about if it has any advantages to upgrade from VS7.1 to VS8.0. "Advantages" are meant concerning the compiled application, not the IDE.

Who can help?

LINQ... big advantage there for the data oriented app

[thealexweb]

If you were on 2005 it might not be worth it but if your on 2003 I think you should upgrade, I've got 2008.

[IceBreakerG]

We use Visual Studio 2005 at work, and I kind of wish we could upgrade to VS2008 (we just got VS2005 last year). LINQ is very interesting (seems like the opposite of CLR), better XML support plus .NET 3.0/3.5 support (which includes WPF and WCF). Most of the changes I like VS2008 for however, are IDE changes though, not really application level changes.

[Rejinderi]

surprised u all didnt mention the ability to target different framework versions >=)

oh.. and vs 2008 can read in vs 6 codes btw.. in C++ no changes tothe source code is needed unless its managed code.. in vb its not dat simple as vb 6 -> vb 2008 is like a completely new language