I really want to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010. But since I do a lot of development for the Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile I cannot. (I develop for a Symbol device that does not support Windows Phone 7, so that is not a option.)
Does any one know any kind of time frame of when Microsoft plans to add support for Smart Device Projects into Visual Studio 2010?
Update: Since this is looking less and less likely without intervention from the users, Please go here and vote for this feature.
Microsoft's current public statement says that, apart from Windows Phone 7 development, there will not be Smart Device Application Development added to Visual Studio 2010.
This obviously raises concerns and has implications for a lot of people, and there are more than a few of us lobbying Microsoft very hard to change that plan and to get them to include some sort of support for Smart Device programming outside of Windows Phone.
I'm hopeful, maybe even optimistic, that their stance will change and that we will get something - even if it's only CF 3.5 targeting actual hardware (i.e. no emulator support) - at some point down the road. Right now they've got all hands on deck trying to get Windows Phone out the door, and until that happens, I wouldn't expect much for resource allocation toward other device features.
So what does that actually mean? In my mind I wouldn't postpone installing VS2010 until they have device support. My guess is it won't happen until early next year at the absolute earliest and realistically I would say mid to late next year if it happens at all. Again, I'm optimistic that it will, but I'm also a realist, so I'm not going to base my business decisions and future on it happening.
Add your support to the following Microsoft Connect Item, it's had quite a bit of interest being the 3rd highest voted suggestion so far.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/595712/no-support-for-windows-ce-and-compact-framework-development-in-vs2010
Through private conversations I've had with the Customer Advocacy Team at MS it would appear that they are really digging their heels in over this. MS reneged on promises to include Smart Device Framework support in VS2010 early on in the product life cycle.
It is really frustrating because at some point the development tools will fragment and you'll end up with having to maintain separate development, source control and build systems for targeting Windows CE. Who is to say that the tools will even work on future versions of Windows either or even if they will live side by side with future versions of VS. Remember this lack of support also hurts people doing unmanaged code on CE too.
MS is doing a great job of remaining silent here, the silence is already causing people to look at alternative platforms. Without a statement of intent no business is going to invest in Windows CE development without knowing the future of the OS and the tools to develop on it.
All recent Visual Studio versions can be installed side by side. You could upgrade now for desktop development, then when smart device support is rolled out, migrate your projects to VS2010.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/setupprerelease/thread/fce95ec7-728d-41d1-ab13-74a2fd3a4136
I am forced to have two VS installations side by side. However, another issue - that is causing me more pain is that TFS 2010 doesn't work with VS 2008 - there is a plugin, of course, but there are many issues with it which make it unusable.
So to have source control, I have installed SVN on my machine.
Microsoft once again, has proven that they have no concern for the devs at all. Their tools don't work together, backward compatibility is not there, all of which makes their dev tools a big load of crap.
MS replied to that connect issue:
Hi folks,
In the first quarter of 2013, we plan to provide tooling for Visual
Studio 2012 to create apps for Windows Embedded Compact v.Next. We’ll
be announcing more details in September, including the roadmap for
.NET CF. You can find more details this Fall in the Windows Embedded
Compact website at http://www.windowsembedded.com.
thanks, Doug Turnure Visual Studio PM
Related
I've been trying to install VSCommunity Edition for the last few hours with no luck. If you check the screenshot attached. You'll see that I can change the directories for installation for the first 2 requirements, but im unable to change the directory for the 3rd option (the SDK install along with others) which just happen to be the very large percentage of files. It's wanting to install over 45gb of files on my C Drive which is just a 50gb SSD.
enter image description herehttps://i.imgur.com/burFR90.jpg
I want to switch to D, and the only thing i can see fro any of the Microsoft help docs and posts is "You can change this upon fresh installation".
Which this is. I've uninstalled anything else remotely like it just to be sure.
Do any of you have any ideas or any experience with this issue, or anything i can try? I simply don't have enough space to install on C, and because of this, i can't start learning c# which is required for work.
Thanks so much in advance guys, it's really getting me worried now.
Although I can only guess why Visual Studio is locking down the SDK path, here's a few workarounds and recommendations:
In your screenshot, the installer warns you about possible performance effects of installing Visual Studio on your D drive. I assume this is because your D drive is not an SSD. Microsoft's Visual Studio system requirements document recommends that you install to an SSD, and based on community experience, this is one recommendation you really want to stick to, otherwise IDE responsiveness may be well below your expectations, especially if you decide to install extensions in future.
Instead, you might want to reconsider the set of components that you're installing. If you're only getting started with C#, you'll probably be just fine with developing class libraries, console and web applications targeting .NET Framework or .NET Core. If this is the case, you might want to go to the Workloads tab in the installer and opt out of some of the heaviest workloads (such as Mobile development with .NET). Consider only installing .NET desktop development, ASP.NET and web development, Azure development and .NET Core cross-platform development. If you only select these, your installation is going to be much slimmer.
If minimizing Visual Studio installation as shown above isn't enough, consider an alternative way of setting up your .NET development environment. For example, you can download and install .NET Core SDK and .NET Core Runtime, and use one of the two most prominent alternative code editors: Visual Studio Code or JetBrains Rider that are both quite compact.
To what extent is it possible and legal to developer WinRT applications with VS2010 Pro?
On the one side, I think it should be perfectly possible and legal to create an HTML5/CSS/JavaScript WinRT App with VS2010 Pro since you can probably do so using Win 8 Notepad. On the other side, I think it might be difficult and possibly illegal to create an C# WinRT App via VS2010 Pro since doing so might require the user to circumvent intentional limitations of the VS2010 Pro software.
In the old days, the user just bought a stand alone compiler and she/he was free to link it against whatever libraries she/he choose. In this way, she/he didn't have to upgrade her/his compiler anytime she wanted a newer version of MFC or *.NET. These days, the IDE seems to be married to the compiler so I'm not sure if the user is allowed to use older IDEs (such as VS2010) to link against newer libraries like those offered in WinRT
See here.
You can use the Windows SDK, along with your chosen development
environment, to write Windows Store apps (only on Windows 8)...
So it's clearly legal. I haven't tested it, but I'm going to guess that you can probably do the code side of things in VS 2010, but VS 2010 isn't setup to do Windows Store UI so xaml, html5 etc probably won't work.
It's probably much easier to simply use Visual Studio 2012 express.
To what extent is it possible and legal to developer WinRT applications with VS2010 Pro?
It is not (directly). The APIs and the packaging tools will not be available in VS 2010.
While you could potentially do this yourself, it seems far simpler to just install Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8 and use it.
These days, the IDE seems to be married to the compiler so I'm not sure if the user is allowed to use older IDEs (such as VS2010) to link against newer libraries like those offered in WinRT
It's more than just newer libraries - there's an entire new runtime, and the language needed changing in order to work with it.
How can I create a setup file in visual basic 6 after completion of my programming work?
Front End language is Visual Basic 6,
Backend : MS Access 2003 and
Report Tools : Crystal Report 8.5. Operating System Windows XP.
You need to be a little clearer about some of this.
"Front end/back end" is really terminology and a thought pattern from the MS Access world. It doesn't really apply to VB6 development in any meaningful way unless you're doing something really odd like automating instances of MS Access.
That's about the only place where any "MS Access runtime" comes in as well. If you're actually using Access Reporting you might be doing this though - which seems odd but anything is possible.
See Deploying Complex Microsoft Office Access Runtime-Based Solutions.
Much more likely what you are trying to say is that you have a VB6 program that is using a Jet MDB as an embedded database, and using Crystal Reports 8.5 for reporting.
There should be no issue about any "runtime" for Jet on Windows XP, since Jet 4.0 is shipped as part of the OS even as far back as XP RTM (gold). It is also extremely unlikely that XP will have an MDAC release any older than 2.7 (see Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) release history).
So this leaves you looking for a way to package your VB6 program, any immediate dependencies such as possibly the VB6 runtime components, and the Crystal Reports 8.5 runtime components. You may also have INI files, etc. to bundle in there.
A long, long time ago (1998?) the PDWizard was replaced for most purposes by Visual Studio 6.0 Installer 1.0, and shortly after VSI 1.1 was released (1999?) which made up for a number of ills. This is a pretty basic tool for authoring Windows Installer packages, but it should meet your needs.
Along with this you'll want the recent merge modules for your dependencies: Merge Modules for Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0.
Then of course you need a merge module for Crystal Reports 8.5, and for this we have to turn to the community because BO didn't start releasing them until CR9. One place to look for this is InstallSite: Seagate Crystal Reports 8. Your real problem is that CR8.5 is ancient.
If this doesn't work out for you, you can always hope that CR8.5 Dev installed on your machine with a "good enough" set of .DEP files (which tell setup authoring tools what subdependencies each dependency has, among other things). This may still let you use VSI 1.1 to succesfully package your application with CR8.5.
You might also look at for-pay packaging tools as already suggested. If desperate enough you might look at some legacy installer technologies too, just in case their communities have addressed your issues.
If I misunderstood and you really do use your VB6 program to automate an instance of the "MS Access 2003 Runtime" you'll probably have to build some hybrid package.
But normal VB programs do not use Access or Access Runtimes to open and work with Jet databases.
You can search google for package and deployment vb6
and you will find millions of links showing in steps how to do that.
The Package & Deployment Wizard is quite primitive and not well-suited to distributing things like the MS Access runtime and Crystal Reports. You'd be better off using one of the more powerful commercial products like InstallShield or Setup Factory. However, these can be pricey (especially InstallShield).
There are also free products like Inno Setup and Nullsoft, but these may not be as easy to use or may lack some important features.
Bob's suggestion of using Visual Studio Installer 1.1 for a Visual Basic 6 application is sound but the Microsoft link he has given for the download does not work. I guess MS thinks nobody needs VB6 anymore. After searching a little I found a 2008 snapshot of MSDN page in web.archive.org complete with setup files:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080513102621/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718352.aspx
Good suggestions above.
While it might seem unlikely that VB6 app could possibly be in use, there are those of us in the public sector that keep VB6-like apps and even Access apps alive because public dollars are not in a hurry to replace app that still work. A frequent mantra heard in many places is that you leave it alone if it is not broken. Broken enough that is--otherwise baling wire works just fine as long as VB/VBA developers can still found.
With the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2010, and all the lovely new features in C# 4.0, I would really love to update from 2008. However, over the last few years, I've managed to get student pricing, or even free versions via the MSDN Academic Alliance.
Now I am no longer a student.
I can't seem to justify the $AU500 pricetag of even the Standard version for what is at the moment, essentially a hobby. As much as I may like for it to be, it just isn't paying the bills.
So, I've read on the Microsoft site that there's no non-commercial clause in the Express version EULA which is good because I do the occasional bit of paid work in it. How much is missing from the Express version though, compared to Professional (what I use currently, and what the 2010 beta is)? Am I likely to go through withdrawal pains as I reach for something that just isn't there?
As far as addons go, the only one I've really played with is VisualSVN, and I can live with just using TortoiseSVN manually. Anything else I should be aware of?
Version comparisons can be found here: (For 2008) (Edit: A far more in depth document can be downloaded from here)
The things that leap out to me as features I wouldn't want to be without are:
Extensibility (no plugins like VisualSVN or Resharper)
Source Code Control
Remote debugging
64-bit compiler support (x64) (from the first link, though the document implies you can make 64bit apps...)
SQL Server 2005 integration
No setup projects (for making MSI installers)
Limited refactoring
Some missing debugging tools (especially the threads window)
If you can live without those (and the other limitations that wouldn't bother me personally) then I guess that you'll get by with Express just fine.
Final thought: Express isn't your only option for free .net development, there is also SharpDevelop which has some advantages (SVN integration, compact framework support) over Express. Though I'm sure it has many limitations too.
Do you do any entrepreneurial work? If you're building the next killer app, check out BizSpark: http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/
There is new program now available from Microsoft to allow web developers to access the Microsoft Stack similar to the BizSpark program.
It is called Website Spark. VS 2008 Professional Edition and SQL Server 2008 Web Editon are some of the tools available through the program.
Of all things I would probably miss the ability to install extensions. Especially tools like AnkhSVN and TestDriven.NET have grown invaluable to me...
I would seriously consider investing some money in purchasing VS especially if you can get some of that back by using it for jobs.
Maybe switching to Eclipse and Java is an option for you?
EDIT:
By the way, investing a few hundred dollars is common among ex-students. If you were a designer you would probably have to invest $1000 on Adobe software.
You won't be able to have solutions with multiple project types (so no mixed language solutions), or solution folders either.
The main thing that is missing is the ability to build an installer for a solution.
The work-around is to build the installer using some open source installer for .NET, e.g. WiX.
And multi-language solutions are more cumbersome (e.g. mixed C# and VB.NET).
I use the Professional version, but I didn't experience any problems with opening and building my project/solution in the Express Edition.
I'm afraid my trial of VS 2008 is running out soon, and unless a client pays for it, I might be shelling out some cash for it. I've been looking through the comparison chart to compare VS Professional to Standard, and so far I think I'm safe. I wanted to hear from you on what the most important features are that I would be missing.
Of course, you don't know all the details of my situation - but please just answer based on what you perceive as most important.
Developing Windows Mobile Applications and availability of Database Projects are the showstoppers for me (this applies to Visual Studio 2008).
That's it really. This was a dealbreaker for me though since I wanted to join this mobile application programming contest and was floored when I found out I couldn't do it with Standard.
Otherwise you're fine with Standard edition.
The major downside of the Express Edition is they don't support addons - so you have to make sure your Source Control software has a standalone client.
Remote Debugging, Server Explorer, Compact Development (With Device Emulator). It really does depend on your situation but I don't think you'll be without a paddle in general.
"Attach to remote process" is a must. It lets you debug your application in several virtual (or physical) machines running different versions of Windows without installing Visual Studio on each such machine: you would run Visual Studio on your main development computer and attach it to the instance of your application running on another machine, and debug it that way. That's the only way I debug my applications, I never debug them on the development computer. HTH.
Very little difference between the two. The only one I can think of is remote debugging is not available in standard.
You may want to look into the VS 2008 Express editions. Install them and see if you can do everything you need to using the Express editions. Most things that you need/use are in the Express editions, and they're Free. Also, you can use them for commercial use all you want.
For me OMP support in "standard" is what's nice to have, if your into that