What are the differences between visual studio and VS express edition?
Probably very googelable, but than again, I have read that coverage in StackOverflow is a good thing.
You can download a comparison from Microsoft. And another one from here.
The Express edition does not come with the Microsoft C++ runtime redistributable packages, nor does it itself grant you permission to distribute them. So the users of the software you build with the Express edition will have to download & run the installers themselves.
I might have missed it in the excel sheet, but some big ones are lack of proper source control integration and 3rd party tool integrations. Express editions are missing unit tests as wel.
Lack of support in Refactoring and advanced debugging is a major issue I feel.
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I'm in the process of deciding whether or not to use Visual Studio 2012 Express for Desktop or purchase a retail copy of Visual Studio 2012 Professional for my desktop program. The program is built using C# though portions of it may include F#.
From what I've gathered so far, the express edition supports NuGet, Unit Testing, and Code Analysis. It mentions a subset of Code Analysis rules are used but I'm unsure how they compare to the professional edition as well as FxCop/StyleCop.
I'm assuming the express edition lacks extension support but the only extension I really cared about was NuGet. I also assume it doesn't include a TFS CAL despite having the ability to connect to TFS. This again isn't an issue as I'm using Perforce for source control. I also understand that this version is limited to desktop style applications only, but have so far only seen mention C++ and C#. Does it support F#?
Can someone clue me in as to any other limitations of 2012 Express for Desktop? Are there any license limitations for developing a commercial application?
In the past, MS included express editions as part of their version comparison. But when they updated their site for 2012, they separated out the express editions and offer little to no detail.
There are few limitation I can gather :
First of all there are different IDE's for different use
Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web.
Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8
Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop.
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Express 2012
Express editions of the IDE omit the following features included in the Professional editions
Multi-unit testing framework and refactoring support
Static code analysis, profiling, and HLSL editing and debugging
Third-party extensibility support (though the Extension Manager feature is still present)
OpenMP support
But there are few positives I explore in 2012 :
Unlike previous version
Solution is allowed, you can create multiple projects in a single solutions.
64bit compilations support is there.
If working in single or less than 5 person team, express is the way to go.
It definitely bring much more new and unlock features than it predecessors.
As you receive a product key if you register I think it confirms that you then are free to use VS 2012 Express as you like.
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads#d-2010-express say:
"After installation, you can try this product for up to 30 days. You
must register to obtain a free product key for ongoing use after 30
days."
"Productivity Power Tools 2012" cannot be installed on VS2012 Express edition, hence such features like "Entity Framework Reverse Engineer Code First" won't be available, which is critical to migrate existing apps's DB into Model's classes.
Portable Class Libraries are not supported in express versions. (You can reference PCL dlls, you just can't work with PCL projects.)
F# is available for VS Express 2012 for Web
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/fsharpteam/archive/2012/09/12/announcing-the-release-of-f-tools-for-visual-studio-express-2012-for-web.aspx
Looks like NuGet worked with VS 2010 Express Web so I would expect it to work with 2012
http://docs.nuget.org/docs/start-here/nuget-faq
Professional gives you a lot of the profiling and static analysis tools. I couldn't find out how the FxCop rules differ.
What are the limitations of VS2010 C# Express Edition compared with the paid for versions? I was mostly looking into what sort of applications I can build, in VS Express I only have the option of Console, Winform and DLL, etc. I read that you can build services and add - ins for office programs, is this functionality available in Professional/Ultimate etc versions? Thanks.
There's a comparison chart here - You'll need VS Professional to develop Office Plugins.
Although previous version, there is a definitive overview of the VS2008 Express limitations in in this SO Question
Wikipedia also explains the differences.
Edit
The comparison chart link is dead. For 2012:
Visual Studio 2012 (Web Only) comparison is here, and in this Programmer's post
This SO post addresses the Desktop comparison.
The Express edition does not come with, nor does it grant you permission to distribute, the Microsoft C++ runtime redistributable packages. So the users of the software you build with the Express edition will have to download & run the installers themselves.
I know vs2008 express didn't. I'm hoping this will change with vs2010. Anyone know? Link me?
Edit:
Anyone have a primary source? While "As far as I know" answers can be helpful, in this case it still leaves a possibility - which is exactly where I started.
I don't know, but I would guess that it would not. Microsoft wants to make money, and supporting ad-ins is one of the biggest reasons to pony up the dough for the standard edition. Ad-in support alone can replace a lot of the stuff that you pay for, like SVN and other source control integration, test framework integration, resharper, etc.
I know this is an old question, but it came up on a search for "Visual Studio 2012 Express Add-ins".
Here is a quote from a post by Ryan Molden (MSFT) on the Visual Studio forums:
"Express does not support AddIns. The reason it has the extension manager is that it supports project/item templates."
My experience is that the same applies to Visual Studio 2012 Express.
As far as I know, the policy regarding Add-In's and Express editions has not changed.
I currently have Visual Studio 2008 Developer Edition. I wish to renew this and get the 3 year SA. However the cost is crazy (around 6-7K USD). The only things that I require above and beyond what Visual Studio Professional Edition used to have are access to TFS (Team Foundation Server) and the ability to create and run Test projects (especially the ability to generate the stubs for unit testing private methods).
Therefore is it true that Visual Studio Professional plus a separate purchase of a TFS CAL will do exactly this for me?
Yes, those two will fill your technical requirements but I'm no licensing expert so I'm not going to say that its all you'll need from a licensing perspective.
In case you haven't seen there’s a document which describes the features of all the different SKUs at Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Guide
UPDATE:
There's a paper about licensing at Visual Studio Team System 2008 Licensing White Paper
Visual Studio professional does not contain the full suite of automated Testing tools provided in Team Suite editions so you can't really do TDD (if that's your aim) without additional tools.
You can however create and run Test Projects so they are at last available if you can find an alternative test generation tool or are working with a solution with tests already in it.
If you are an ISV (independent solution vendor) you might look at the BizSpark program. If you qualify software licensing becomes a great deal simpler for the next three years. ($300)
Hope that helps,
Dan
BizSpark
I am very impressed with the Microsoft Code Contracts.
Unfortunately the static analysis is only available in Visual Studio 2008 Team System and Visual Studio 2010 Premium.
We are happily using Visual Studio 2008 Professional (without MSDN). Upgrading our Visual Studio license from pro to premium is way to expensive.
Is there a good alternative?
Take a look at the MSDN Ultimate Offer for Devs. It's not cheap, but it's a lot less expensive than 2008 Team Suite. Then you can use Visual Studio 2010 from now on with Code Contracts. :)
Also, Code Contracts is different from FxCop, where the latter is what everyone is going to think you're talking about when you say "static code analysis."
I personally use the following tools to help with my code analysis needs:
CodeIt.Right can be used as an analysis tool.
FxCop quite extensive and thorough and also free
CAT tool 1.1 is a simple tool to help identify security flaws in managed code.
Concerning code contracts, take a look at DevLabs portal and click on the "Projects" link to link you to the Code Contracts project available for Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010
The compiler that comes with the platform SDK has static analysis for free.
cl /analyze. You can configure your IDE to use it.