Microsoft Offers Beta of Visual Studio 2005

nanodude writes "According to DimensionXC, Microsoft is offering a free beta version of Visual C++ Express 2005 among other programs in the Visual Studio 2005 Express Suite. Seems like a good deal to me!"

Comments

Nice Journalistic Integrity, there.

[It's People!]

First of all, that beta's been free for a really long time. I've had it for months.

Second, the website that "reported" it is a new forum that has only 1-2 posts. This is a blatant attempt at spamming the site to get more members.

Nice work, editors.

Re:Nice Journalistic Integrity, there.

[nanodude]

As the author of this story I would like to first off say that I do personally know the operator of the website (www.platinumcheats.com) however I did not contact him before submitting this story to /.. While browsing his website I notice the post concerning Visual Studio and, after searching /. for a similar article I realized that no one had posted about this before. I did not in anyway intend to advertise or publisize his website or spam /. but merely to post information that I came across and felt that others would benefit from. I did not look into the date of the beta release before posting. I appologize for any misunderstanding.

Lisp

[brilinux]

I am still waiting for Microsoft to release Visual Lisp++ so that I can take full advantage of lisp in Windows.

zerg

[Lord Omlette]

pre-emptive: If all you know about Microsoft dev tools comes from Visual C++ 6, then give these newer tools a try. You might be impressed.

And if not, hey, it was worth a shot.

Re:Might eventually be completely free

[_undan]

Comparing Visual C++ to bcc is like comparing Kazaa to ftp.exe. It's more than just a compiler/linker - it's an entire IDE.

Microsoft does have a free C++ linker/compiler sans-IDE. You can get it here.

MS ABSOLUTELY DESPISES C++

[was_ms_now_linux]

MS Absolutely Despises C++ While I do believe the MS Visual C++ product is a very convenient form of C++, and I've been a daily user for the last ten years, it would be a simple case of cheerleading to believe that MS management has any desire to continue this product. If it were not for the ABSOLUTE DEMANDS of keepers of huge C++ source code bases such as ISV's (those who produce software for resale) and some of the more tech-savvy Fortune 500 customers (those wishing to preserve the option to vacate the MS platform in the event of some unforeseen future innovation - such as an equally suitable and maybe even free OS J ), MS management would have scrapped C++ as a product offering the day that Visual Basic 6 shipped. Bring in the MS consultants or top partners and they will tell you it will bankrupt your organization if you try to use it. Consider these facts: * Proprietary languages are key to ensuring customers don't skip upgrades from one version of Windows to another. MS will always concoct a plausible new marketing line to justify why unwitting customer companies should switch from one language to another - with the new version being completely incompatible with any viable competitive platform. * All MS products are written using C++. * Dropping external support for C++ and enforcing .Net as the only development environment for Windows lets MS move in on more and more new industry-specific markets- or at least choose the players who succeed - in vertically focused (sector or industry-focused) markets. * Proprietary development environments are CRITICAL to getting Platform/OS customers to pay for every version upgrade. Without Proprietary Development Environments, customers would leapfrog one or more version upgrades. * For a Real-World Example: If you wrote a data access layer/sub-system against the ODBC C-API ten years ago and it would compile today and still perform better than the most optimally designed .Net data access sub-system. I know this first-hand from experience. On the flip-side, if you chose the MS language du-jour, you would have been forced to re-write your data access layer at least four times - in the same time period. So, the moral of the story is: KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON CODING IN C++!!! STILL THE FASTEST, STILL THE MOST PORTABLE, AND STILL THE LOWEST COST - OVER A PERIOD OF THREE YEARS OR MORE!!!