Since we introduced the Express Editions of our products with Visual Studio 2005, there have been millions of downloads of the Express products by people around the world. The original intent of the Express products were to enable an easy and fun way of learning to program and create cool, fun applications. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned hobbyist, we wanted to make the Visual Studio Express products ideal for your needs.
With the VS 2008 editions of Express, we are improving the offerings on a variety of different fronts – be it for Windows development or Web development. We have also added some interesting features for your data-driven application development needs.
Included in both C# and VB Express, the WPF designer allows you to build either WPF Windows Applications or WPF Browser applications in much the same way you create Windows Forms today by dragging controls onto your designer surface, editing XAML attributes in the properties window, and enabling an instant preview of your application when you edit XAML in split design/code view. With Visual C++ Express 2008, we have added support for Win32 development right out of the box. No more large download or IDE tinkering is required in order to build native Windows applications.
Right away you will notice the first major improvement in Visual Web Developer Express 2008, the newly redesigned Web page designer. Incorporating many new features such as rich support for CSS editing, improved XHTML Standards compliance, and split code/design view, the new designer enables you to rapidly develop beautiful HTML and AJAX-based Web Sites without much Web development experience.
Jscript Intellisense and debugging has been vastly improved in Visual Web Developer 2008 providing a much better development experience for those wishing to build AJAX-based applications. Visual Web Developer also improves upon the JScript debugging experience by enabling instant breakpoint setting on your ASP.NET page, providing a much richer type information window, and adding the useful ability to step into both client-side and server-side code using a single debugger session!
The O-R Designer is a mapping tool that allows you to create query-able .NET objects from SQL Server Express tables or stored procedures. It allows the user to quickly enable LINQ to SQL querying with only a few lines of code. SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 that is a part of VC# and VB Express enables you to create client-side data-driven applications who want the power of SQL Server in a light-weight way.
Namaste!
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Finally native Win32 development without PSDK tweaks ! Thanx.
Btw, does this mean native Win64 development too ?
MFC included ?
What would really be cool: Allow the Express line to access the codeplex servers. I.e. allow integration of the TFS client into Express, but only for access of the codeplex servers. That way you guys would have an incredibly powerful, free toolset for open source development, beginning to end. It would be a superior way of demonstrating that Microsoft is happy to contribute real value to open source projects (which in turn contribute to the overal health of the .Net ecosystem).
I like the old Visual Studio better. The Express version leaves a lot to be desired.
@Davidacoder
We looked at enabling the Express products to connect to Codeplex as you describe. It's definitely an intriguing feature for a lot of the more advanced Express users. But as we talked with more and more customers about what they wanted in the product, it was clear that we should focus our energies on making sure we support the latest advancements in the platform like WPF and LINQ and keep the download size as small as we could.
Thanks,
John, GPM, Visual Studio Express
"I like the old Visual Studio better. The Express version leaves a lot to be desired."
Ok someones missing the point of the epxress editions completely, they're not supposed to compete with the real visual studio... THEIR EXPRESS EDITIONS .... that are FREE.... of course hteir going to leave you wanting more... they leave u wanting the full verison of visual studio
you can't say u don't like the express because it's not as complete as visual studio.net
@Davidacoder (again)
In the category of "d'oh," my boss reminded me that my team ships Popfly Explorer (http://www.popfly.com/Overview/Explorer.aspx), which is an add-on to Express that enables you to upload projects to Popfly. While not Codeplex (e.g. it's not really a source code control system), it is shared storage in the sky that is accessible from Visual Studio Express.
John, GPM, Popfly (and VS Express)
"Ok someones missing the point of the epxress editions completely, they're not supposed to compete with the real visual studio"
I think he was referring to VC6 :-)
Somasegar, this is kind of a silly question, but I was just wondering, what is your first name? :)
Is mobile development going to be supported by the express edition ?
Does anyone use Express for commercial purposes? For exampl, a one or two person software shop that develops and ships product. Or is that too much responsiblity to put on the Express products?
As far as I know, Express edition CAN be used for comercial products.
From Visual Studio express faq:
Can I use Express Editions for commercial use?
Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using the Express Editions.
link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa718399.aspx
Hi Mike,
From where I come from (State of TamilNadu in India), we don't have a notion of 2 names. People's names have two components - an initial that is the first letter of their Dad's name (in my case S.) and a name which is the given name (Somasegar).
So, growing up I went by S. Somasegar.
-somasegar
Would be nice to have a bit of Silverlight integeration and the inclusion of ajax controls in VWD.
Mobile dev-yes, sems you can install a Compact SQL framework.