JoeN's Blog

I move quite quickly to new versions.

Supporting Orcas only would be fine.

Supporting VS 2005 would also be fine.

As long as it isnt an Express SKU, it will be all good!!

Keep up the excellent work guys :-)

Jan

http://www.codeplex.com/zx360

I think it depends on a few things that really we don't yet have an answer for. Things such as whether VS Orcas will have any features that really make it worthwhile supporting over VS 2005 and perhaps how soon we could expect to see an express version of Orcas.

Although there is a vocal minority (as I see it) calling for full VS support I wouldn't want it to delay features that are important to making a rich game (such as networking and better accessory support).

Also I guess it depends a lot on the timing of Orcas and whether it is expected to even be finished by the time the next version of GSE ships, presumably if it hasn't, then VS 2005 support and Orcas later would be a no-brainer.

Being a student at university (like many GSE users) I move onto the next version of VS as and when it becomes available under some sort of free/almost-free academic license and often that doesn't happen for a few months after release anyway. I think it would be a mistake to ignore VS 2005 completely given the large installed userbase, and that 2005 should be first priority followed by Orcas soon after.

One question I have though, what did you mean by "our new functionality"? By 'functionality' did you mean the ability to use a Pro version of VS, or other 'functionality' that would only be available to full VS users and not Express?

Just my two cents,

Adam Miles

I would say that VS2005 support is necessary. I do usually like to upgrade to the latest version of visual studio when a new one comes out, but it isn't always feasible. And since the current express versions are the same cycle (and maybe code base) as vs2005, maybe it'll be quicker to implement.

Anyways, my vote it vs2005 first, then Orcas to follow.

This is a no-brainer.

Lots of us have spent half a months wages on VS2005 pro, and given the personal expense (we don't all have access to the MS employee shop), I doubt we will be splashing out on a new version just because the year is higher - let me use my copy of VS2005 pro! Do Orcas after that.

I think it's nice to extend support for all SKUs of Visual Studio.

I think also that i'd be nice to keep compatibility with VS2005.

Reason for answer 1 is that I personally even if I'm interested in XNA/Graphics/Games development I haven't installed XNA because I don't like to garbage my workstation. I have VS.Pro installed. If you press me on additional VS.Express instance only for XNA I pass as I've done.

Reason for answer 2 - if you've invested higher version of VS.Net it's a cost where adoption of the latest version will be a proccess in time where backward compatibility can be useful for further XNA Studio adoption. Especially that VS is a mainstream now and XNA is only looking for its place in the industry. I think due to that it should be as much accessible on the platform as possible.

Heja...

I have downloaded the express versions of orcas last week and will try it in the next days... anyway.

I think to keep xna going there will have to be support for both versions, express AND full VStudios. For the express versions i think, there should be no reason to support older than Orcas, because everybody could download it. I only use express versions because im only an "garage programmer" and i hope, and to be truth for my hundred bucks for the creators club subscribtion i expect, that there will be support for future versions of express visual studios.

have a nice day...

greathings from austria

markus