Visual Studio | Express vs. Professional

[BlackBox]

I am a LISP developer seeking to break into the .NET API with our C3D 2011 implementation.

Can Visual Studio (VS) Express be used by an enterprise, or is it for individuals only?

Any/all software created will be for internal, enterprise use only, and not be sold.

Cheers!

[Jeff H]

Are you in college or have a e-mail that ends in .edu
If so all this is free and full version from microsoft
https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx

[BlackBox]

While I would like to further my education eventually, I am asking as a professional (worker, not developer - lol).

My employer doesn't have a programming business unit, but there are a small handful of us 'production guys' who fancy programming with LISP. Basic stuff really, production tools, standards enforcement, most of it tailored for our environment.

I'm a huge fan of the ActiveX COM API (via Visual LISP), but have relegated myself to using VLIDE as VB.NET was replacing (has replaced?) VBA. I didn't see spending time learning VBAIDE productive if ultimately I wanted to step into Visual Studio.

Is it possible for you to answer the question of can VS Express be used professionally?

Cheers!

[SEANT]

Any/all software created will be for internal, enterprise use only, and not be sold.

While I haven't read the EULA for Express, that statement is what I’ve been lead to believe. To me, it implies that money can be made from programming with Express, but only as it saves money by increasing productivity within an enterprise (i.e., a professional programmer could be utilized by an Enterprise to develop with Express). Professional Edition would be the first legal way to write VS programs to sell as the end product.
There used to be a Standard Edition [thru VS2008], which was a reasonably priced version that allow software sales. I was able to make use of a nice upgrade offer 2008 Standard to 2010 Professional for $299.

[BlackBox]

Seant, thanks for the information.

I was able to find this on the Visual Studio Express FAQ site:

Can I use Express Edition for commercial use?

Yes, there are no licensing restrictions for applications built using Visual Studio Express Editions.

Source link

However, my IT department feels that it might not be 'explicit enough', so they're passing this onto legal - which is taking forever. Hence my posting this thread, in an effort of identifying yes/no, and perhaps obtaining some justification either way.

I'd hate to ask my boss's boss to authorize a purchase order for me to get a $500-$1,000+ software suite, when the *FREE* version will do! lol

[SEANT]

Cool. That sounds pretty un-restrictive. I know the Professional edition has numerous cool features - most of which I haven't played with yet.

I doubt I would have shelled out full price, cool feature or not.

[SEANT]

I was able to make use of a nice upgrade offer 2008 Standard to 2010 Professional for $299.

The route to VS Professional was even more affordable considering I was in a position to take advantage of this deal. (Link in the thread is no longer valid). I think the upgrade to 2008 Standard was only $100.

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?14151


Based on the responses, there wasn’t much interest in the Standard edition at that time.

[Tyke]

I did the upgrade from 2008 Standard too and felt the price was acceptable.

There are some differences between the Express and the full editions. In Express you can't do any debugging, but there is currently a workaround, how long Microsoft will tolerate that is unsure. There are a few other differences too, but for programming for AutoCAD Express is a great tool. One other thing about all versions of Visual Studio 2010, it does not any longer import VB6 code. So if you are looking at importing any VB6 code hang onto a copy of VB Express 2008. If you use Autodesk's Magic Macro to migrate VBA code to .NET it produces VB6 code which is then imported into VB.NET, not with VB.NET 2010!!! I don't know if Autodesk have or intend to suggest a workaround. I've migrated VBA code, imported it into a 2008 VB.NET project and then opened the project in VB.NET 2010, which automatically upgrades the 2008 project to 2010. It works well for me.

See the AutoCAD .NET Developers Guide for getting started: http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2010/EN...ide/index.html

There's also lots of information at Autodesk University.

[BlackBox]

Tyke, thanks for the information.

Forgive my elementary question, but could you elaborate on the lack of debugging with Express?

I use the VLIDE's 'Check edit window', and 'break points', etc. all the time. Does Visual Studio provide significant capabilities beyond what VLIDE does (I would imagine it has to), and all of that is missing with Express?

*IF* so, then there's no option, I would absolutely need the Professional version.

Shooting in the dark via trial and error does not seem like a wise investment of my time spent developing.

[Tyke]

Here's a quote from Jerry Winters' book:

Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website for no
charge. Autodesk does not recommend the use of the Express Edition because some
features are not available by default. If, however, you install the “AutoCAD VB.NET
Application Template” found on the DVD that accompanies this book and use this when
a new application is created in Express Edition, you will be able to write all of the programs in
this book without purchasing Visual Studio 2005. This having been said, it is possible that
Microsoft could ‘disable’ our little work-around and then Visual Studio 2005 would need to be
purchased. (Download from http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb)

and

Changing two settings in the VB.NET Project allows us to run our new commands in AutoCAD
while creating a ’link’ between AutoCAD and VB.NET so debugging can take place.

I don't think you need to buy the Professional version, as you will be able to do more debugging than in VLIDE. But as with anything that is free, there is a reason for it and more often it is missing functionality. If you intend just to do programming for AutoCAD then I think Express will be fine. I just wanted to make you aware the there are differences. I've never used the Express version, just the Standard versions and then the Professional, but the bulk of my VB.NET programming is not for AutoCAD.