Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2005

VS2005 is the best tool ever. i'm using it with Windows XP. and my applications are maily Database applications and Graphics. i program in C++ Win32 Applications , Dot Net(also C++). the performance is amazing. I faced only one problem when connecting to Oracle via Instant Client 10. and read more than one line in GetString(); i dont know is this MS or Oracle Bug or my own . at this point, the debug message does not give a moderate programmer a clue where is the real problem. but still i use MS 2005 on Daily bases and i love the performance and appearance and its compatibilty with all other applications/libraries. it is fun

As usual, Microsoft has released an unbelievably buggy, product that wants to force you to start all your work from scratch, even after the release of the first service pack. Trying to convert ANY project created with Visual Studio 2003 will result in a myriad of problems: 1) Forms that won't load and present with various cryptic messages with no specifics; 2) Random crashes that cause VS to close mysteriously 3) Applications that will appear to run then at some point come up with errors claiming that you may have corrupted memory. etc. I admit that I have not started a brand new major project since all the issues on old projects failed in one way or another.

WOW, can't believe all the enhancements from VS2003! If you are a MicroSoft developer then this is the product for you.

I was impressed by the improvements made in Visual Studio 2005 over its predecessors. I have found C# support to be quite good, and web development sees to be also one of the best ones that I've tried. However, for Java, C, and C++ development, it is light years behind its competitors. I have had excellent success with Eclipse for these three languages -- although Eclipse has not been that great with C# support. Regardless, I have found that Eclipse does put VS to shame in some of the most basic developer tasks, and I find that my hand motions are much more pronounced when I develop in VS (more clicking, etc.) Overall, VS is still a nice product, although I am starting to question whether it's really worth all that money for C, C++ development.

I've used development environments as diverse as the LISP environment on dedicated Symbolics machines, Smalltalk, Centerline C++ on Sun,Borland's C++ IDE in the early 90s, and Borland's Delphi. After working extensively in Delphi for years for both Windows and Web applications, I switched to Visual Studio for Web Development in 2003. I can say without a doubt that Visual Studio 2005 is the most productive environment in existence. Everything about this environment save one thing (more below) is extremely well done. Some highlights in no particular order: * The Intellisense tools are smooth and very quick (especially compared with Delphi) * The project model is clean, simple and easy to modify (just copy files). * Preparing a web site for distribution or upload is ridiculously easy * C# is easily the most productive language available for general business development (I once mentored C++ for new developers at Bell Labs and have written my own Smalltalk environment so I don... Read more