§ ¶Visual C# Express is really limited
I tried using Visual C# Express 2008 to write a program, and wow... it was more limited than I imagined:
- You can't create a solution.
- There's no breakpoints pane, which means you can't clear all breakpoints.
- There's no command window (which was the other way I tried to clear all breakpoints).
- The fun one: I created a multithreaded application, only to discover that when I tried to debug it, there's no threads pane. Argh!!
Here's the funny part. You can work around the first one by installing XNA Game Studio... or you can work around all of them by installing Visual C++ Express, which can do all of the above and comes on the same disc image. It can even debug C# applications, if you open the executable.
I know that Express editions are supposedly built for a simplified experience and they're free, but this seems a bit silly (and a little worrying, since Standard Edition is going away in VS2010). Visual C++ Express has enough that developing an application at least as complex as VirtualDub is doable; I'm not sure that C# Express is up to the same task.
Comments
Comments posted:
Ctrl-Shift-F9 doesn't clear all breakpoints for you? I use VS2008Pro in C++ mode, so I don't know if the keyboard shortcuts are the same, but that's the default I'm familiar with.
Michael Mol - 25 03 10 - 17:23
Nope. I'm used to that shortcut in VS2005/2008 Pro as well, which is why I noticed it was missing. The Debug.DeleteAllBreakpoints command doesn't even exist in Visual C# Express, if you look in the keyboard binding options.
Phaeron - 25 03 10 - 18:29
Well, you
can create a solution, you just have to go through some hoops. When you create and save a project it will automatically also create a solution. You will then be able to edit the paths (with notepad if necessary) or add other projects to the existing solution. What you can't do however is add project directories and other more "advanced" stuff.
Lorenz Cuno Klopfenstein (link) - 25 03 10 - 21:24
You can drop me an e-mail if you have questions like this about the UI in VS/VS Express. Have many years of experiance.
kelthar - 28 03 10 - 23:24
Tell me how you switch threads, then. :)
Phaeron - 29 03 10 - 15:09
The funniest part is that the CLR Debugger from the .NET 2.0 SDK has the threads pane too, so you don't even need VC++ to get at the missing VC# debugging features. I hope they fix this stuff in 2010.
Kevin Gadd (link) - 30 03 10 - 03:33
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