Datasheet

However, as you ’ ll discover, this support doesn ’ t mean that Visual Studio 2010 isn ’ t tightly coupled to a
specifi c version of each compiler. In fact, the new support for targeting frameworks is designed to support
a runtime environment, not a compile - time environment. This is important because when projects from
previous versions of Visual Studio are converted to the Visual Studio 2010 format, they cannot be reopened
by a previous version.
The reason for this is that the underlying build engine used by Visual Studio 2010 accepts syntax changes
and even language feature changes, but previous versions of Visual Studio do not recognize these new
elements of the language. Thus, if you move source code written in Visual Studio 2010 to a previous version
of Visual Studio, you face a strong possibility that it would fail to compile. There are ways to manually
work with a project across versions of Visual Studio on the same team, but they are not supported. Bill
Sheldon, one of the authors of this book, has a blog post from August 2007 that deals with his experience
doing this in Visual Studio 2008. The post titled “ Working with Both VS 2005 and VS 2008 B2 on
the Same Project ” is still applicable for those working with Visual Studio 2010:
http://nerdnotes
.net/blog/default,date,2007-08-29.aspx .
Multi - targeting support by Visual Studio 2010 ensures that your application will run on a specifi c version
of the framework. Thus, if your organization is not supporting .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, or .NET 4, you can still
use Visual Studio 2010. The compiler generates byte code based on the language syntax, and at its core that
byte code is version agnostic. Where you can get in trouble is if you reference one or more classes that aren ’ t
part of a given version of the CLR. Visual Studio therefore manages your references when targeting an older
version of .NET allowing you to be reasonably certain that your application will not reference fi les from one
of those other framework versions. Multi - targeting is what enables you to safely deploy without requiring
your customers to download additional framework components they don ’ t need.
With those ground rules in place, what versions of Visual Studio 2010 are available, and what are the
primary differences between them? As already mentioned, Visual Basic 2010 Express is at the bottom tier
in terms of price and features. It is accompanied there by Visual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition, for
those developers who are developing Web applications, rather than desktop applications. These two tools
are separate, but both support developing different types of Visual Basic applications, and both are free.
Note, however, that neither is extensible; these tools are meant to be introductory, and Microsoft ’ s license
prevents vendors from extending these tools with productivity enhancements.
However, each of the Express Edition development tools also ships with two additional components
covered briefl y here: MSDN Express Edition and SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. MSDN is, of course,
the Microsoft Developer Network, which has placed most of its content online. It ’ s the source for not
only the core language documentation for Visual Basic, but also articles on almost every product oriented to
developers using Microsoft technology. Full versions of Visual Studio ship with the full MSDN library so
that you can access its content locally. However, the Express Edition tools actually ship with a pared - down
set of documentation fi les.
Similar to the language and Web - based tools, Microsoft has a SQL Server Express Edition package. This
package has a history, in that it replaces the MSDE database engine that was available with SQL Server
2000. The SQL Server Express engine provides the core SQL Server 2008 database engine. For more
information on SQL Server Express go to
www.microsoft.com/express/database . Note that a free
database management application is available via a separate download from Microsoft.
When you install Visual Studio 2010, including the Express Editions, you also have the opportunity to
install this core database engine. The elements of this engine are freely redistributable, so if you are looking
for a set of core database features based on ADO.NET, you can create your application and deploy your
SQL Server 2008 Express Edition database without being concerned about licensing.
Getting back to the differences in versions, the Express Edition tools provide the core components necessary
to create Visual Basic applications (Windows or Web) based on the core IDE. Table 1 - 1 provides a quick
summary of what versions are available, including a description of how each extends Visual Studio.
Visual Studio 2010: Express through Ultimate
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