Any Alternative extensions for Visual Studio C++ 2010 express like Visual Assist X ?
I am personally not aware of any. I don't think VS2010 Express supports VAX to begin with.
Since you only mention C++ - if you want a decent FREE IDE with good "intellisense", auto-complete, refactoring, snippets and code generation (the hallmarks of VAX) - I recommend Qt Creator. It is originally intended for using with the Qt framework, but can be used standalone with any compiler you want. It is smaller and faster than VS, plus it is portable and has the advantage of being a fully fledged product, where VS Express is a cut down version.
Last time I checked, Eclipse was also doing well in this regard, but it is a little clumsy and heavy, probably because it is written in Java.
Related
I have tried searching on the internet but could not find out the compiler used by Visual Studio for C++ applications.
I wanted to know whether it is freely available & whether it can be used for commercial applications.
Traditionally I have been using Turbo C++.
The problem with Visual Studio C++ Express is that it does not work with some applications.
For example, BRL-CAD which is an open source project works properly with the commercial version but gives some problems for the Express edition.
It seems that there is some problem with MinGW compiler as well.
I am told this by the people running that project.
Visual Studio uses the same compiler for all editions. So, the Express edition uses the same compiler as the Professional edition. There are also no restrictions on producing commercial applications, in either case. There are differences in the advanced features offered by the IDE, but the compilers are the same. So whatever your problems are in getting the project to work, it is nothing to do with the compiler.
So, I started programming in C++ moving from Java, Eclipse IDE. I use VS 2010 proffessional, I have it for free from DreamSpark.
However, I am very unhappy with its Intellisense, beeing far far worse than Eclipse (its C++ version) has. But almost everywhere on the internet I read that VS has great, superior Intellisense for native C++. So I want to ask, is there any way, some settings to change to make VS intellisense behave simmiliar to Eclipse? Or is there any other functionality in VS intellisense that compensate that?
To be exact, Eclipse intellisense does much better job guessing what object I want to create, suggests includes, generate keywords, generate few common for cycles etc...
I would not even as this question, but I found somuch possitive feedback on native C++ VS 2010 intellisense, so I have feeling I am doing something wrong... Thanks.
If you are writing managed C++ (C++/CLI) there is a post explaining that intellisense is not currently implemented here
As for alternatives you may like visual assist X.
This question has also been answered before on Stackoverflow. Please see below for some alternative answers and suggestions:
No IntelliSense for C++/CLI in Visual Studio 2010?
I searched around for the answers to these questions, but I have had little luck. So, I thought I would post them here to get some clarification. If this is a duplicate, please let me know, and I will close this.
Okay, with that said, I would like to begin learning C++. I come from a C# background and I have a great respect for Visual Studio and what it can do. Now, my question is. How well does Visual Studio's compiler work for C++ as opposed to a non-Microsoft version (such as MinGW)?
My thing is this. I have nothing wrong with Microsoft, but I would really like to learn C++ in a "pure" form and not scewed by any particular implementation. How reliant is Visual C++ on the .NET Framework? Can a "pure" C++ application be created through Visual Studio without any .NET usage or overhead? Does the Visual Studio compiler compile C++ into CIL like it does with C#/VB, or does it compile it all the way down as others do?
Thanks for any help anyone can provide!
The Visual C++ compiler will compile C++ code into standalone EXEs that have nothing to do with the .NET framework.
The only way to get the .NET baggage thrown in is to compile the C++ as "managed".
If you create a new project (File|New|New Project) Then choose "Win32" from the Visual C++ submenu in the project types and choose "Win32 Console Application" Visual studio will create a simple project with a couple of source files that will compile to a little executable.
Most of the time, Visual C++ is very similar to other compilers. Avoid #pragmas, microsoft libraries (MFC, ATL) and you should be fine.
Edit (thanks Cheeso) - Documentation of where Visual C++ diverges from standard.
In general I would advise using boost libraries for threads and networking because they work on many platforms (i.e linux). Also if your code can compile in GCC and Visual Studio then you are doing a good job keeping it portable.
The most recent versions of VC++ have become significantly more compliant to the C++ standard, so it's not really an issue to write "pure" C++ using Visual Studio, presuming that you stay out of the Windows API, COM+ and ATL. In fact, the documentation with Visual Studio is very rich, with details on the standard libraries and the STL, so it can help you learn a great deal. It can't teach you everything, but it's certainly loaded up with a wealth of information that is portable to any compiler and it is very easily accessbible inside the IDE.
If you create a new solution you should choose new Win32 Project, or Win32 Console Application, and check the 'Empty Project' option. Then you can add a main.cpp file, and add your standard C++ code.
If you like Visual Studio, go ahead and use it to learn C++ -- I haven't used the very latest version, but even the previous one was pretty standards-compliant, C++-wise, and I assume the latest one can only have gotten better. You can have many different kinds of project in Visual Studio, including "console apps", which are the "plain vanilla" kind you could make on any platform, and also many other kinds, such as, windows apps using the good old win32 api, ones made with MFC or other frameworks older than .NET, .NET ones using "managed code", etc.
Just make sure you always work in a "console app" project, and you'll be operating pretty closely to how you would be on other platforms and/or with other C++ IDEs.
If you limit yourself to writing ANSI C++ compliant code then what you write in VS will work in other compilers, until you have to interact with a graphic interface or IO. Then you need to make certain that you are using something that is portable, such as OpenGL, and not DirectX.
To set your project the steps here may be useful:
http://bytes.com/topic/net/answers/447572-strict-ansi-c
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 comes with a very good, C++98 standard compliant pure C++ compiler. If you are interested in pure C++, don't forget to disable language extensions in project settings and you are good to go. Nobody is going to force you to use .NET framework, MFC or anyting like that. Just pure core C++ language and C++ standard library.
Of course, just like any other compiler, it has known non-compliance issues, but in general it is, again, surprisingly good. Older versions of their compiler (MS VS 6.0 specifically) suffered from many non-compliance problems and could not even compile its own header files with language extensions disabled. In 2005 version they fixed a lot of these issues.
After creating a standard Win32 project, you can turn up the compliance a bit more. On the project properties sheet, there's a C/C++ category, with a Language entry. This lists a number of cases where VC++ can differ from the standard. Here, you'd want to turn OFF language extensions, and turn ON "wchar_t as built-in type", "for-loop conformance" and "RTTI support".
I'm learning C++, and I want to know from those who are very good developers now: What is the best IDE, Visual C++ 2008 Express or Eclipse Ganymede with CDT? Remember that I'm using Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate. Thanks!
The book that I'm reading is from Deitel: C++ How to Program, 5/e, because I don't know if the code of the book supports Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express.
I'm using both regularly now.
Visual studio is easier and more user friendly. I have issues with it though. They force you to do a number of things for reasons the benefit Microsoft and not you. It's free so you can't complain that much. Support is non existent but there's google for help.
Eclipse Gallileo does some difficult things startlingly well, but does some simple stuff startlingly badly. Such as when you compile if there's an error you get no visual indication. You have to open the problems window to see the errors. DOH! Eclipse is nearly as good as visual studio overall and is one of the best when using linux. The new version of the debugger has some very nice new features as well. Support is poor to non existent but there's google for help.
I tried codeblocks. The support was not very good to rude. I found it difficult to do anything serious with.
If you're working on Windows, MSVC++ 2008 Express is probably the one to go with, since it's the platform's native compiler. If you don't have any experience with Eclipse already, definitely go with MSVC. I've found Eclipse to be very counter-intuitive, but that's me, you may love it.
I use codeblocks :) I like it a lot actually. Its interface is really easy to use.
I am having issues with MSVS right now which I will be posting a question about here in a few minutes.
Either will do you fine at this stage, but on balance I think you will find VS 2008 Express a little more straightforward unless you have much Eclipse experience.
That said, once you begin developing your OS you may find that you need to upgrade to the full (non-Express) version.
I use both Visual Studio 2005 Pro (at work) and Eclipse CDT (for personal projects).
I do prefer to use Eclipse because I program meanly Qt applications on Windows with it. The Qt integration module is really good (and available freely at http://qt.nokia.com/).
Once you are there, you could give a try also to Qt's lightweight IDE: Qt Creator.
If you are going to do C++ GUI programming, I think you should definitively go with Eclipse CDT and the Qt Integration plugin. I've programmed (and suffering) several years of MFC before learning Qt and I will never go back!
Hope it helps!
We are considering switching from MS Visual Studio 2003 to MS Visual Studio 2005 for our C++ development. I think jumping to 2008 might be better.
In what ways are VS2008 better than VS2005 for C++ development?
Are there any disadvantages of VS2008 over VS2005?
There are very little difference between 2005 and 2008 from native C++ developer point of view. However, if coming from 2003, it makes sense to upgrade directly to 2008 - the conversion process should be almost the same, and you will end up with a slightly better platform. Some new features which are available for 2008 only:
/MP option for multicore compilation (a huge timesaver if you have a mutlicore computer)
some improved debugging options for multithreaded applications
There are also some additional downloadable feature packs for 2008 only:
TR1 libraries
new MFC
To be honest, as far as pure C++ development goes, I don't think there is much between the two, other than VS2008 is the 'latest' release. I didn't notice any significant changes.
However, the latest release of MFC has been given a new lease of life with the addition of the Feature Pack (giving you an MSOffice 2007 look and feel) which might be worth knowing.
The biggest improvement in 2008 for us was in reliability of Intellisense on large solutions. Our project has several million lines of code and Intellisense was unusable in 2003. In 2008 it is improved and works more often than not.
For me the biggest improvement was simply that VS2008 was quite noticeably snappier.
VS2008 contains loads of bugfixes, and is definitely worth the upgrade IMO. Aside from improvements in the UI and related tools, it is much better at dealing with template classes, which didn't always work so well with the VS2005 compiler unless you were using the most basic syntaxes. There are also many other areas which have been improved, but I can't be bothered to find a MS document at the moment detailing these changes. So trust me when I say that there are many. :)
I'd say unless you have some compelling reason to stick with 2005 (ie, backwards compatibility of your code which doesn't build correctly with VS2008), you should definitely push for an upgrade. You can, fortunately, work with multiple versions of VS on a single workstation. You just need to install them sequentiall; ie, VS2005 first, and then VS2008 afterwards.
Then you could test your codebase under VS2008 and see how painful (if at all) a migration to VS2008 would be.
Visual Studio 2008 is an integrated environment that allows you to develop for both Windows CE and Windows. (Previously we had to work on eVC++ 4.0, which was not as nice...)
A disadvantage that I encountered is that the latest installment of the Dinkum STL containers make an assumption that pointers are used, rather than the using allocator::pointer policy. This is a problem for us, because we wrote our own "pointer" class for shared memory use (storing memory offsets instead of absolute addresses). So, we had to use an older STL library. On the upside, the debugger is able display the contents of STL container much more informatively.
I currently use VS 2005. I tried the last beta of VS 2008, and the compiler consistently crashed on my projects, so I stuck with VS 2005. I haven't looked at the release version.
One big reason to choose VS 2008 over VS 2005 is that VS 2005 has a bug with intellisense that causes it to use too much memory. This isn't normally a problem, but when I try using both Visual Assist and Refactor! C++ in VS 2005, intellisense churning brings my system to its knees. This is supposedly fixed in VS 2008. (I have a license for VS 2008, and as soon as my next product release I'm going to give migration a try, mainly for this reason.)
Visual C++ 2008 have dropped support for single threaded runtime library. I don't think it really matters though.