.net Sources are available

Since a few days Microsoft allows access on the .net Framework sources. Visual Studio 2008 was announced with the feature of stepping into the .net source. This is not possible by default so you have to configure your version first. Here you find how to do this. The bad news is: No Express Edition supports stepping into the .net sources - poor for all hobbyists out there.

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition

Since last review was on VB 2008 Express we will now look a bit closer on Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.

The part called "Evolution of GUI" of our last review fits exactly also to the C# Express Edition - and also to the professional Editions (but there are more changes).

Also the project types are similar to VB Express.

The new WPF Designer Features fit to VB and C#.

So looking what's new in the Application Properties Tab.

Application Properties

Tab Application

There is a little surprise. The VB Version does not support changing the target Framework. If you expect that also for the C# Version you are wrong. Visual C# Express can do it!

But there is another surprise: No View 'UAC Settings button'. Since the UAC Settings are stored inside the application.manifest file I think you can easily get this functionality by using a text editor.

Except this there are no major changes in the application projects which are not in the VB Version. As the VB Version C# support now modifiers for resources and settings.

 

 

So you might ask: What is with .net's, c#'s and VB's new cool functionalities? You have not mentioned them in one word?

The answer is: This was a review of the IDE. .net Features are features of .net - nor of visual Studio. And also the language features are not depending on Visual Studio.

All three cases are worth for getting special reviews.

Opening Visual Studio 2008 Express Projects in Visual Studio 2008

1) Single projects (vbproj)

Here are no problems - open it in Visual Basic 2008 Express and then in Visual Studio 2005 (e. g. Standard Edition ) . Everything works.

2) Complete Visual Studio Solutions

If you open a Visual Studio 2005 Solution in Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition a conversion wizard is shown.

Im most cases only the solution file will be changed.

Here is an example of a converted file:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Basic Express 2008
Project("{F184B08F-C81C-45F6-A57F-5ABD9991F28F}") = "Souvergin - RSS Reader", "Souvergin - RSS Reader\Souvergin - RSS Reader.vbproj", "{9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}"
EndProject
Global
    GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
        Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU
        Release|Any CPU = Release|Any CPU
    EndGlobalSection
    GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
        {9EF163F6-8BFB-40A8-90ED-99DE4EA6A17C}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
    EndGlobalSection
    GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution
        HideSolutionNode = FALSE
    EndGlobalSection
EndGlobal

This file can not be opened by Visual Studio 2005. But if you have also one of the full versions of Visual Studio like standard or professional you might want to work with them instead of an express edition.

So what is to change?

Only the first two lines:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
# Visual Studio 2005

Save your edited file and then you can work with Visual Studio 2005. Maybe in some cases it would be useful to save your backported Version as a separate file e. g. if you often switch between both IDE's.