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Visual C++ Express

Started by GarlandIX Dec 13, 2005 at 12:52 AM 4 replies 1.2k views

Original Post

Dec 13, 2005 at 12:52 AM

Is it just me, or is the Express Edition of Visual C++ WAY crippled? My computer recently died, taking my nice copy of Visual Studio .NET 2002 with it, so I figured the Express edition would do fine until I could find something better. However, there is ZERO functionality for doing any sort of windows UI programming. Normally it doesn't matter much when doing game type stuff, but unfortunately I happen to need to do the one project where I actually NEED to use some sortof normal Windows UI. However, the Express edition has NO MFC, NO Dialog Editor (that I can find), and worse of all NO SUPPORT FOR EDITING RESOURCES. All there is is support for some sortof "WinForms" thing, which I know nothing about, and honestly have NO time to learn how to use. So, what is the deal here? It seems to me that VC++ Express was desgined specifically to make it difficult to do straight-up Win32 stuff, which seriously pisses me off, because that is what I need to be doing right now. Am I just blind and missing something? Help?

DMINATOR

Dec 13, 2005 at 1:09 AM

there are two options as far as I know. You can use .NET WinForms, which are allot easyer to get up and running then MFC, or you can use Win32 Api, however you need to do a little modification of files.

If you can use .NET on machine you are going to use the program, then go with WinForms, it has a good editor for it, and you don't need allot of time to learn it.

nprz

Dec 13, 2005 at 1:13 AM

It isn't hard to learn, you create the form and drag and drop controls which open from the ~~left~~ right (View->Toolbox if it isn't there). Too bad you don't have any experience with VB because it is almost exactly like that. It only took me about an hour to get my applications doing what they were supposed to do.

GarlandIX

Dec 13, 2005 at 1:39 AM

I really don't have time to learn WinForms, and even if I did, the machine I need my program to run on most likely will not have the .NET framework installed (and installing it would not be an option either).

So its looking to me like I'm pretty much screwed. I'll probably just get a different (non-express) copy of VS, however, this seriously sucks because I really needed to get a bunch of work done tonight.

CJM

Dec 13, 2005 at 1:49 AM

Hmmm,

It _is_ free. There does have to be some upgrade path that actually generates some revenue, otherwise there's little point in actually selling any non-express versions.

My reccomendation is to uninstall VS 2005 Express and install VS 7 again. The features that they stripped out are exactly what people are willing to pay for.

--CJM

mikeman

Dec 13, 2005 at 5:02 AM

.NET is heaven compared to the MFC abomination. Why exactly can't you install the .NET framework on the machine?

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