Visual Studio All Editions Overview

Visual Studio All  Editions Overview

Although Microsoft still offers the stalwart Professional Edition, the com-
pany expanded its offerings to reach out to everyone from novices all the
way to high-end, large-scale development teams.
Visual Studio offers these editions, listed in order from the simplest to most
complex features included in the edition:
 ✦  Visual Studio Express Editions
 ✦  Visual Studio Professional
 ✦  Visual Studio Team System

One of the major goals of Microsoft with Visual Studio is to enable personal
productivity for all software developers. This list describes which edition
you should use if you’re in one of these groups:
✦  You’re a hobbyist, student, or novice. Check out the Express Editions.
You should also consider the Express Editions if you don’t know
whether to upgrade from a previous version of Visual Studio.
 ✦  You do occasional development work by yourself. You should appre-
ciate the get-down-to-business features of Visual Studio Professional
Edition.
 ✦  You create applications that use Office as their user interface (UI).
Visual Studio Professional Edition makes creating Office applications
dead simple.
 ✦  You’re a professional software developer who works alone or on a
small team. Visual Studio Professional is geared toward you.
 ✦  You’re part of a larger development team. Your team should check out
Visual Studio Team System.
Visual Studio Express Editions
The Express Editions of Visual Studio, which are less feature-rich than the
other editions, are perfect for students, hobbyists, and folks just getting
started. Rather than have one large, overwhelming soup-to-nuts software
development tool, the Express Editions come in many flavors, depending on
what type of development you want to do:
Web: Create Web applications and Web services by using Visual Web
Developer 2010 Express. This edition enables you to write code by using C#
or Visual Basic and provides editors for HTML and XML. It has a built-in Web
development server that you can use to build and test your Web application.
Numerous starter kits are provided to help you jump-start your projects.
Database: Most applications are data-centric. SQL Server 2008 Express
Edition is a fully functional database management system that integrates
with Visual Studio. You can use Visual Studio to create databases, write
stored procedures, and add data. Although database sizes are limited to
4GB, the databases are compatible with the Enterprise version of SQL Server
2008. So, the skills you acquire are transferable to SQL Server 2005 and SQL
Server 2008.
Windows: Express Editions for Windows development includes editions for
Visual Basic, C#, C++, and F#. Use Visual Basic and C# for building Windows
applications. Use Visual Basic, C#, C++, and F# for building console applica-
tions and reusable components. You can use C++ to create both managed
and unmanaged code. To build Web applications, use the Web Developer
Edition
Visual Studio Professional
Visual Studio Professional is geared toward professional .NET developers.
This edition provides even more advanced visual designers and a tightly
integrated toolset. If you develop software for a living, this edition is the one
you’re most likely to use.
Visual Studio Professional provides these features:
 ✦  All the Microsoft .NET programming languages
 ✦  Integrated visual database tools
 ✦  Designers for XML schema design and XML style sheets
 ✦  Advanced debugging and deployment tools
 ✦  The ability to develop stored procedures, functions, and triggers for SQL
Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008
 ✦  Crystal Reports
Visual Studio Team System
The Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) has created a lot of buzz. VSTS is
important because
 ✦  It acknowledges the specialized roles that people play on large develop-
ment teams.
 ✦  It’s the Microsoft attempt to move into the tools space of the software
development life cycle.
VSTS isn’t a product; rather, it comprises four client editions of Visual
Studio:
 ✦  Visual Studio for Architects
 ✦  Visual Studio for Database Professionals
 ✦  Visual Studio for Software Developers
 ✦  Visual Studio for Testers
The Team System also includes a server component — the Team Foundation
Server (TFS) — that enables collaboration among the client editions of VSTS.
Because VSTS offers many more features than most versions of Visual
Studio, this chapter digs into it in more detail in the upcoming section
“Developing When It’s a Team Effort.”