Visual Studio Express 2013?

Amiga Forever

Well-known member
AmiBayer
Blogger
Joined
Nov 11, 2010
Posts
7,374
Country
UK
Region
Yorkshire
Does anyone like it? I dont and I going back old versions!
 
The last version of Express I tried was 2008 I think. Since then I got 2010 Pro which is all I use these days. It is slightly annoying that you need 2012 our onwards to build WP apps (DX9 + native C/C++ compilation).

Probably should get the latest version once W10 is out.

I've tried all sorts of other IDEs over the years but nothing comes close as far as functionality particularly where debugging is concerned.
 
Yes I do like it. Up until recently I programmed in my day job (and I imagine I will again some day) and to be honest, Visual Studio is hard to beat. I do like Apple's Xcode more from a Visual perspective but in terms of just getting the job done I find VS hard to beat.

The problem you will find with going back to an older version is that creating stuff for the latest OS / .NET version is not supported. If you want to release for Windows 8 and .NET 4.5 then you need to get to love the latest version (or use some other product of course). If you only want ansi C or to target old SDKs then of course you can go back as far as you like / need.
 
Functionalitywise I like it and it is not particularly different from the 2010 version IMO. The color scheme is very different however, and I do not like the flat colorless layout that MS seem to like these days (also present in W8+). It is much harder to find the particular function you need from the toolbar since everything looks so similar. But changing the theme from the default it's a bit less annoying and after using it for a while you learn where things are.
 
Last edited:
Using VS2013 every day. At first I also didn't like the lack of colors but it's much better for your eyes when you use it the whole day.
 
VS2013 Community (which is just a bit more recent) is extremely useful if you want to target Windows as a hobbyist.

It feels like they've included a bit more of the Windows platform SDK and a few of the auxiliary SDKs you'd normally find on the full Visual Studio, but were strangely absent from Express.

I actually use VS2013 Community at work to build simple reporting tools, but also at home now to build a fairly complex plugin I maintain for X-Plane.

As convenient as VS2013 is as a total package, their C/C++ compiler is somewhat rubbish in terms of standards compliance (it's missing a lot of newer language features). The VS2015 beta apparently fixes a lot of that, so I'm looking forward to the final release.
 
A fairly significant one that had a new version released this last week. (Sorry to be vague, but my real name is associated with it, and whilst I don't mind people finding out, I don't like it being advertised)
 
Last edited:
Does Visual Studio 2015 work with windows 8.1 or do I have upgrade Windows 10 to make VS 2015 work?
 
Is there anything in particular you don't like about VS 2013 Express?

It's been a while since I used any of the express editions. I'm currently using VS 2013 Premium. I should have installed Ultimate for even more editor features but can't be bothered changing it - my game dev business is a Microsoft Bizspark partner so we get Microsoft's software for nothing. Going to miss it when it runs out in a little over a year.

I have it installed VS 2015 on both my laptop (Windows 10 tech preview - haven't got around to updating it) and desktop (still running 8.1). No issues on either. Not using it for production projects at the moment since my Unity installation is set to VS2013 and, again, can't be bothered updating for the sake of updating.
 
Back
Top Bottom