I''m just courious, for you experts out there....Is there really that much of a difference between C++ 6.0 Standard and Professional? ...to lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose.

quote: Original post by The Doctor
I''m just courious, for you experts out there....Is there really that much of a difference between C++ 6.0 Standard and Professional?

There is no such thing as "C++ 6.0." Remember that Microsoft doesn''t own C++. There is, however, such a thing as "Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0." Yes, there is a difference, but not much of one. The professional edition comes with a profiler, static MFC libraries, and an optimizing version of the compiler while the standard edition doesn''t. Do you need those features? Probably not, but they''re nice to have.

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

Usually, the standard version is for guys like us, and the professional has all the shit we don''t need, but the REAL programmers (those who make a living from it I mean) do use them.

I use enterprise edition at work and, when I was running windows, at home as well. Standard edition contains enough for you to program in C++ for Windows. Unless you''re working in a multie-user, server environment, providing client/server software solutions you need not concern yourself with Enterprise edition. Professional does have some nice extras that a more seasoned developer will potentially use. I believe it comes with MS Source Safe and the profiler plus greater control over builds/libraries. I have my own opinions about both of these tools, niether of which is nice, so I''ll keep them to myself. The build control is an essential if you''re "lively hood" depends on it.

Best thing you can do if your new/beginner/intermediate is just pick up the standard/student edition. Above all else, learn to use your debugger as well or better than the IDE that ships with devstudio. It''s amazing when you teach somebody how to unwind their callstack for example - a very basic concept/operation - how much they start to understand what goes on "under the hood of C++". When you outgrow it you will know when it''s time to move on.

As much as I dig vi/emacs; DevStudio is the one good thing that Microsoft has made that I can''t really find faults with. Props to them on that. Regardless of what edition you get: They all have the same base functionality. Make sure you trick it out proper...

YAP-YFIO

-deadlinegrunt

quote: Original post by Null and Void

Original post by The Doctor
I''m just courious, for you experts out there….Is there really that much of a difference between C++ 6.0 Standard and Professional?

There is no such thing as "C++ 6.0." Remember that Microsoft doesn''t own C++. There is, however, such a thing as "Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0." Yes, there is a difference, but not much of one. The professional edition comes with a profiler, static MFC libraries, and an optimizing version of the compiler while the standard edition doesn''t. Do you need those features? Probably not, but they''re nice to have.

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

Yeah, I''m sorry. I was in a hurry while writing this post and I just left off the Microsoft Visual part.

…to lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose.

Thanks for your input guys.

...to lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose.

Hi there,

standard versions dont usually allow you to deploy
your software commercially so if you plan on doing
something sellable do it in the professional version,
that said you could develop in standard and port
to professional when you want to do this.

Mark

That''s a good point! I hadn''t thought about that.

...to lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose.

I think your thinking about the student and learning edtions.
If I recall they pop up a little box about how this isnt to be distributed and blah blah blah. As far as I know the actual commercial standered version has no such issue.

I wouldn''t want to distribute any programs that haven''t been through an optimizing compiler (like in professional or enterprise), though. It can introduce a big speed increase.