Hello, everyone,

I downloaded and installed Visual Studio 2017.  I noticed two slight mistakes on the Acquiring/Applying screen (for it's installation).  There is a heading that reads "Installed" while it is installing.  And the Professional section on this display is not consistent with the other two sections that have "Available" or "Installed" listed as a heading (it has nothing listed).

(1): This makes me wonder if there are other more serious bugs that could actually cause security problems or maybe make our programs fail on Visual studio 2017 because it is to new?

(2): I am also wondering is if I should install Visual Studio 2015 instead of Visual Studio 2017.  It seems to me that it would be smart as it would be more stable?

(3):  I do want to work with other's on GitHub though, so I don't know if this would work (does everybody need to have the same visual studio?)  

(4): And does Visual Studio 2015 work well on GitHub with an extension like Visual Studio 2017 does?

Thank you everyone,

Josheir

Why VS2017 isn't as new as you think:

• Before VS2017 and after VS2015, Microsoft first released VS2017 RC (better than an alpha or beta).
• (VS2013), VS2015 and VS2017 have large similarities. In fact, one can say from the perspective of the programmer that these are major revisions of the same product. (This could, however, not be said from the perspective of the VS plugin developpers.)

So why bothering upgrading?

• Microsoft's C++ compiler is tightly coupled with its VS IDE.
• The usual: newer revisions solve old problems.

My advice for Git (which is independent of Github): Always use a separate Git terminal. That way you are not depending on an IDE and the UI of that IDE (which is more likely to change than the console commands). Certain problems cannot be solved and certain tasks cannot be performed with the limited functionality provided in some UI. Furthermore, sites like StackOverflow provide Git recipes via terminal commands.

So Mat77hias you are recommending stick with VS 2017, it will be OK?

Are you recommending using Git instead of GitHub as a distributed version control system?  And you are suggesting I use a terminal, which one do you recommend that's easy and are there any free ones?

Does anyone know of an active forum for GitHub, I haven't seen any yet?

Thanks again,

Josheir

52 minutes ago, Josheir said:

Hello, everyone,

I downloaded and installed Visual Studio 2017.  I noticed two slight mistakes on the Acquiring/Applying screen (for it's installation).  There is a heading that reads "Installed" while it is installing.  And the Professional section on this display is not consistent with the other two sections that have "Available" or "Installed" listed as a heading (it has nothing listed).

 

(1): This makes me wonder if there are other more serious bugs that could actually cause security problems or maybe make our programs fail on Visual studio 2017 because it is to new?

(2): I am also wondering is if I should install Visual Studio 2015 instead of Visual Studio 2017.  It seems to me that it would be smart as it would be more stable?

(3):  I do want to work with other's on GitHub though, so I don't know if this would work (does everybody need to have the same visual studio?)  

(4): And does Visual Studio 2015 work well on GitHub with an extension like Visual Studio 2017 does?

 

Thank you everyone,

Josheir

The bugs you mentioned are inconsequential. Someone not updating a text database somewhere with consistent terminology means nothing for the overall stability of the application.

1) Visual Studio 2017 isn't as new as you think it is, as matt77hias explained above. And even if there are bugs (I'm sure there are some!), the fact that it's the latest version means it's the version which will be getting the most attention when it comes to bug fixing. Additionally, Visual Studio (all editions) has a massive user base. This means that it has a lot of mileage and external testing. If it were horribly bugged to the state that applications just failed, people would have noticed by now.

2) See above. Unless you have specific needs for 2015 (plugins or similar), there is no reason not to go for 2017.

3) I think a 2017 project will only open in Visual Studio 2017. As far as I remember, a 2015 project (and older) will open in Visual Studio 2017 (although you might need to convert the solution file for certain old projects? If so, Visual Studio 2017 will prompt you on load).

4) No experience with this scenario, but you should stop thinking that 2015 is the future.

Thank you, Lactose.

I'll keep VS 2017, so I am happy!

Josheir

1. Visual Studio is pretty bloated these days so there are likely going to be bugs. However, the compiler itself is pretty solid so it is quite unlikely it will "inject" errors into your code.

2. As well as the latest, I generally keep a copy of 2010 around. Purely because quite a few large projects still require it (have not been updated to fix build issues for later VS versions). For example building the UE4 engine from scratch, Emscripten, Clang etc... It also means that my users do not need to install the latest Microsoft C++ runtimes to execute my software. Before 2010 came out, I kept a copy of Visual C++ 6  for a similar reason (as did much of the world tbh).

3. Command line Git is generally a lot more flexible. https://git-scm.com/download/win
Also, Git is the tool. GitHub is a commercial "cloud" service. Alternatives are assembla, bitbucket or codebasehq. Also GitHub provides subversion access too if your team use a mix of SVN and Git.

4. Extensions and Visual Studio change too much. I wouldn't bother.

12 hours ago, Josheir said:

So Mat77hias you are recommending stick with VS 2017, it will be OK?

Are you recommending using Git instead of GitHub as a distributed version control system?  And you are suggesting I use a terminal, which one do you recommend that's easy and are there any free ones?

Does anyone know of an active forum for GitHub, I haven't seen any yet?

Thanks again,

Josheir

I definitely recommend using VS2017 (especially due to the clear content installer and the faster startup). There are only two cases where I still use VS2015:

1. CUDA C/C++ projects, since NVIDIA is lagging behind with Visual Studio support.
2. Projects where I want to use my preferred Solarized Dark theme, since Microsoft has not updated their Color Theme Editor yet. (VS2015 and VS2017 only provide default white, grey or black themes).

Upgrading an old VS solution to VS2017 is also very straightforward and does not require much user interaction. Downgrading from VS2017 is more difficult since forward compatibility is a rare concept in software development.

Git, Subversion and Mercurial are distributed version control systems.

Github is a hosted version control service for (despite its name) both Git and Mercurial. Alternatives are BitBucket and GitLab. For a broader comparison with pros and cons, see https://www.slant.co/topics/153/versus/~gitlab_vs_github_vs_bitbucket.

Basically, this distinction means that you are not compelled to use Github when using Git. You can use Git locally on your machine (without Github). If you, however, want to access your Git repository from the Internet, this repository needs to be hosted by yourself or by some third-party such as Github.

If you want to use Git+Github, a complete package can be downloaded from https://desktop.github.com/.

If you have questions regarding Git, Subversion or Mercurial, take a look at StackOverflow (most questions are probably already been asked).