hey i''m having problems... vs.net - can i think of visual studio .net as visual studio 7? I''m looking for books on c# and I find stuff on c# and .net framework and all this other junk... and I read ms website and it talks about web / XML contantly.... my question is can i use this for non-xml / non-web programs? I figured I''d upgrade 6 to .net but I have no need for xml and that stuff... thanks.

Yes, you most certainly can use it for ''normal'', non-web programs.

The C++ compiler in VS.NET is the only compiler in the VS.NET suite that can target native X86(as opposed to .NET''s CLR). It also comes with (incremental)updates of the older libraries, such as MFC and ATL.
So yes, you can use it for everything you currently use VC++6 for and more.

The computer was conceived as a tool to reduce complexity. Some people found this loss of complexity unacceptable, and developed UNIX to reintroduce it.