Microsoft is giving free copies of Visual Studio Express 2005 which will expire on Nov 6, 2006 and SQL Server Express which will never expire for free at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/download/
Get them while you can.
Get them while you can.
And spend the rest of your life trying to make sense of the help files.
And spend the rest of your life trying to make sense of the help files.
The help files that come with these programs are not that great, however I have a link for video files for VB and C#, that a good way to learn the programs / VB and C#. I think V# might have similar videos there too, have a look anyway:
And spend the rest of your life trying to make sense of the help files.
You couldn’t be more right! MS is absolutely abysmal at describing how their products work. I even find the documentation that comes with the Windows OS to be virtually unreadable. It’s presented in an anti-conceptual way. I’m sure I’ve wasted a life time trying to read their knowledge base in an attempt to determine some technical point that should have been at my finger tips had they done things right. 
Hell, I have to use Google to find help for Windows apps, because searching the MS website is torture!
Really, I’m surprised they do as well as they do given this.
_ Bang! Bang! Bang! _
Okay, that’s my rant of the day. B)
Actually I think there is a reason for that. If they actually had good documentation that came with their product then no one would spend money on Microsoft Press books! 
Give some lousy, free documentation with the product. People become frustrated and are forced to go to the bookstore to buy some “better” documentation. Nice marketing strategy, as annoying as it might be…
That said, I will give them credit for MSDN. Anytime I have to look something up I just point google to MSDN and the first hit is almost always exactly what I was looking for. Now if only they could get a halfway decent search function so I wouldn’t have to use google’s instead.
As an aside have you guys noticed that Googles searches suck now. MSN and Yahoo are giving much more relevant results right now and they are much more up to date.
Microsoft is giving free copies of Visual Studio Express 2005 which will expire on Nov 6, 2006 and SQL Server Express which will never expire for free at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/download/
Get them while you can.
Or you could download a disto of Linux and have better tools, with great documentation, for free. It’s really the best environment for development.
David
The MS deal is like a drug dealier giving you a free hit; he just wants you addicted.
Or you could download a disto of Linux and have better tools, with great documentation, for free. It’s really the best environment for development.
David
I’ll second that. When programmers write their own tools for their own use, you get quality applications. As opposed to when you force them to implement a committee designed, lowest denominator package for the masses.
GNU/Linux has a steep learning curve, but you end up at a much higher peak.
The MS deal is like a drug dealier giving you a free hit; he just wants you addicted.
I’ll second that. When programmers write their own tools for their own use, you get quality applications. As opposed to when you force them to implement a committee designed, lowest denominator package for the masses.
GNU/Linux has a steep learning curve, but you end up at a much higher peak.
I agree as well. I just love the whole set of GNU tools for programming. Unfortunately, I get paid to write code in VB.NET, so I have to use Visual Studio.
However I will say this, the latest MS development tools (that would be VS, .NET 2.0, SQL Server 2005) have some *really cool* features. So it does have a few advantages over GNU and Linux.
Actually I think there is a reason for that. If they actually had good documentation that came with their product then no one would spend money on Microsoft Press books!
I see. Yes, this does inevitably push you over the edge so that you’ll buy one of those works.
Anytime I have to look something up I just point google to MSDN and the first hit is almost always exactly what I was looking for. Now if only they could get a halfway decent search function so I wouldn’t have to use google’s instead.
Google does a great service for MS. They really do.
To be clear, I give MS credit for much of what they do. But, I really think their documentation is very badly organized and presented.
Microsoft is giving free copies of Visual Studio Express 2005 which will expire on Nov 6, 2006 and SQL Server Express which will never expire for free at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/download/
Get them while you can.
If you download any of the Visual Studio Express programs before then and register them, they will never expire apparently. You will discover this if you read the FAQ section as I did. The way you say it implies that if you do it will expire on Nov 6, but that is merely the deadline for getting the version that will not expire.
Maybe you know this and this is what you meant, but I thought I would bring this up to check and just in case someone else might have thought you meant the wrong thing.