I've just downloaded and started to use VS community 2013, and up to now, I'm quite impressed with it. I also have VS 2012 professional on my machine, and I'm getting little short of space on my hard drive. Would you suggest removing VS2012, and is it safe to do so?
If you have no legal / license issues with the fact to use "Community" rather than "Professional" license, AND if you don't have coworkers using strictly VS2012 I think you could reasonably uninstall VS2012.
For my second assumption, 2013 is pretty "retro compatible" with 2012, but it's better to keep homogeneous environments between developers.
I think the uninstall itself should go very well (so far never had issues myself with that kind of things, even with CTP or RC releases), but if you are afraid you can do a restoration point or some kind of backup of system before uninstall.
In my opinion, there's no point anymore in switching to VS 2013, because VS 2015 RTM will soon be available - it is currently in CTP 6 and you can get it for free.
The great thing about VS 2015 - apart from all the new features like e.g. C# 6.0 support - is that you get the full version for free, not just a community edition with reduced functionality.
Related
Here are the details about my local development environment:
-Windows 7 Professional
-Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU # 2.00GHz 2.00 GHz
-8 GB of RAM
-64-bit Operating System
-Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 Version 14.0.25431.01
-.NET Framework 4.6.1
I change the "Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 with updates" in Windows OS's "Programs and Features" so that I can add "Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015".
When I execute the change run, the update progress Misleadingly states that the updates ran properly.
However, it still does Not to install Visual C++'s "Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015" feature. I know this for a fact because if I change the "Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 with updates" in Windows OS's "Programs and Features" then I get the following window with the Visual C++'s "Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015" being Unchecked:
Is it a technical limitation for Windows 7 Professional since I can't install Visual C++'s "Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015" feature?
This is a notorious problem with the VS2015 installer. It is not aggressive enough, it relies on the registry to determine if a sub-component is already installed. But doesn't actually verify if the files are still there, it solely uses the registry check. So if the registry is wonky then it goes through all the install motions, nothing seems to go wrong, but when it is done then it still doesn't work correctly.
Exactly what happened to the machine previously is pretty important to know, but everybody forgot what they did 2+ years ago. One notorious problem is previously having a preview version of VS installed. The uninstaller is always the last thing they get right just before shipping the RTM version. There is a clean-up tool available to fix that kind of registry pollution.
Noteworthy is that this problem is especially common for the "Common tools for Visual C++" sub-component. Almost certainly caused by this component also being available as a separate download. That download is supposed to be only used to setup a build server. But the predictable outcome is that somebody gets started on it on their own dev machine but then decide that they need VS instead.
There are a lot of threads at the MSDN Forums about this specific install problem. But they all suffer from the exact same issue, the Microsoft support people only get as far as "check this, check that" but none of them actually know how to repair the registry damage.
The only workaround I know that is reasonably successful is to aggressively uninstall. SO users never told me "it didn't work", but they also don't tell me "thanks dude, it worked". Odd btw, I can't tell how many of them just gave up and decided to reinstall the OS. You make it aggressive by starting the installer from an elevated command prompt and running it with /uninstall /force option. The /force option is the important one, it makes the uninstaller plow on even if the registry doesn't co-operate.
Since it is likely that the separate download was involved with is mishap, I'd start there. Download it again if you don't have it on the machine anymore. Next uninstall VS2015 the same way, do so even if the installer failed. If you have a reason to assume that the machine was exposed to a preview version then also use the cleanup tool. Might as well use it regardless, only way to be sure.
I have a couple of Projects created in visual basic 6 with oracle databases. I want to upgrade these proejects to visual studio 2012 and use TFS version control. I have read that first I need to upgrade to Visual studio 2008 and then to Visual studio 2012.
Before going ahead with the upgrade ( I need to install Visual studio 2008 as well) I want to make sure this is a realistic approach. So
1. Does converting a vb6 project to VS 2012 ok or I will have to make a lot of changes to make things work?
2. After upgradation would I be able to use TFS for the projects?
TL;DR - yes, you'll need to make lots of changes regardless of how you choose to migrate. TFS question seems irrelevant to me. If you're setup to use TFS for projects, you can use it for these after upgrade as well.
The only reason to consider a 2-step upgrade that includes VS 2008 is that was the last version that included the migration tool built-in (ie, free). As others alluded to, those tools don't make pretty code but a mashup of VB6 and .Net. After trying a few times, I now personally find it simpler and more robust to recreate a new .Net version from scratch, but using the VB6 code as a template. I copy and paste as practical and then do Find/Replace to catch the majority of errors/warnings and then deal with all the others individually. If I have to convert another project, I may use 2008 once just to see what kind of issues the original code had or if there are any unusual situations/controls I'll need to deal with, but I would still start a new 2013 project from scratch. That gives me a better opportunity to improve it as well. You'd be replacing all the connecting code to Oracle anyway. I'd been using OO4O and moved to ODP.NET. If you used 2008, you would have to move to at least 2010 to use the latter in managed mode, which is great not having to load Oracle Client on each machine.
I'd be wary of upgrading VB 6 to VB.net using the automated tools. I did it back in the day (around 2003) when .net was just starting out and my memory is that it wasn't a pleasant experience.
The code produced by the upgrade wizard is a nasty mix of old VB conventions trim, instr and .net conventions. We also had a bunch of weird bugs. Sorry it was a long time ago and I can't remember any details. Only that we did it once for a small number of components, around 6 or 7 activex dll's. That experience was bad enough that we decided it wasn't worth the pain.
We kept the VB 6 code in service until it was re-written as part of a larger push to modernise the codebase.
If you do decide to upgrade then the output is a standard visual studio project that can be source controlled in TFS just like any .net project.
If you reason for upgrading to just to use TFS then take a look at the MSSCCIProvider. This allows you at hook TFS in to the VB6 IDE
I am doing something very similar and did develop a tool to assist with the designer portion of the conversion. It parsers the VB6 file and creates designer code for .NET.
The source is here.
https://github.com/rdejournett/VBtoNET
The only thing I was not able to solve is that controls within tab pages have really wierd X locations like -60000. So I parse those to 0. You'll have to move them to the right place.
I've already asked on jetbrain's forum, to no avail, so I'll shoot here! :)
Have anyone got resharper and visual studio 2014 ctp 3 working together? I can't live without R#! :)
If you have, how have you done it?
Cheers,
Stian
There are no plans to support VS14 with the 8.x releases (mostly because it's a CTP, and requires changes for each release, which would mean multiple releases of a compatible 8.x, which then slows us down while we're also trying to work on ReSharper 9, and also due to architectural changes in ReSharper 9 that make back porting harder). As Igal mentions, support will be there with ReSharper 9. EAPs are coming fairly soon, but there's still going to be a little wait until they're ready to start (e.g. an installer would be nice!)
Mylyn is a task oriented plugin that allows for example to assign a set of files to a task. Is there a Mylyn type plugin for Visual Studio?
Tasktop has just announced that it is bringing the productivity of Mylyn into Visual Studio! The beta version that is being released will support bringing tasks from HP ALM, Quality Center, and Bugzilla. It includes Mylyn's Task List and Task Editor. The next level of support, which will include compatibility with all existing Mylyn connectors, will be delivered after this beta. Further down the road Tasktop will also be delivering context capture and focus within the Visual Studio IDE.
The beta release will be happening end of November 2010.
See the recent blog post for more details.
David Shepherd, Tasktop Technologies http://www.twitter.com/davidcshepherd
The closest I've found is Tasktop, by the people that created Mylyn, but it's a standalone application that doesn't integrate with Visual Studio.
(Resharper is irrelevant).
Not even close to mylyn, but here is an open source addin for visual studio that helps to assign a list of source files to a "session" (you could think of the session as a "task")
http://dsmaddin.codeplex.com/
i'm not aware of anything open source but i do know that team system is setup to support this type of workflow.
resharper might also have features you are looking for but, again, not foss
I asked that question to the VS.NET Development team in Teched 2008.
She said that they've notice about Mylyn, but are still looking on it.
Task focusing plugin is not yet ready in VS.NET environment.
You may be interested in this news from Tasktop: http://tasktop.com/blog/tasktop/eclipse-mylyn-microsoft-visual-studio
I'll second tasktop. The newest version especially looks nice. Like orip said, it doesn't provide VS integration, but there's a Firefox extension which should be pretty nice... beats using Eclipse purely for Mylyn.
I've recently released (commercial) Task Canvas extension for Visual Studio 2015 that supports tasks with assigned sets of documents and code fragments.
Microsoft's vexing dumping of vdproj install projects in VS 2012 leads one to try Installshield LE which is sort of built into VS2012. Sadly, it creates installers that do not work in any way shape or form with 64 bit.
So for instance clicking the Office 2010 installed checkbox only makes a prerequisite for 32 bit Office. It fails to detect 64 bit.
After a lot of chickenless head exploration of Installshield the bottom line is:
1) You need the Professional or Premiere version in order to deal with 64 bit.
2) You need to edit their provided condition to make a compound one that ORs all the guids of Office that you are interested in together as it only checks for one of the many out of the box. This details the structure of the GUIDS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2186281?wa=wsignin1.0. I found it helpful to install various versions in a VM and then using regedit to see what the GUID ends up being.
This post is so that someone can actually discover this with a Google search, instead of it being hidden behind a paywall / private support site.
Update October '13 AlBear
There is a beta version of installshield LE for VS2012/13
To build x64 installation packages check on the help files
Look for "64 Bit" .
The way InstallShiel LE recognizes x64 target is by either defining the [INSTALLDIR] property as one of the 64 bit Folder or by defining at least one of the setup components as 64 Bit.
This works as I built an Excel 2013 Add that loads at startup and works fine.
For the Prerequisite for VSTO to work: You need to change file size and hash a it looks like the recommendations from Microsoft article "Deploying Office solutions vsto 2013" are outdated and the XML code recommended has the wrong file size and hash. Not too difficult to fix. However I think that Microsoft is unfortunately going through a period of crisis and this failure to provide reasonable support is uncharted territory .......
Cheers
InstallShield and WiX is like Visual Studio using VB.NET and SharpDevelop using C#. Just as those tools both create EXE's and DLL's using IL code but different language providers,
InstallShield and WiX both create Windows Installer databases using different languages. Just as a VB EXE can consume a C# DLL, an InstallShield MSI can consume a WiX Merge Modules. This gives you the best of both worlds.
The thing to understand is a VSTO AddIn installer isn't a 64bit MSI, it's a 32bit MSI that deploys an AnyCPU DLL with registry entries for either 32bit or 64bit Office. It's the bitness of Office, ultimately, that determines the bitness of your AddIn.
I have a template that I've used for a dozen customers. It uses InstallShield Limited Edition and it's Preq Bootstrapper to lay down all the dependencies and consumes a merge module authored is WiX and IsWiX (CodePlex). Otherwise ISLE is just a container for the UI and it's one feature.
The merge module takes care of all the dependency detection, gating logic, laying down files, installing certificates, setting registry values and so on.
Some more details can be found at:
VSTO 4 ( 2010 ) Lessons Learned
Office 2010 Bitness Pain
Apparently the small print referenced here should have been one clue: Does InstallShield Limited Edition Support 64 bit Installer?
The current Office prerequisite in Installshield is also misleadingly worded. It should really be "Office 2010 Home & Professional 32 bit".
Perhaps they intend to upgrade it over time to be comprehensive or perhaps everyone has to go through the same hassle to fix it for a few cases they care about. The support guy claimed there are too many GUIDS for all the combinations of versions, bitness, releases etc.
Home & Student, Home & Professional, Professional, Office 2010 Professional Plus License
32bit, 64bit, Languages mangled in there, Service Packs, etc. Depending on the set you care about the number of GUIDS is rather large.