[RESOLVED] Microsoft XNA and VB2008

[BillGeek]

First I would like to thank the Microsoft Team for giving us this opportunity (and enough time) to talk to them. - Greatly appreciated! -

Next, my question : Will XNA be supported on VB2008? Or perhaps an express version of VB2008?
What I can see currently on Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express 1.0 Refresh site:

XNA Game Studio Express leverages the Visual C# Express development environment, extending it for game development.
...
XNA Game Studio Express is designed to work only with Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition.

I would like to be able to use this product, though I have not the faintest idea on how to code in C#...

Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.
William

[Paul M]

From what i have discovered, the team is looking at supporting the XNA framework (please correct me if i am wrong).

Anyway you should be able to use it already if you add the appropriate references.

[Paul M]

Yep it works fine if you add the correct references, but you won't get the same features you will out of using the XNA Studio or C# IDE

[BillGeek]

Anyway you should be able to use it already if you add the appropriate references.

True, though if Microsoft does not recommend the mentioned usage, I am reluctant to use it, as direct support from Microsoft will not be available.

[PaulYuk_MS]

VS2008 is the first version that XNA could support VB from a technical standpoint. We did some runtime agility work so the vb runtime will be stable when ported to a new version of the framework (XNA uses a custom version of the CF). So we're hopeful for XNA add VB support when XNA takes on support for VS 2008. I can't comment on dates, etc, unfortunately. I hope to say more about that this upcoming year.

[Kasracer]

Fyi, GameStudio comes out very soon and it will have full support for Visual Studio 2005 (rather than just the express version) but it's still C#.

[BillGeek]

VS2008 is the first version that XNA could support VB from a technical standpoint ... hopeful for XNA add VB support when XNA takes on support for VS 2008

Cool.

I reckon to see way more "hobby" developers doing new development for the XBox platform, for example.

GameStudio comes out very soon and it will have full support for Visual Studio 2005

That's also cool! I can't download the express versions of any of the VS packages (though if XNA becomes supported in an Express version of VB2008, I'll go out of my way to find an Express copy! ) so it'll be great to add the framework in the non-express VS2005...
Now just one last problem: Learning C#!