vs 03 to vs 08 migration - technical knowhow

[indiewolf]

hello all,

1) i would need comments/articles/comparison graphs and charts for knowhow for myself who is trying to move onto vs 08 from vs03. i haven't done any development on vs2005.
i downloaded vs2008 beta yesterday , standard edition.
one more question..once the full version is released should i go and buy standard edition for hoem use or just download the free express edition. will i miss anything if i do so?

2) will the vs 08 or the .net 3.5 platform be the most sought after standard in months to come? how are its job prospects compared to java or c/c++development.(pay wise/work wise)

thanks a lot

Cheers

Ps: pls explain extensively with links etc so that i can make this thread useful for many other newbies/pro's who often ask the same questions.

[jmcilhinney]

If you know how to code in VB.NET 2003 then you know how to code in VB 2008. You can just learn the new bits as you go. The pace at which you learn the new bits depends on how much effort you put into researching them for yourself.

The most immediate plus in .NET 3.5 is full support for WPF, so you can create applications with the full Vista look and feel. There's many more improvements than that though, so of course it will become the most desired. Anyone who doesn't upgrade will be unable to do some things that will be required by some projects, but there's still plenty they will be able to do.

Get the Express Editions first up unless there's something specific that you know you need in the Standard version. You can always upgrade later but you will never get your money back if you find you didn't need to spend it.

If that's not extensive enough then you can speak to my employer. They like me to work some of the time.

[indiewolf]

If that's not extensive enough then you can speak to my employer. They like me to work some of the time.

Lol

thanks JM . that was encouraging enough.

code usability wise, code easiness wise how much do u think 08 has travelled as compared to 03.

have they got control arrays back.

till date i miss control array of vb6 ....since they introduced .net.

some links, documents,ebooks plz.

cheers

[jmcilhinney]

Control arrays are not back and they never will be because they serve no useful purpose. Any design-time advantage they provide in VB6 is not required because of the way events are handled in VB.NET. Any run-time advantage still exists because you can create an array of controls in code just as easily as you can create an array of anything else.

Note that an extra feature was added to the Properties window in VB 2005 to allow event handlers to be created and selected a la C#, which made control arrays even more redundant than they already were.