C# Express and other stuff

I downloaded and installed the C# express beta on my home development machine. First thing to note is that even on my old 400MHz hp (with 256M ram) I get acceptable performance from C# express. I was also able to install service pack 4 for win2k even though I am not connected to the internet. I did it with my 128MB USB key and the new winzip 9 where I can easily partition a big file into 128 MB chunks. The sneaker net lives!

Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed with C# express. I tried to install the SQL server and even though I (think) it installed correctly I was unable to connect or create a new database... I did notice an error in the event log, but at is was just a long string of numbers, so I decided to ignore it. This was annoying, but the thing I found really disappointing is really the lack of features of C# express itself.

My context is someone who uses eclipse quite a bit and netbeans a little. These are free products with what I consider to be very good features for the professional programmer. The best things are continuous compiling with clickable correction hints, refactoring and history. Since these products have captured a large portion of the developer mindshare, I was more or less convinced that the next version of VS was going to have to attempt to include these new features. My experiance with VS.NET 2003, had been mixed. It has a good debugger and adequant code completion, but thats where the list of features ends. The class "wizards" can barely be called that and there is not even support for managing translation resources (this is the first thing that made us question whether or not we could even use VS). Add to this, a brain-dead builder and you have an IDE that is "mostly useless", expensive and that can trash a machine just by installing it.

With this in mind I approached C# express with hope. Perhaps they would have to mimic other popular IDE's and provide some real features. After using it for a couple of days I see why it is called a beta. No doc and I can't even find MSBUILD. This was the feature I installed the product for. Result, I don't think we will be upgrading the 2005 version of VS any time soon and certainly not for this price.