What are the differences between Visual C++ 6.0 an

Question

What are the advantages/disadvantages between MS VS C++ 6.0 and MSVS C++ 2008?

The main reason for asking such a question is that there are still many decent programmers that prefer using the older version instead of the newest version.

Is there any reason the might prefer the older over the new?

Answer 1

If you install all service packs for VS6 you still have a solid IDE/compiler combo. As a software developer who have to release products in the wild (over Internet) I don't want to o ship the VC++ runtimes and .NET framework everytime (I can't bundle them directly in my installer/executable, its forbidden by Microsoft). You know, several megabytes of runtimes to run kilobytes of code is kinda stupid. VC++ 6.0 only need your executable and 2 .DLL at best.

Also, debug runtimes cannot be distributed with VC++ .NET, not really good when I have a client which need to do some debugging of my products :)

There is in my opinion the major reasons why I still use VC++ 6.0, but the IDE itself is ugly (ie: no tabbing support). I usually bypass the IDE limitations by using codeblocks instead (CodeBlocks support CL.EXE/LINK.EXE for all VC++ versions)

Cobolfoo

Answer 2

Visual C++ 6 can be very buggy at times compared to 2008. Some things in particular:

• Poor template support/oddities (for instance sometemplate<othertemplate<t>> not working, but sometemplate< othertemplate<t> > working)
• Not standards compliant
• Resource editor is rubbish ("blue lines" seem to move around randomly, among other things)
• Only supports editing certain kinds of 8-bit bitmaps (I have to use imagemagick to convert bitmaps saved in paint.net to be able to be seen in picture resources)
• Terrible support for working with read-only files / quirky sourcesafe integration.

Sometimes developing in VS6 feels like trying to get websites looking good in internet explorer 5.5