Hi, I was previously working in VS 2008 (.net framework 3.5). I have now shifted to VS 2003. I know its not in demand as compared to other .net versions. Please let me know how to keep upgrade with VS 2008/10 (while working on 2003) so that the shift from lower to higher versions is smooth enough.
Suggest me the best possible solution as its would be helpful in my career in future.
Let me know if you need any other input from my side.
Thanks
Why have you downgraded so much? If it's because of the .NET version (you still need 1.1/2 instead of 3.0/3.5) then you can still use Visual Studio 2008 and just target your applications to a prior version of .NET.
.NET and Visual Studio are completely separate products (i.e. you don't need Visual Studio to create .NET apps.)
I think you need to explain your situation (and reasons for downgrading by two editions) for anyone to be able to provide more useful advice.
The following table stands:
VS.NET (also known as VS2002) - .NET 1.0
VS2003 - .NET 1.1
VS2005 - .NET 2.0
VS2008 - .NET 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 (SP1)
VS2010 - .NET 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 (SP1), 4.0
There was major shift from 1.x towards 2.0 where a lot of new concepts were introduced like the provider model, generics, ...
3.0 introduced us to WCF, WPF, WF, ... 3.5 introduced language enhancements in C# and Linq.
Most applications should be able to be upgraded to higher versions though but they'll keep on using older concepts so if you want to upgrade you'll have to do some refactoring. Like a simple example: if you used ArrayLists you can refactor these to use List.
For your career: I guess you also do some coding for fun in the evening so there you can make use of the freely available Express editions: http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/.
Grz, Kris.