Advantages of VS 2008 over VS 2005

Question

Could somebody please name a few. I could given time, but this is for somebody else, and I'd also like some community input.

Answer 1

There is a useful article on this here: http://weblogs.asp.net/cschittko/archive/2007/10/08/visual-studio-2005-or-2008-what-s-more-risk.aspx.

Answer 2

Depends on your programming language.

• On .net, the built-in support for .net 3.5 is obvious, although this is mainly project templates. However, SP1 adds .net Client Framework support, which is not possible within VS2005 to my knowledge.
• This also means support for WPF with a XAML Designer, although most people still prefer Expression Blend for WPF Interfaces.
• Apparantly, there is now a JavaScript Debugger, even though it's a bit broken as it seems (not sure if SP1 fixes this)

In short: For .net 3.5, it's almost a must-have if you are a professional developer, but that is just my opinion.

Answer 3

Well, it supports .NET 3.5, which offers a lot of new features - it depends on whether you need them.

Other than that, they improved (also with SP1) the refactoring tool, compile speed, IntelliSense now works great with C# too, and you get the new C# compiler even when writing .NET 2.0 code. Also, ASP.NET designer performance has improved a lot.

In my opinion, even writing mostly .NET 2.0 code, I find it slightly better than 2005.

Answer 4

One big feature is it lets you target different versions of the .NET runtime, depending on the project.

Answer 5

If you're using The Microsoft Unit Testing framework, it's far better in 2008. i.e. it's usable.

Answer 6

Personally I would say one of the biggest advantages I have found is the product responds quicker i.e. opens faster, compiles and runs projects faster. In my mind why wouldn't you upgrade for this benefit alone.

Because of the environment that I work in I am restricted to .NET 2.0 so have not been able to take advantages of the many other features of multi targeting etc.

However for the ASP.NET work I have done the split view and CSS support is great. Certainly that is the one area I have noticed the biggest functional improvement from VS2005 to VS2008. With CSS you still need to but in the effort to understand it but why not get as much help as possible from the IDE as well.

Overall I have found it to be a very easy transition so I can't think of a reason not to upgrade.

Answer 7

Besides the usual support for latest versions of framework and integrated unit testing, i personally find out VS 2008 to be more stable, with better refactoring support and more mature (read stable) product than VS 2005.
I was using VS 2005 since it showed up on the market, until the first release of VS 2008, so i can tell the difference.

Answer 8

Refer to the below article to know the complete details of changes from 2005 version to 2008 version. Also includes the changes done in the Service Pack:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386063.aspx

Answer 9

The CSS property builder is much better IMHO.