For a very small side project, I need VS professional. Since the target is .net compact framework, the Express edition won't do (neither will Standard edition). But the price of VS professional exceeds the reasonable price for that project. (Basically, it's just a form with two text entry fields and a button, that creates a text file with the data entered).
Is there an application service provider that lets me use Visual Studio through RDP and charges per hour/day/month?
AFAIK, the regular licence for VS is for the user, not the install. So if this is available (and I've not heard of it myself), it would be under a different license.
How large is the work? Could you get it done during a trial license? Hopefully that will be enough to convince you to buy a copy (or even an MSDN subscription) for long-term use.
I've never used the program in anger, but I think that SharpDevelop will produce compact framework applications. You may find that it is feature rich enough for the simple application that you want to write.
If it's not commerical but only for education, just download it from somewhere. Rent model would be stupid, while you contemplating and staring at the screen, there will be counter ticking your $$$$.
I am not sure if VS Prof offers trial period or not. You can try to finish up your project before trial period expired.
What about the express editions - were nt they available for free as in no cost - download...
Remember: Visual Studio is just the IDE. You can always use the available SDK and another editor. VS isn't the only .NET tool out there.
Related to Marc's suggestion of a trail version, currently there's also a beta of Visual Studio 2010, perhaps you can make it work for you. I haven't tested it, but it should be compatible with older versions of .net.