Should I use Visual C++ 2010 Express or Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate? - from Visual C++ 2008

Question

I'm starting a new project that'd involve using several SDK's including:

• Intel Atom Developer SDK
• text to speech SDK (Suggestions?)
• webcam and augmented reality support of some sort (Suggestions?)

I currently have 2008, but I can also install 2010. Is there any reason to use 2010 for this project?

Answer 1

Visual Studio 2010 offers many C++0x features (auto, decltype, nullptr, lambda, rvalue, static_assert), which is a huge improvement on 2008 which only offered TR1. In addition, there's a strong native ConcRT added in VS2010 that uses all the new features as well, which makes parallel programming on the native side much easier.

Answer 2

Sounds like the IDE enhancements will not much matter. What you should look at is whether there are any new features in .NET 4.0 and/or language enhancements that might be useful to you. For example, you might find the expanded support for parallel processing useful.

That would be the only reason to upgrade, IMO.

Answer 3

The SVOX Text-To-Speech SDK is of very high quality. It's quite expensive though.

From what you write I don't see a reason to upgrade to VS2010.

Answer 4

The Express editions (being free) don't allow you to run plugins/extensions whereas the paid for versions (of which Ultimate is the top option) do.