CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studio-2008visual-studio-2010
prabhats.net
prabhats.net

Reputation: 444

Advantages and disadvantages of upgrading from vs2008 to VS 2010

I need to put forward some strong arguments to the management to upgrade our projects from vs 2008 to vs 2010. However, I would like to know the downsides as well so that I can be well prepared. Please help me with as many high-level points as possible.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3745

Answers (3)

wkl
wkl

Reputation: 79893

I'm a C++ developer, so I don't know much about the .NET side of Visual Studio 2010.

Advantages

  • Better support for multiple monitor environments, since you can tear off tabs/code windows.
  • Better Intellisense, though I still use Visual Assist X.
  • Easier to use interface designers for the Ribbon UI, WPF, and Silverlight

Disadvantages

  • Seems to start up much slower compared to Visual Studio 2005/2008 on my machine, just to get an empty work environment.
  • A general disadvantage if you are a C++ developer and upgrading versions of Visual Studio and the C++ compiler - all your C++ dependencies will have to be rebuilt for Visual C++ 2010, which may bring in more QA cycles, which may cost more time...money...you get the idea.

Upvotes: 2

SirDarius
SirDarius

Reputation: 42879

I've found one disadvantage with Visual Studio 2010, memory consumption with projects using the boost libraries.

I found that generating all the intellisense data for these libraries uses a lot of memory, and it grows until the whole 3 GB of RAM on my machine are all used, significantly slowing down the whole operating system (Windows XP).

Without explanation, some memory will be freed a few minutes later, only to grow again later, all while typing C++ code, or when compiling.

Also, sometimes intellisense starts to completely refuse to work, which leaves me no choice but closing the software, and delete the intellisense database.

On the other hand, with smaller projects, the Visual 2010 intellisense has really been improved over the previous versions.

Upvotes: 0

Kirk Woll
Kirk Woll

Reputation: 77536

One disadvantage is that it uses WPF, so the IDE is noticably more sluggish. But you know, upgrade your hardware and all that.

Advantages are .Net4 and C# 4, of course, which trumps all the minor usability improvements they've added to the IDE itself.

Upvotes: 5

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