Visual C++ 2010 Express

Kicking the tyres on Visual C++ 2010 Express which was released on Monday. The C++ side of Visual Studio has undergone a major overhaul for 2010. It has finally gotten the features that have been common in Visual C#, Visual Basic.Net and Eclipse-Java.

• If this is the first tool from the Visual Studio 2010 suite that you are installing, then it will install MS .Net Framework 4, which requires a reboot once it is done.

• Intellisense is snappy! It is working better on code with STL and templates than before.

• Errors are indicated as you type. It feels just like using Java on Eclipse.

• Code using STL and templates might see new compiler errors due to more stringent checks in v16 of the VC++ compiler.

• The source code text display looks great. The Visual Studio UI has been completely rewritten in WPF. That comes with awesome perks like being able to zoom in and out of text using Ctrl + mouse scroll! I can say goodbye to Rockscroll.

• Sadly the Properties section of VC++ has not been overhauled. It is still the mess it has always been.

• .vcproj files are now replaced with a .vcxproj, a new format.

The transition from 2008 to 2010 should be a bit of a pain, especially correcting the new compiler errors. But, it should be worth it for how easy and fast it is to write C++ code in 2010.