Limitations of Visual Studio 2012 Express Desktop
I'm in the process of deciding whether or not to use Visual Studio 2012 Express for Desktop or purchase a retail copy of Visual Studio 2012 Professional for my desktop program. The program is built using C# though portions of it may include F#.
From what I've gathered so far, the express edition supports NuGet, Unit Testing, and Code Analysis. It mentions a subset of Code Analysis rules are used but I'm unsure how they compare to the professional edition as well as FxCop/StyleCop.
I'm assuming the express edition lacks extension support but the only extension I really cared about was NuGet. I also assume it doesn't include a TFS CAL despite having the ability to connect to TFS. This again isn't an issue as I'm using Perforce for source control. I also understand that this version is limited to desktop style applications only, but have so far only seen mention C++ and C#. Does it support F#?
Can someone clue me in as to any other limitations of 2012 Express for Desktop? Are there any license limitations for developing a commercial application?
In the past, MS included express editions as part of their version comparison. But when they updated their site for 2012, they separated out the express editions and offer little to no detail.
Answer
There are few limitation I can gather : First of all there are different IDE's for different use
- Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web.
- Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8
- Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop.
- Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Express 2012
Express editions of the IDE omit the following features included in the Professional editions
Multi-unit testing framework and refactoring support
Static code analysis, profiling, and HLSL editing and debugging
Third-party extensibility support (though the Extension Manager feature is still present)
OpenMP support
But there are few positives I explore in 2012 : Unlike previous version
- Solution is allowed, you can create multiple projects in a single solutions.
- 64bit compilations support is there.
If working in single or less than 5 person team, express is the way to go. It definitely bring much more new and unlock features than it predecessors.