Download Visual Studio Express 2008 now

[TerryP]

On Apr 27, 11:09 pm, "Martin v. Loewis" <mar... at v.loewis.de> wrote:
> > I'm curious to know exactly the differences between the c/c++ compilers
> > you get with various versions of VS and those you get with the (command
> > line only) Windows SDK (formerly called the platform SDK).
>
> > The windows sdk is a free download. Is the compiler you get the same as
> > the one you get with the full paid version of VS?  This web page seems
> > to suggest it might be
> > <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924.aspx>
>
> The primary "difference" is the CRT version that it ships with. Also,
> one difference is whether it ships with a compiler at all. For a long
> time, the SDK didn't include a compiler at all. Then, for several years,
>  it included an Itanium compiler and an AMD64 compiler, but no x86
> compiler. Now it does, and I don't know what CRT version it links with
> (at some point, the SDK would link with crtdll.dll, then msvcrt.dll,
> but it's some other version now).
>
> In any case, AFAIK, the SDK binaries will be linked with one specific
> version of the CRT, which may or may not be the same as the one used in
> one specific version of Visual Studio.
>
> HTH,
> Martin

If one relies on the Express Editions, you're basically limited to the
X86 compiler and missing certain things (biggest gripe: profiling). I
believe that the Windows Driver Development Kit (DDK) has X86, AMD64,
and IA64 compilers included. Last time that I looked, it appeared to
be a build similar to Visual C++ 2008 but I didn't have enough spare
time to inspect it's license and general suitability for applications
development.