Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12370 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows NT 4

Amazon.co.uk Review
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 is Microsoft's all-purpose suite of tools for developing all kinds of software for its Windows platforms (including Windows 2000), network resources for the Web, and combinations of the two. These development aids typically have steep learning curves (as does the Windows environment itself with Microsoft's tool set). Once you've done a bit of work with them (and perhaps studied a book or taken a class), they're unsurpassed in the degree of control they give you over your Windows development projects.

Five main development tools comprise Visual Studio:

1. Visual Basic 6.0 helps you create applications quickly. Visual Basic excels at creating attractive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and custom front ends for databases. It's also an easy way to create component object model (COM) resources. Visual Basic is a popular, relatively easy-to-learn tool for general-purpose Windows programming.

2. Visual C++ 6.0 is Microsoft's low-level development environment for C and C++ software. Orientated around the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), Visual C++ puts the least overhead between your programs and Windows, meaning they will (if properly designed and implemented) run faster than programs written in any other Microsoft environment. It's great for games, device drivers, and other solutions in which top performance is more critical than ease of development.

3. Visual J++ 6.0 allows you to write software in a variant of Java tailored to the Windows environment. Visual J++ stand-alone applications aren't platform-independent as true Java applications are, unless you're careful to avoid the Windows-specific classes, which is hard to do. Some developers prefer its object orientation scheme to that of other Windows development languages.

4. Visual FoxPro 6.0 supports the FoxPro language, with which you can build applications that refer to databases. Because this environment supports COM and distributed COM (DCOM), it's possible to build FoxPro applications that access databases and other computational resources across a network.

5. Visual InterDev 6.0 is the ultimate tool for developing Internet resources that fit the Microsoft Document Object Model (DOM). While Visual InterDev's power really shows when you're writing for an intranet based on Internet Explorer 5, you can use it to create platform-independent pages suitable for open Internet sites. You'll be happy with Visual InterDev as a means of creating browser interfaces for your back-end databases, COM objects, and other Microsoft components.

On top of the primary development tools (which are well integrated by common interface elements and an ability to share components), Visual Studio comes with a considerable supporting cast of goodies. Visual Studio Installer enables you to write installation scripts for your software. Visual SourceSafe helps development teams manage large projects by managing code check-in and check-out chores. Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) is a freely distributable Structured Query Language (SQL) server that's compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, so you can build distributed SQL applications for growing workgroups without having to buy SQL Server right away. You get quite a bit of documentation and training material too.

To put it simply, Visual Studio 6.0 is the best tool you'll find for efficiently creating Windows applications that can interact with the network resources as well as the Windows environment. This is the tool of choice for working inside Microsoft's COM framework. If you're familiar with the Microsoft architecture (or know you want to learn it) and want the latest tools for building within it, this is the most cost-effective way to outfit your workstation with everything you need. --David Wall, Amazon.com

Product Information
You are eligible for student licensing if:

You are a student aged 5 years+ at a primary, secondary or special needs school, or registered full-time or part-time in any school/college/university or attending courses that award qualifications recognised by the UK Department of Education & Employment or the Irish Department of Education.
You are a parent and have children in the above category, and you wish to purchase on their behalf, following the same procedures as defined for students.
You are a member of support staff either full-time or part-time at any school/college/university recognised by the UK Department of Education & Employment or the Irish Department of Education.
You are a teacher and your job involves IT in schools/colleges/universities, whilst being able to operate from home--expanding your own knowledge or preparing course materials. All software must be for use on your own home PC, for your own or your children's personal needs.

Manufacturer's Description
Rapidly build business solutions using Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, the complete enterprise development tool suite. Winner of the PC Magazine Technical Excellence Award, as well as the PC Computing MVP Award, Visual Studio allows you to build scalable applications for Windows and the Web that easily integrate with existing systems.Visual Studio 6.0 Professional Edition includes the complete set of development tools for building reusable applications in Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Visual C++ 6.0, Visual J++ 6.0, Visual FoxPro 6.0. Included Visual InterDev 6.0 provides easy integration with the Internet and a full Web page authoring environment. To take advantage of the latest capabilities for developing Windows 2000 and mobile computing applications, Visual Studio 6.0 now includes the Windows 2000 Developer's Readiness Kit and the freely redistributable, SQL Server 7.0-compatible Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) for mobile applications.