Visual Studio 2008 Express Developer Center
New Developer Center for the new version Visual Studio of Express Edition (for new or occasional developers, hobbyists students etc.) can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/express.
Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions, by products, are:
1. Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition - for development of Windows Applications using VB
2. Visual C# 2008 Express Edition - for development of Windows Applications using C#
3. Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition - for development of native Windows Applications using C++ and cool 2D & 3D games
4. Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition - for development of dynamic Web applications
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Beside VS 2008 Express Editions, this Developer Center has also information about PopFly - visual tool that enables even non-developers to create reach and powerful web applications, mash-ups and gadgets. Also, there is Visual Studio Add-in: PopFly Explorer http://www.popfly.ms/Overview/Explorer.aspx that enables developers to use PopFly solutions, extend them and again store it back on PopFly. I would also mention that users can store PopFly solutions (among other) as Windows Vista Gadgets or publish it on Facebook! |
Of course, there is also information about SQL Server (2005 for now) and Visual Studio 2008 full version.
On the other hand - under section - "Explore by Interest" - there are following topics:
1. Windows Development
2. Web Development
3. Game Development
4. Hardware Development
Last 2 are in a way "new" and I will address them in following lines.
Game Development is accomplished by combining Visual C++ Express Edition and using Game Creators Game Development Kit (GDK). There are lot of samples and even video tutorials how to do that, so I think that the only thing that is "missing" for making extraordinary games is - imagination!
Hardware Development is the other interesting stuff that is addressed by using one of VS 2008 Express Edition, along with Microsoft Robotics Studio & Code4Fun Developer Kit that allows developers to use devices like Bluetooth, Speech, TAPI, etc..
All samples and Resources: (http://www.microsoft.com/express/samples/default.aspx)
1. PopFly
2. C4F (Coding4Fun) Development Kit
3. C4F Vista P2P (peer-2-peer) Kit
4. Windows Live Tools
5. Facebook Dev Kit
6. The Game Creators
And that's not all folks :-)! After registration of some/all of the Visual Studio Express Edition (depending what product you are registering) products following benefits are available:
1. Free/discounted Developers Controls from vendors like Telerik, Devcomponents, ...
2. Free/discounted books, tutorials and videos
3. Other freebies/discounts like for the hardware controller for building robots etc.
So - happy coding - and post here if you developed something interesting and that is fun!