December 16, 2009 at 5:16 am
Hi all...
We've finally been given the go-ahead to migrate my group's database to SQL Server 2008 from 2000 (yaaah...). This of course means I'll be posting a whole slew of questions as there's a whole pile of stuff I'm curious about.
The first one is about Visual Studio - what are the benefits to using 2008 versus 2005? I watched a video from Microsoft that mentioned briefly things like accessing the new datatypes, database / table schemas, and using LINQ would only be available through 2008. My boss doesn't think those will be huge issues (our database / table schemas are maintained by a third-party company, so that's not a problem, I don't think) by us remaining on VS2005; what are your thoughts, recommendations, suggestions?? If you are using 2005 with SQL Server 2008, have you hit any roadblocks?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Chris
December 16, 2009 at 8:25 am
It really depends. We have systems still being worked on in VB6 that are connecting to SQL Server 2008, so there's not magic requirement that says you must move up. However, you should move up. If you really want to take advantage of everything that 2008 offers, you'll want a client that can consume all the new data types, etc.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
December 16, 2009 at 8:41 am
If you're moving to 2008 on the database, I think that you might want to use VS2008, only so that you don't find something that would work well in the database and not have support in VS. It's also more likely to get longer term support from the community and MS. VS2010 is getting close, so you'll be two versions behind.
If you're using VS 2005 now, I might stick and not change 2 things at once if you don't need to. If you're moving, I'd go to 2008.
December 16, 2009 at 8:57 am
Thanks Grant and Steve; what I am hoping for are specific things that VS2008 is able to do that VS2005 cannot. We do use VS2005 now, and my manager is hesitant to purchase a licence for features we may not use. His thinking is that if we can continue on 2005, we're not going to spend money just for the sake of spending money. On the flip side, if we *do* need to use 2008, having a list of features etc. would make our case that much stronger when we go for the approval.
I've done some searching around and cannot seem to find any articles that get into the specifics - everything has been very, very general. I'm sure you know how non-IT types are - "Well, why does that make it better? How is this going to improve the business?". Saying something like "well, Grant and Steve said so!" won't cut it 😀
Appreciate your time...
Chris
December 16, 2009 at 9:05 am
I assume you've been through the "What's New"? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386063.aspx
Fundamentally I'm not sure there are things you "need" in VS 2008. You could get a trial and see if you see something that will definitely save you time in building your applications. If not, I'd stick with VS2005. Most of the docs you get from MS will say you'll save money, so upgrade, but I wouldn't necessarily spend the money either without a concrete reason.
December 16, 2009 at 9:06 am
VS2008 comes with Targeting that lets you develop for all existing framework versions, for example you cannot install VS2008 in Windows 2000 but VS2008 can be used to develop application you can deploy in Windows 2000. VS2008 also comes with new platforms like WPF (Windows presentation foundation) , WCF (Windows communication foundation) and WF (Windows Workflow foundation) to develop all three in VS2005 you have to look for templates that are almost beta code. In VS2008 all are RTM version fully supported and VS2005 is technically not compatible with Vista and Windows 7 must run as admin.
I almost forgot the VC++ IDE no longer support ADO.NET so you have to write your own or use VB or C#.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie
December 16, 2009 at 9:10 am
It really depends on what you're doing with SQL Server. Let's say you implement the hierarchy data type. VS 2005 won't be able to consume it. But if you keep SQL pretty plain vanilla, then you won't have any issues. Like I said, we've got a VB6 app running against SQL Server 2008.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
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