*Immediate* benefits updating C++ App development from VS2005 to VS2010

[Martin B.]

Hi all!

We're developing a (set of) large C++ Application and are going to
upgrade from VS2005 to VS2010 sooner rather than later anyway.

For people that have done the switch or are planning to do so and
already have done some more in-depth testing (or know some review
resources on the web that are not bogged down with .NET related blabla)
what I would be very interested in:
* For a given heavily multi threaded C++ Windows/MFC desktop
Application, what *immediate* benefits or *immeditate* downsides do you
see for VC++2005 vs. VC++2010

- Project/solution load times (think a few hundred sub-projects per
solution)
- Performance and Memory footprint of IDE
- Intellisense functioning (think Boost)
- Intellisense performance (CPU load, update times)
- Overall Compile times
- Better compiler warnings?
- Performance of created executable better/worse (might be due to
additional checks?)
- *IDE* MFC support (not the additional classes in the lib)
- help/MSDN integration?

thanks,
Martin

[David Lowndes]

Post by Martin B.
- Intellisense functioning (think Boost)

Native C++ Intellisense is improved, however I still think it's not as
good as you can get with the addition of Visual Assist X.

Post by Martin B.
- Better compiler warnings?

Can't say there's been much of a change there (at least none I've
noticed).

Post by Martin B.
- Performance of created executable better/worse (might be due to
additional checks?)

If you make use of (what was STL) collections, the addition of move
could make big improvements for you.

Post by Martin B.
- *IDE* MFC support (not the additional classes in the lib)

Class Wizard is back - sort of.

Post by Martin B.
- help/MSDN integration?

Much worse - once again, though many think that the underlying
infrastructure that's now in place is a fundamental improvement - just
not one that you can see any particular benefit from so far.

Debugging support for multi-threading has a really powerful
improvement in the parallel stacks view - it lets you see the state of
all threads (or just the ones you're interested in) at once - this can
be quite illuminating - it was for me in one of our applications.

Dave

[Tom Serface]

Hi David,

I think the new ClassWizard is pretty good if you don't need the COM hookup
stuff.

I agree that many of the other changes are superficial, except I really
think I will benefit from the better support for concurrency programming and
the new profiler improvements.

I also like the new colors :o)

One good thing, the new Intellisense improvements come built in so you don't
have to buy an add-on that costs almost half of the original purchase.

Tom

Post by David Lowndes

Post by Martin B.
- Intellisense functioning (think Boost)

Native C++ Intellisense is improved, however I still think it's not as
good as you can get with the addition of Visual Assist X.

Post by Martin B.
- Better compiler warnings?

Can't say there's been much of a change there (at least none I've
noticed).

Post by Martin B.
- Performance of created executable better/worse (might be due to
additional checks?)

If you make use of (what was STL) collections, the addition of move
could make big improvements for you.

Post by Martin B.
- *IDE* MFC support (not the additional classes in the lib)

Class Wizard is back - sort of.

Post by Martin B.
- help/MSDN integration?

Much worse - once again, though many think that the underlying
infrastructure that's now in place is a fundamental improvement - just
not one that you can see any particular benefit from so far.
Debugging support for multi-threading has a really powerful
improvement in the parallel stacks view - it lets you see the state of
all threads (or just the ones you're interested in) at once - this can
be quite illuminating - it was for me in one of our applications.
Dave

[David Lowndes]

Post by Tom Serface
I also like the new colors :o)

Touché.

I don't mind them once that add in is installed that lets me change
them to something bland :)

Post by Tom Serface
One good thing, the new Intellisense improvements come built in so you don't
have to buy an add-on that costs almost half of the original purchase.

It's better than it was, but it's still not as good as with VAX
installed in my opinion. The MS implementation is still literally
interpreting the SDK Ansi/Wide API macros whereas VAX seems to work
how one would hope it to.

Dave

[Tom Serface]

Can't argue with that, but Intellisense is better so out of the box
experience is better. You're right, I don't think the Visual Assist stuff
is going to go away soon. Still at $249 + $49/year it's kind of pricey.
Nice that they were ready for 2010 though.

Tom

Post by David Lowndes

Post by Tom Serface
I also like the new colors :o)

Touché.
I don't mind them once that add in is installed that lets me change
them to something bland :)

Post by Tom Serface
One good thing, the new Intellisense improvements come built in so you don't
have to buy an add-on that costs almost half of the original purchase.

It's better than it was, but it's still not as good as with VAX
installed in my opinion. The MS implementation is still literally
interpreting the SDK Ansi/Wide API macros whereas VAX seems to work
how one would hope it to.
Dave