What software you need
Software option #1: Full editions of
Visual Studio 2008
To develop Visual Basic applications, you can use any
of the full editions of Visual Studio 2008, including
the Standard Edition, Professional Edition, or Team
System. All of these come with everything you need to
develop VB 2008 applications, including the Visual Studio
development environment, version 3.5 of the Microsoft
.NET Framework, Visual Basic 2008 (and C# 2008), and
a scaled-back version of SQL Server called SQL Server
2005 Express.
Software option #2: Free editions of
Visual Studio components
You can download the following Express Editions of Visual Studio
software from Microsoft's web site for free:
- Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition
- SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
Together, these two products provide all of the components
that you need to develop Windows Forms applications
in Visual Basic 2008.
You may note a few minor variations, though, from what's
shown in our book, which is based on the Professional
Edition. That's because Visual Basic 2008 Express is
a scaled-back version of what you get in the full editions.
But all the skills that you learn and all the applications
that you develop with the Express Edition will still
work if you upgrade to one of the full editions later
on.
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