Can Express versions of Visual Studio still use Add-ins I create? - add-in

Pretty simple question.

Unfortunately not.
One of the things not allowed/enabled with the express editions is loading of add-ins.
See here.
And directly from Microsoft.

Related

Is it possible to develop f# using Visual Studio Express 2015 for Desktop?

I have been doing some programming in VB.NET on Visual Studio Express 2015 for Desktop. I recently started looking into F# and like the functional paradigm. As a result I have been trying to find a way to use VSE2015 as my IDE for F#. However, I have hit some problems. First of all, it has been difficult to find out if it is officially supported. The .NET blog suggests that it is (at least version 3.1.1, and the announcement for 4.0 RTM does not mention otherwise), but when I try to install F# Tools (4.0) it seems to choke on some components called VWD and WD(?). 3.1.1 seems to install OK, but then I still can't open any F# projects (fsproj). When I try to install FSharpVSPowerTools, it tells me that my platform is not supported.
Am I trying to do something that is not possible? Have I missed some steps? Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks.
(Incidentally, I can't use the Community edition because of the licensing restrictions)
Edit: I have tried VS Code, but it works differently from VSE, and I would have to do a whole more learning. In addition, I want to use the VS template for creating XLL's. Edit 2: it has been pointed out that you can reference excel-dna in VS Code, but setting it up is not as straightforward as in VSE2015 (at least for VB.NET and C#.NET.

Group project via Team Foundation 2010

We will be doing a database driven logistics system for our Software Analysis and Design course. What we want to do is to work on the project simultaneously so that we can finish the project earlier. Is TFS the right tool for this? If yes, how do we start? What are the steps to set up the TFS? We use VS 2010.
Thanks.
This is a very broad question. TFS is an excellent code repository that does allow for multiple developers to have a centralised code base (which sounds like what you are after).
The first thing you will need of course is the TFS 2010 installation disk and ideally a separate box to install it on. Although the installation and set up can differ slightly on differing OS, i would recommend following the installation guide here and posting any specific and more detailed questions as you come across issues.
Is TFS the right tool for this: Maybe. It may be a bit much overhead to use for a course.
How do you start: If you have Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, TFS should be included. Everything is installation wizard based, and the install (can) give you everything you need. For what you want, a stand-alone installation using SQL Server Express should be fine.
If you're looking for something lightweight that you all could use for source control, you might want to consider some of the git/svn hosting services (e.g. http://unfuddle.com). There's no direct integration with Visual Studio without a third-party tool, but it will give you the basics of being able to share source code among your team.

What tools do you use to administer analyze and otherwise manage your AWS SimpleDB(s)?

I'm working on OS X, so it has to at least work there, but I generally prefer tools that support multiple platforms.
It's possible that I'm being too picky, but the JavaScript demo that Amazon provides doesn't quite seem like enough...
Mindscape SimpleDB Management Tools is a great add-in for Visual Studio that lets you query, create and generally manage your SimpleDB instances visually. You will need to be a Visual Studio user to get the benefit of it as it must be hosted in Visual Studio.
Finally wound up stumbling over this list of SimpleDB administrative tools.
For whatever it's worth, I'm about to try out the Firefox plugin.

What is the best Ruby on Rails environment for a Visual Studio user?

I've been a Visual Studio user since 1997, and used VB 3.0 before that. My whole professional life has been spent inside the Microsoft development environments.
Now I would like to branch out into Ruby on Rails to try something different, and it doesn't have the kind of vendor support that C# does (for very obvious reasons).
For someone coming from the world of Visual Studio, what is the best total environment (IDE, tools, gems, etc) to set up for RoR development on Windows that would make the transition easier?
If you want to stick with Visual Studio, you can always use the Ruby in Steel plugin by Sapphire Steel. The best traditional IDE for Ruby is probably NetBeans, it even has a special stripped-down Ruby Edition.
However, note that unlike less expressive languages like Java, C# or VB.NET, you can not only get by, but even be more productive with a good text editor than with a traditional static IDE. IDEs like NetBeans, Eclipse and Visual Studio are designed with static languages in mind, and trying to force Ruby into that ecosystem is just unnatural.
There is a nice article on The Best Environment for Rails on Windows by Fabio Akita that you might want to read. While I don't agree with everything he writes (mostly because I don't use Rails), it is a pretty good introduction of how you might want to setup a development environment specifically for Rails.
Try JetBrains RubyMine. When installing it, you have the option to set it up to match Visual Studio environment settings. All the short cuts are the same as Visual Studio. It even switches the copy and paste keys from command to control on a Mac. It's a bit expensive considering how many free options there are but in my eyes its worth it.
This thing is so highly customizable it's almost overwhelming.
Netbeans! Its got the most similar features. I developed for years in VS before the switch. It was the only one that I really liked and felt comfortable using.
Netbeans.org
You might find that RadRails (Aptana) is an excellent choice: (http://www.aptana.com/rails) - NOTE: Make sure you look at the Features and Comparisons tab as RadRails has many compelling features. Additionally, I have used Aptana Studio for JQuery development and it help me to be very productive.
I have tried Netbeans and it seemed very promising as well but that is mentioned many times so I thought to offer another approach I was aware of.
Hope this helps!
I use netbeans for two reasons. I like the visual studio style navigation pane and for the debugger.
Be warned though, Netbeans is pretty slow. It doesn't bother me that much because I too am slow.
I also dislike the filename tabs because you can easily be confused about what file you are working on since there is no directory information unless you mouse over the tab.
In 2018? Visual Studio Code! These things always seem to come full circle right?

Are there any good F# text editors?

Are there any good text editors for F#?
Instead of firing up resource-intensive Visual Studio, I would like to know if there are any text editors that can pretty-format F# code.
I am just getting started with F# and learning through FSI.exe with Notepad is giving me so much trouble...
Check this out:
F# Without Visual Studio
Not to be too much of a tease, but looking ahead, VS2010 uses a new rehostable editor component, you can hear some about it here: Hanselminutes Podcast 147 - The new WPF-based Text Editor in Visual Studio 2010 - Interview with a Dev
Anyway, this means that the F# editing experience in VS can, in theory, be completely decoupled from VS and hosted in a lightweight editor. Which means it's possible F# could ship a sample or something that's 'the VS editing experience' (tooltips, squiggles, intellisense, ...) without VS.
To be clear, we on the F# team don't yet have any concrete plans to ship such a thing, but the new internal factoring of VS and the editor and MEF and whatnot should make this easy to do (we've prototyped it over a weekend, and it mostly works). So hopefully look forward to cool things in the future.
Two other options:
SharpDevelop with F# plugin from Robert Pickering.
Visual Studio 2008 Shell with F# CTP
Any editor which will handle OCaml should handle F# -okay-. Mostly you just needs tabs. I'd recommend KomodoEdit, personally.
For notepad ++ someone made a file and put it up on the wiki:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/commun/userDefinedLang/userDefineLang_Fsharp.xml
One other option:
xacc.ide, a small ide that supports a bunch of .NET languages. But frankly, I haven't use it for a while since I'm really happy with Visual Studio 2008 (IntelliSense, interactive syntax checking, fsi, etc...).
You can setup Sublime Text 2 to work with F# as described here http://blog.kulman.sk/using-sublime-text-2-as-f-repl/
You can use Ionide package to integrate with Visual Studio Code (VS Code) or Atom editors.
Here is an article "F# Support in Visual Studio Code with Ionide"

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