Back to the Future... Please

A new day and a new job as a technology consultant in London. I think this screenshot says it all:

Can you tell what those applications are? I know it’s been a while so let me help you. First up is Visual Studio 2003 sporting the .NET Framework version 1.1. That’s before such fundamentals as TryParse, generics and 64 bit support.  Then there’s Visual C++ 6, released in 1998 if I remember correctly. Finally there’s Internet Explorer 6, as witnessed by the lack of PNG alpha blending (and tabbed browsing). This lovely collection of software is running on Windows XP SP2, released somewhere around 2004.

Just so we’re clear: as I write this it’s nearing the fall of 2008.  Can you feel my pain?  :)

Published Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:07 AM by KennyKerr

Comments

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 6:47 AM by asf

No I can't, I love VC6 and code in it pretty much every day (using WndTabs and VisualAssist X add-ins)

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 7:15 AM by KennyKerr

asf: Hehe... I knew that was coming. I know a lot of people still dig VC6 but I just can’t go back. The VC team tells me “10 is the new 6” so hopefully the next release will have enough in it to convert you guys.  :)

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 8:45 AM by Paul M. Watson

Fascinating. It wasn't that long ago when that was the bleeding edge. All those MSDN discs arriving in the post, hours spent installing, uninstalling, reinstalling the upgrade. I think it was about VS 2003 that I drifted off of Microsoft and started using a text editor on a Mac for dev.

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:24 AM by Aaron Fischer

I think you'll be a prime candidate to evaluate "10 is the new 6".  Have fun reinventing the wheels in the newer libraries.

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:39 AM by Fr3d

Ouch, I do feel your pain! :-(

We still use Office 2000 (except Outlook, which is 2003) on WinXP SP2 on the majority of the PCs where I work. Luckily I work in the IS/IT dept, where we get Vista x64, Office 07, and much faster PCs than everyone else :D

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 10:11 AM by KennyKerr

Paul M. Watson: You can now opt for a download-only subscription to MSDN and save the landfills from all those coasters. Btw, congrats on the new arrival!

Aaron Fischer: Why am I reinventing the wheel?

Fr3d: Finally somebody who understands.  :)

Oh I forgot to mention that the PC is “powered” by a Pentium 4 (single-core). I forgot just how much of an impact multiple cores make with respect to responsiveness.

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Thursday, August 28, 2008 4:49 AM by Steffen

no, I can't!

I'm still using Visual C++ 6. So I can write real software which runs on all windows platforms. No need for the creepy .net stuff. No security warnings if the exe is started from a network drive...

Unfortunately I click on the wrong windows update button, so now I have this bad IE7 on my machine. I wanna have back the faster IE6!

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Thursday, August 28, 2008 5:50 AM by KennyKerr

Steffen: “real software”? VC 2008 is still primarily used for compiling native code. It provides the /CLR flag to instruct the compiler to produce managed code but you certainly don’t have to use it. VC 2008 still supports Windows 2000 and VC 2005 supports Windows 98 and Windows ME as well. Also, only managed code suffers from the network drive issue although I hear that policy has been changed in the latest service pack.

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Thursday, August 28, 2008 7:12 AM by Oleg

Yes and nope. I still use VS 2003 and even VS 6 sometimes. I must admit that I am really happy with both 2003 and even VC 6. Though I can partially agree with you regarding VC 6. The only reason here – lack of auto completion for macros. Hmm wait probably exists second – I have to install SDK to get access to some new header files.  I try 2005 and 2008. I can’t see real advantages there.  

To be honest I even do not remember how IE looks like. I believe that installation of Opera or Firefox 3 will solve your problem.

PS: Aside this small criticism I have to say - I was exited when found this resource. I understand that you are pretty busy with new contract job but please try make new posts as frequently as possible. It is really good reading amongst other few on Internet.

Oleg (remisovoleg@gmail.com)

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Thursday, August 28, 2008 10:46 PM by John Schroedl

Looks like someone needs a hug and copies of Visual Assist X and RockScroll.

I feel your pain but VAX and RS make it all okay. V10 is eagerly anticipated too.

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Friday, August 29, 2008 5:13 AM by KennyKerr

Looks like I’m stuck with VC6 for this project. Does anyone know where I can find the Enterprise edition of VC6? I remember back in 1999 when I was pretty much living day and night inside VC6 that it had a decent profiler but the version I have at the client doesn’t appear to have it. I’m guessing this is not the Enterprise edition.

I have the most comprehensive MSDN subscription but it does not appear to be included anymore. Any ideas?

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Friday, August 29, 2008 6:38 AM by Patrick

Welcome to real World where you have customers that still use W2K...

I still prefer VC6 over VS2002/2003(we left that all out and migrated from VC6 to 2005), but since VS2005 i´m happy for every customer that migrates to the newer version of our product so that i don´t have to start VC6 often for debugging or adding new stuff...

But if a customer has 200.000 pieces of you product and says he want that feature in that old version you have little to none options than do it.

# re: Back to the Future... Please

Friday, August 29, 2008 10:45 PM by Ashley Visagie

Heh heh heh. And here I was complaining about the fact that I had to back-port some C# 2008/NET 3.5 code to C# 2003!  Ah, the life of a technical consultant is not a glamorous one ;-)

Anyway, should be back to C# 2008 soon.

Good luck, Kenny ...

Cheers

Ash