Some of you may have noticed already, some may not: Microsoft is giving away the Express Editions of Visual [Something] 2005, including VC++, for free - see http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/. Fine print: it's a "limited time offer", but it's a gratuitous limit of 1 year, ending Nov 6 2006. Also, only the free download the software itself is limited - if you d/l it in the next year, you can keep it and use until the end of of eternity. Personally, I recommend you download the CD image(s) of the Express Editions you like and archive those somewhere.
Unlike the "VC 2002 Toolkit" this is really a full-blown development environment - with fancy GUI and everything. Especially for those poor souls that still use VC6 it's probably a good idea to grab the VC 2005 Express Edition - not only is the compiler and IDE superior to VC6, it is also free (for now). In related news: since the VCEE is a viable option for VC6 users to abandon it with relatively low hassle and expense, we (the CS devs) decided that it is hence really not much worthwhile any more to further support VC6. Hence, expect it to be dropped at some point in the future. There are no definitive plans yet, however, it won't be gone in a flash tomorrow, but certainly in a while. -f.r.
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