Visual Studio vs Visual C++
 

I'm a relativly new programmer and i'm having some trouble understanding the differences between Visual Studio vs Visual C++. I have both and currently i'm using visual studio because i've been doing vb.net programming. I'm trying to move over to C++ however and just trying to run simple programs in visual studio isn't happening. i tried them in visuall C++ and didn't have a problem. Is there something small here that i'm missing or do i not understand the big picture between the two?

Its like asking Microsoft Office vs Microsoft Word, Viusal C++ is part of the whole Visual Studio. Visual Studio includes Visual C++,Visual J++, Visual J#, Visual C#, and Visual BASIC.NET

I don't think it includes Visual J++... Microsoft doesn't use it anymore. Although I think J# is very similar, because it is just J++ on the .NET Framework instead of Microsoft's JVM.

EDIT: ...and I'll also add that if it is really Visual Studio you're using for Visual Basic, then you should be able to do C++ with it too. Unless it is Visual Basic .NET Standard, then it is only Visual Basic.

Thanks for the replies. I understand a little better now and I figured out why I am confusing myself. There version of Visual C++ that I have, when you create a new project the source file that comes up is blank. When you start a new project in visual studio it automatically adds some script for you, which is what was throwing me off. Thanks again though.

In the dim dark ages (1995 or so), the Microsoft compilers were provided as separate products (eg C++ was sold separately from VB). Visual Studio is just a collection of them, in a common framework.

I believe that's just a checkbox option (or a radio button) somewhere when you run the Add Project wizard...

When I tried to learn C at one point (I failed at learning it then) I worked with Visual Studio (Which had Visual C++), but now I'm learning C again since I failed learning it the first time and I'm using Dev-C++, I like Dev-C++ much better then Visual C++ for some reason and my progress in C is great so far (The compiler had nothing to do with it)...

I'm not a super expert to tell you the advantages and dis-advantages between Dev-C++ and Visual C++ but the one thing I liked about Visual C++ is that it was part of Visual Studio, in VS you can also code in Visual Basic where in Dev-C++ it's only for C/C++. On the other hand most will probably favour Dev-C++ instead of Visual C++ because it's FREE.

There's also Borland C++ but I was told to stay away from it and stick with Dev-C++ for now.

Microsoft currently has a free version of VC++

Ohh yea? that's quite interesting, I personally have Visual Studio Pro 6.0 but I never knew they gave away VC++ for free.

In that case I don't know what's better between VC++ and Dev-C++, but I heard that VC++ is more pro and more used in the industry, if that's the case then I guess it gets the edge over all the other compilers.

I'd recommend an upgrade. Microsoft was pretty lax when it came to standards compliance until they first released .NET. VC++ 6.0 can cause issues if you expect your code to comply to the standard.