productivity - Is Visual Studio just an IDE? - Software Engineering Stack Exchange
IDE Rider or Visual Studio, and why?
Microsoft Visual Studio: The Best C++ IDE
What are the differences between Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio? - Stack Overflow
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Compilers are available separately.
For C# it would be the csc.exe. You could call it from the command line any time. Pass along the name of the source files to compile, the libraries to reference, compilation option and here you go.
I believe Visual Studio itself calls the compiler over the command line when you ask it to build your project. The build output messages you see is what the command-line compiler returns.
Apart from this Visual Studio is more than just a GUI for a compiler. It has a nice text editor, debugger, designer tools, SQL browser, also integrates with test tools, versioning control and other instrumentary (it's extendable through plug-ins). You'd be striving hard to find an equivalent product (for the Microsoft stack) with a comparable level of consolidation.
Not only is the compiler completely separate, so is anything else you might need to build a .net project. Visual Studio solution and project files are just XML that is understood by MSBuild (another command line tool), which in turn calls the relevant compiler.
Yes, Visual Studio is just an IDE. That integrates most of the individual tools that you might use during the SDLC (SQL Server, StyleCop, etc.) into a single application.
That's all!
I’ve always used VSCode as my main editor for C#/.NET development. The reason was simple: my old laptop didn’t have the hardware to run a heavier IDE. Now that I have a new laptop (16 GB RAM, i5-12450H), I want to invest in a full-featured IDE to boost productivity.
I have a few questions and would like to hear from those who already use either Rider or Visual Studio. Which one do you recommend and why? I'm looking for insights from people who have been through this. I’ll also share some points that are making me “have a bug in my ear” about both IDEs.
About Rider:
A community edition was recently released. But is it really as complete as Visual Studio, or is it limited like IntelliJ Community, which locks many important features behind the paid version?
One concern I have is the mandatory telemetry in this community version. I’m not comfortable with something tracking me, even if that’s the “price” of free access.
One clear advantage is the SDK control: you install and choose which ones to use manually, without being forced into anything.
About Visual Studio:
I’ve always used Visual Studio at work. It’s an excellent IDE for productivity, especially with ASP.NET and Azure. The downside is that it comes with many unnecessary features, like C++ support, which we don’t use in our environment, but it still takes up space.
I also find the TypeScript/Angular experience subpar.
What really bothers me is that VS downloads SDKs automatically. I had issues with this at work because we only have 120 GB of storage. As the IDE updates, it piled up nearly 1.5 GB in SDKs, from .NET Core up to .NET 9, even though we only use LTS versions.
Regarding SDKs, since I can’t manage this at work, I’d like to ask: I know when I install VS 2022, .NET 9 LTS will come bundled and I’ll install .NET 8 manually. Once .NET 10 is released and I update VS, will I be able to uninstall .NET 9 LTS, or will that still depend on something else?
My questions:
Is Rider lighter or heavier than Visual Studio?
What’s your personal opinion: which IDE do you use and why?
For Visual Studio, how do you integrate accounts: Microsoft or GitHub?
No matter what IDE I try—CLion, Qt Creator, VS Code—I always come back to Visual Studio for C++. Here’s why:
Best IntelliSense – Code navigation and autocompletion are top-tier.
Powerful Debugger – Breakpoints, memory views, and time-travel debugging.
Great Build System – MSVC, Clang, and CMake support work seamlessly.
Scales Well – Handles massive projects better than most IDEs.
Unreal & Windows Dev – The industry standard for Windows and game dev.
Free Community Edition – Full-featured without any cost.
The Pain Points:
Sometimes the code just doesn’t compile for no
good reason.IntelliSense randomly breaks and requires a restart.
Massive RAM usage—expect it to eat up several GBs.
Slow at times, especially with large solutions.
Despite these issues, it’s still the best overall for serious C++ development. What’s your experience with Visual Studio? Love it or hate it?
Visual Studio (full version) is a "full-featured" and "convenient" development environment.
Visual Studio (free "Express" versions - only until 2017) are feature-centered and simplified versions of the full version. Feature-centered meaning that there are different versions (Visual Studio Web Developer, Visual Studio C#, etc.) depending on your goal.
Visual Studio (free Community edition - since 2015) is a simplified version of the full version and replaces the separated express editions used before 2015.
Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a cross-platform (Linux, Mac OS, Windows) editor that can be extended with plugins to your needs.
For example, if you want to create an ASP.NET application using Visual Studio Code you need to perform several steps on your own to setup the project. There is a separate tutorial for each OS.
Visual Studio Code is an editor while Visual Studio is an IDE.
Visual Studio Code is cross-platform and fast, while Visual Studio is not fast.
Note that Visual Studio for Mac was available but is planned for retirement
Visual Studio for Mac is scheduled for retirement by August 31, 2024 in accordance with Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy.