Which Visual Studio edition for ArcGIS 10 development?

[CharlieRichman]

At release both VS 2008 and VS 2010 are supported platforms. 

We're starting a new project and trying to decide if this is the time to jump to VS 2010.  Can anyone share experience with the two platforms? 

Both do what we need to do, but I'm wondering if I'll kick myself 3 years from now for beginning new work with an older set of development tools.  (I'm also wondering if I'll kick myself sooner for using development tools that don't yet have their first service pack...)

Charlie Richman

[nicogis]

... and 10.1 is supported only vs2010 (there is support for framework 4.0)

http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisdesktop/archive/2011/02/04/Visual-Studio-Suport.aspx

[MichaelRobb]

... and 10.1 is supported only vs2010 (there is support for framework 4.0)

http://blogs.esri.com/Dev/blogs/arcgisdesktop/archive/2011/02/04/Visual-Studio-Suport.aspx

that is the correct answer!
Arc 10 (sp1) VS2010, VS 2008 and VS Express 2008 - all 3.5 Framework.
with ArcGIS 10.1 - 4.00 framework and VS2010

[MajidAlivand]

Hi, I want to use the Visual Studio 2010 express edition (which is free) for developing ArcGIS 10.0 Desktop. But, i couldn't find ArcGIS tab at installed templates of New Project.

Does anyone experienced this problem? Because i read at the Esri help that ArcGIS 10.0 is compatible with VS 2010 Express.

Please, help me about this

[JeffreyHamblin]

To use Visual Studio Express Edition with ArcGIS 10.0, you must use Visual Studio 2008.

[RichardWatson]

To use Visual Studio Express Edition with ArcGIS 10.0, you must use Visual Studio 2008.

Why?

More specifically, what does not work if you do this?

I'll guess and say that the project templates and other Visual Studio add-in extras like snippets do not work.  If that is the case then Visual Studio can still be used because I do not use this stuff.

[JeffreyHamblin]

The ArcObjects SDK for the Microsoft .NET Framework installer for ArcGIS 10.0 does not recognize the Express Edition of Visual Studio 2010, so it does not install the templates and snippets.

Add-In development would be a pain without the templates. But I imagine if you manually added the proper references, classes, configs and settings one could get Express 2010 to work. In fact, I was planning to work on that, but haven't found the time...