Visual Studio 2008 for C++?

How does Visual Studio 2008 compare to 2005? Specifically for standard C++. Is the compiler more standard compliant now? Any major changes to the IDE for the c++ perspective?





I don't program C# or anything .NET so any refinements to the IDE for that language and the platform don't apply to me. Also, I have been wanting to try XNA and from the forums it seems it only works with VS2005 for the time being.





Currently I have VS2005 with SP1. In the past I have used MFC, but I've heard that is pretty much obsolete now. Through school I can obtain a free copy of VS2008 and I'm wondering if I should spent the time to upgrade.





Please only answer this question if you have knowledge about the subject. No links to Microsoft or Wikipedia please. And Yes I already searched previous answers on this site.

Visual Studio 2008 for C++?
I use both 2005 and 2008 professional at work, and both 2005 and 3008 express at home (although my home use is almost exclusively C# and XNA). The link below is someone else's answer to this question, I myself have yet to notice any major difference in day-to-day usage.





You're correct in that XNA currently only supports 2005, this can cause problems if you have both 2005 and 2008 installed (some of the XNA samples automatically install their template on the latest version of DevStudio, i.e. the wrong one).





Microsoft provide "Express" versions of C++, C#, VB, Web Developer and SQL Server for both 2005 and 2008 editions. They're totally free to download and you can also use them in commercial products (see the second link below). The main difference is that their template support isn't quite as good and they lack some small extras like IDE macro recording/playback.