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RE: VB Publishing
If "standalone .exe" means an executable file that can be run on other computers with .NET framework v2.0 runtime installed, then the Express Edition will work just fine.
If "standalone .exe" means an executable that can run on any Windows computer without requiring .NET framework (the preferred term is "unmanaged code"), then no edition of Visual Studio 2005 will help you there. Visual Basic has become Visual Basic .NET and current development tools from Microsoft don't offer it any other way.
The debug versions of .NET executables are no less and no more "p-code" (the preferred term is "Intermediate Language", IL) than release versions. Just the same as it is with unmanaged code, the debug versions include symbol information and are not optimized (to enable faster build times).
Visual C++ continues to support unmanaged code projects. With some limitations, that also includes the free Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition. If you want to create unmanaged code software, Microsoft wants you to use C++.
VB6 is a legacy product. While it does compile to unmanaged code (requiring a runtime library of its own, however), I would not recommend investing money and time in it to anyone who doesn't use it already.
This post was edited on 12-20-2006 at 10:22 PM by Adeptus.
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