"CB" wrote ...
The SQL developer edition does look tempting at a price of $49.95 but I am
unable to see exactly how it stacks up to the rest of the visual studio
products. It probably is the same as the epress but with utilities that I
will never need.
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SQL Developer Edition is a complete SQL Server 2005 installation. It is
nothing like any Express Edition of a Microsoft product. It's the version
most MSDN developers use. The only thing that should be missing from it is
the production server licenses.
It's a violation of your license to deploy SQL Developer Edition on a
production system. If you're intention is to release a desktop product using
SQL Express or to eventually deploy to a production SQL Server, then SQL
Developer Edition would be a good choice for your developer workstation,
especially considering you're missing the Visual Studio database project
tools that aren't available in Sharpdevelop.
$50 sounds like a really good deal to me. Make sure it's not academic
pricing. It would also be a violation of your license to use an Academic
license for commercial development, although if your intention is to use it
for educational purposes, that's why they release Academic Editions.
If you are doing professional development, someone is paying a lot of money
for your time. I firmly believe Visual Studio 2005 Professional or Team
Edition for Software Developers (depending on your development requirements)
pays for itself in increased productivity. It's a tremendous time-saving
tool for all but the smallest development projects.
--
Regards,
Fred Chateau