Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Wait for the service patches to come out.
As with all MSFT software the program has a clean ui, and it is pretty easy to figure out how to do stuff.However, this is the first release of a new version, and the resulting teething problems mean you should pause before purchasing this if you already have a C++ compiler. My primary complaints about the software are:
- Libraries and software that compiled in MSVC++ 6.0 no longer compile in .NET. Worse, the errors listed by the compiler do not provide meaningful clues as to what is wrong(error C1001, internal compiler error). In the newsgroups, the standard MSFT response has been that the problem is with your source, not the compiler.
- The help and the ui are not in synch. For instance, the names used in the help files for project properties, and the actual naming in the dialog are different. This makes it hard to determine what you need to change when trying to configure your project. Summary: Stay away unless you like living on the bleeding edge.
Rating:  - Answer to the Question?
Visual C++ .Net is a Upgrade of sorts to Visual C++ 6 it has added features and the .net framework If you plan to go with a book that is made for visual c++ 6 i would go with visual c++ 6 because the book is
product specific. Iwould suggest ditching the book Grabbing Visual C +++.net and getting C++ Primer a book that will teach you to program c++ and not just to use Microsoft version 6 of the IDE.
Rating:  - Great IDE - watch out for Standard version though
I've been using Visual Studio .NET (the full package) for a while at work, and it's been working very well. The debugger is great, the IDE is much nicer than any other I've used, and IntelliSense is very handy to have.If you're considering buying this 'Standard version', take note of the difference between it and the version that comes with 'Professional' Visual Studio package: VC++.NET Standard does NOT come with an optimising compiler. This is the *learning edition* - you're permitted to distribute apps you write with it, but you can't use the /Ox compiler switches to generate optimised code. Note that you may be still able to compile (and optimise) the code you've written in the VC++.NET IDE with the free Borland C++ compiler or with GCC, as long as you're not using MFC or ATL.
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