MSVC Is Free…ish?

A recent slashdot post has revealed that Microsoft wants to give away their pro versions of MSVC to students. Personally, I’m not sure how to take this. On one hand, it might actually improve the software down the road, as people may or may not have more experience with it, and on the other hand, it may push people into little Microsoft droids.

MSVC is a really powerful product, and does what it’s designed to, which is abstract the compiler bits and keep things manageable. I’ve had extensive use with it both in and out of school, and can personally vouch that it’s pretty decent. One could see this as a big marketing scheme to get people to like it so much they need it and will buy it.

I think there is too much hype around languages that don’t teach you how things work. Java is an instance of this, it teaches you how to solve the problem, but not how to write code that’s quick and efficient, something better suited to C. However, C has tradeoffs. It’s harder to learn, and takes more skill to master (if such a thing can happen).