visual studio project files

[Mike]

I have a developer working on a project. They send me all the source code
and related files every day, so I can observe their progress. I would like
to open the project files in Visual Studio. I have installed Microsoft
Visual Studio 2005 Express edition. When it attempts to open the files, it
informs me of a version difference and offers to convert the project files
to the new format. In doing so, it encounters some errors. I can provide
more detail if needed.

Should I expect to be able to open the files and run the project? I am a
programmer and I had hoped I might learn the language in this way.

 

[Christopher Reed]

It sounds like that your developer is probably using VS 2003. Anytime you
open any of these projects in VS 2005, it will want to upgrade.

You might try to get your hands on VS 2003.

 

[Mike]

Thanks, I see VS 2003 seems to be still available.

Also, I wonder if the folder might contain obsolete junk files and the
conversion is trying to include them in the project.

What exactly is the 2005 Express edition and why is it free? Should it be
able to convert and open the project?

 

[Mike]

I have excluded 3 files from the project, which seemed to be reporting
errors. I was able to compile and run the project. If there was no complaint
of any missing files during compilation, would you guess that the three
files were obsolete and not needed?

I haven't been able to explore the site yet to see if everything's there. I
encountered another problem with an outdated MDAC, which I'm now correcting.

 

[Christopher Reed]

The 2005 Express products are in essence the individual modules that fit
into VS 2005. VS 2005 itself has a lot more bells and whistles than the
Express products.

As for converting a project, I believe the Express products should perform a
conversion; however, I have never tried it myself. Generally, I have taken
my ASP.NET 1.x applications (associated with a given directory) and opened
them directly in VWD Express. For the most part, I didn't use VS 2003, so I
wasn't burdened with project files as well as any of the extraneous files
that came with VS 2003.

 

[Christopher Reed]

If the missing files were some of the extraneous files that VS 2003 produced
when you created a project, then you probably won't miss them.
Additionally, some of the errors are probably associated with 1.x
functionality that has been removed or changed in 2.0. So, you might look
at that before completely dismissing your excluded files.