Hi,
unsurprisingly this is my first post :)

I want to learn C# mainly to support work in Excel and I was wondering what development tools I need. There are so many variations from MSDN to Visual Studio Standard and others.

I am a competant programmer in other (some odd) languages VBA, assembler, Eiffel.

I don't want to spend a lot but I also don't want to buy some tools only to find that to do anything sensible I needed to have bought a better version.

Currently I run Vista home premium.

Many thanks

Hi CSW110, welcome on Daniweb!
Suggest you download Visual Studio Express C# edition from Microsoft.
It comes for free, so if you don't like it not much harm is done.
You also might find some threads here relating to Excel and C#.

Cheers. I hadn't realised there was a free version. I have just downloaded it.

Just wondering what I will find disappointing compared to a more professional version.

You will discover the free version does quite a lot. I know it doesn't have an icon editor for instance but I can live with that!

I am going to give the starting video a go at the weekend. I also downloaded the free sqlserver so need to give that a go.

I haven't done this for a longtime! Once had an MSDN subscription and the sofwate came on diskettes. The next version came on CD. That puts a date on it.

Wich you lots of programming enjoyment!

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.