is Visual Studio included in Visual Basic

Question

is Visual Studio included in Visual Basic

Answer 1

Visual Studio is an IDE that you can use to build applications in various languages including C#, C++ and Visual Basic. Visual Basic is a programming language.

In general you can use whatever text editor you want to write programs in just about any programming language (e.g. Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Notepad++, even Notepad if you want). The compilers needed to build your programs may or may not be available. In the case of VB they are freely available provided you installed the Microsoft NET SDK. However the underlying build system (MSBuild) isn't redistributable unless you have a VS license but JetBrains (I think) has a version available.

If you need WYSIWYG editors for building UXs or editing resources then using an actual IDE is the preferred approach. Text editors are just too limited. In this case you'll need something like Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code.

So, VS (the IDE), is not included with VB but that is because it isn't needed to run VB apps. If you want to build VB apps then you'll want an IDE. If you have Visual Studio then VB is included in that package. VS is only needed for development.

If you want a free IDE then Visual STudio Code is freely available. Visual Studio Community is freely available for hobbyists, students and open source (+ a few others) but not for companies to use to produce commercial software for money. If you are looking for an IDE to build VB apps for a company that will then sell that software then you'll want to get a licensed copy of Visual Studio.

Answer 2

Hi @Ryan Gebauer, 

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A! 

Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) that allows developers to create different Visual Basic applications like console, Windows Forms, and Windows Desktop apps.

You can see the relevant documents for Visual Basic.  

Sincerely,

Anna

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