I purchased this book, in part, because it supported the software configuration that was available on my computer. I have VS2005 and the new robotics developer studio 2008... only now your sample code says I have to install VS2008. I know you people are firm believers in the futile, ever-present Microsoft upgrade process, but I do NOT want to install VS2008. I have too much code already working with my old system and your book was SUPPOSED to work with that. I'm not demanding anything from you. Since I am in Ukraine, I cannot get a refund... and I really need to get the Robotics Studio working anyways for my own thesis work (I understand that one of you is doing his Ph.D. thesis). But I want to let you know that this is a really lousy business practice... promising your customers one thing and then not delivering.

If you feel like answering, maybe you could at least tell me the general types of problems I should expect in trying to make your code work on VS2005. Does it only fail because of the libraries that have been included, or have you modified the robotics code as well?

Eric

I'm sorry that you feel this way, but we have delivered what the book promised.

When the book was published, RDS 2008 was not officially released. The samples were therefore provided for V1.5. These samples are still available for download and they work with VS2005.

When RDS 2008 shipped, all of the samples were updated to VS2008. We therefore decided to move to VS2008 for the book samples as well. The updated code is available from:
http://www.promrds.com

Although it is possible to use VS2005 with RDS, this is no longer the recommended configuration and you would have to manually edit the .sln and .csproj files to convert back to VS2005.

Finally, you can install VS2008 Express for free and it will work side-by-side with VS2005. I have used this configuration myself and I can assure you that it works. Also, I would suggest you try upgrading your code to VS2008. I don't think you will find it as painful as you expect.

Trevor

That's still a copout, Trevor... because the VS2008 express doesn't support all of the features of the professional version that you are using. In particular, the only way that simulation code from your book will compile on 64-bit vista is to set the platform: x86 variable... and VS2008 Express DOES NOT support this feature. So your code is NOT supported by VS2008 Express and Windows Vista.

My apologies if I am being ungrateful, but your arbitrary decision has caused me a lot of headaches. The code you have provided is generally great, esp. in terms of illustrating what robotics studio can do... but it seems to me that, as a paid author, you have an obligation to your customers that you aren't fulfulling. If the book was free, then I wouldn't be complaining so strongly about these issues.

Eric

I actually don't know about the combination of VS2008 Express and Vista-64 because I don't have it. You are correct that VS2008 Express does not have the full functionality of VS2008, but the compiler is basically the same. I think it should just be a matter of editing the project file, although I must admit that I don't know what changes need to be made.

RDS 2008 ships with all VS2008 projects. Does the same problem occur with the samples that ship with RDS? If not, then the ProMRDS samples can be made to work.

I'm assuming you have the V2.0 version of the book samples from here:
http://www.promrds.com

Trevor

i had this book but i could not download mrds 1.5 refresh anymore
how can i solve this problem

MRDS V1.5 is no longer available for download. You might be able to find somebody who has a copy.

Please note that the book samples have been updated and you can use the latest version of RDS.

Trevor