Quite often I want to quickly try something out – make a class or two, just a couple of simple methods that exercise certain kind of functionality I am trying to produce.

Running this code in the context of a real solution which consists of dozens of projects only muds the waters. It gets hard to separate and execute just the portions of the code you’re writing and may even throw away.

For cases like this I used to use Snippet Compiler – a simple yet powerful editor and mini-IDE for C#, VB.NET and even JScript.NET. It is convenient because it does not generate project files and other residual files, starts and runs quickly and even reroutes console output to its own output panel. Just perfect for small try-out tests.

Snippet Compiler today is quite dated though and has not been actively developed. But yesterday my good friend and développeur extraordinaire Dejan “sold” me on another excellent alternative – Visual C# Express. Version 2008 just came out and this time you can download a single ISO image of a DVD with all of the Express versions in one convenient package.

It’s great. Works almost exactly the same as its more feature rich cousin editions (Standard and Professional) but starts quickly and just like Snippet Compiler does not leave trail on a disk (see screenshot to the right). You get intellisense, all of the designers, build system… everything is there, except for one thing: multi-targeting (you can only use .NET 3.5). Still, for small test projects this is not an issue at all.

Visual C# 2008 Express, just like all the other Express editions is completely free, no registration is required and it doesn’t expire.

Thanks, Microsoft.