I used to enjoy tinkering with a bit of computer programing when I was younger and fancy having another try (just for fun) so I've downloaded and installed Microsoft Visual C++ Express to have a play (it seems a good place to start). Assuming at some future date I fancy buying the full version can I buy the single C++ language, I can only find references to Visual Studio (containing a full compliment of languages) on the Microsoft website and this is pretty expensive.

There is a copy of Visual C++ 2003 on ebay, so this used to be the case but I'm not sure about the 2007 or soon to be released 2010 versions.

If it's just for fun, why go MS? Develop for linux and all the tools are free…

Or go for java, and use Eclipse (free).

From my experiences with the Express editions (not C++, but C#, VB.Net and Visual Web Developer, plus SQL Express and SQL Server Management Studio Express) it'll be a while before you actually NEED the full versions.

The Express editions are excellent tools, but if you want the VS2010 beta its available here…

IA – Member
If it's just for fun, why go MS? Develop for linux and all the tools are free…

Or go for java, and use Eclipse (free).

All the MS Express tools are free too…

I think it's always the full set of languages, I can't recollect seeing the languages separately ever at work.
The actual limitations of the express editions are very minimal, and I'd be surprised if you ever encountered them unless you're planning to do something pretty special. Not too sure if it deploys to 64bit platforms though.

If your starting anew, it might be worth looking at c# and c# express, it's a lot nicer than c++ imo 🙂

You can get C# for free here. 😀