visual studio and microsoft's terminology
visual studio is the Integrated Development Environment software that allows GUI creation of a project (source & resources)
The Professional editions include most of the components below, but the Express editions must each be downloaded separately and have slightly fewer features...
The "code editor" with tabs etc. is a built in...
To actually use VS you must install the component "products" (compiler & debugger for each language)
C++
C# (MS version targeting the .NET language)
VB
Visual Web Developer (asp.net)
Microsoft has made additional use Visual Studio by allowing it to create Report Projects for SQL Server (and hence CRM and WSS) Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions, Version 1.1
I have downloaded Visual Studio C# Express... so... Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2008 Extensions, Version 1.2
ERROR: WSS 3.0 must be installed (and of course it isn't on my desktop workstation) BUT VS c# must be installed on the WSS 3.0 server? (where WSS 3.0 is installed?)