Can I simply use Microsoft Visual C++ to write everything with this engine? Plus if you could tell me if the Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition (one of the free downloadable progams) is good enough to completely write games on Panda i would appreciate it. I am new to programming so please forgive my ignorance. Thanks
Although the choice of language is entirely yours, if you are new to programming, I do suggest that Python may be a much better choice than C++. It’s certainly worth investigation.
David
I’ve added a note to that section about building in 2010 and dependencies and updated it to 1.7.0 while I was at it.
I concur that it’s probably a bad idea to start with C++ if you are new to programming. Even if you plan to move to C++ in the future, starting with Python wouldn’t be such a waste, since Panda3D is very similar regardless of what language you use it from. However, C++ comes with a lot of headaches.
I am leaving this post here just to point out that C++ has an own section where C++ Stuff is and should be discussed. 
Go here. 
Regards, Bigfoot29