The Visual Studio NET IDE Customization and Enhancements

The Visual Studio. NET IDE Customization and Enhancements Chapter 6 - Pumping up the IDE Coder To Developer - Mike Gunderloy Respected Professor: Dr. James Fawcett Presented By: Ghanashyam N

Pumping Up The IDE § In order to be useful to a developer an IDE must have the following characteristics § Support for Customization § Developers must be able to define their own shortcuts and choose their own window layouts and keyboard settings § It must be possible to automate repetitive tasks § Support for Extensibility § Developers must be able to use third-party tools to achieve functionality that is not present (by default) in the IDE

Pumping Up VS. NET § This presentation will focus on the following topics § Customizing VS. NET § Using VS. NET Macros § Using VS. NET Add-Ins

Customizing VS. NET § Using Profiles (My Profiles tab on Help ►Show Start Page) § Enables selection of a group of settings for § Keyboard Scheme § Window Layout § Help Filtering § Startup Options

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Environment ►General Increase number of items on most recently used list

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Environment ►Documents Get rid of “Are you sure? ” prompts

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Environment ►Fonts and Colors Use developerfriendly fonts (e. g. Pro. Font, Sheldon)

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Environment ►Task List Use your own comment tags to put items In the Task List

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Text Editor ►C# ► General Show line numbering in editor window

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Text Editor ►C# ► Tabs Set tab size and indent width

Customizing VS. NET § Setting VS. NET Options (Tools ►Options) § Database Tools ►Server Explorer Increase login timeout for WAN or Internet based access

Customizing VS. NET § Some More Tips § Developer fonts - Pro. Font and Sheldon are available for download at http: //www. tobias-jung. de/seekingprofont/ § For even more customization possibilities try VS. NET Power. Toys available at http: //www. gotdotnet. com/team/ide/ § Explore Tools ►Options for several more useful options

Using VS. NET Macros § Increase productivity by using Macros to avoid repetitive work § A macro is a series of actions saved in a scripting language § VS. NET includes § § A Macro recorder and playback facility A Macro editor Keyboard bindings for Macros An object model to let Macros work with the IDE

Using VS. NET Macros § Macro Recorder (Tools ►Macros ►Record Temporary Macro) (Ctrl + Shift + R) § Macro Playback (Tools ►Macros ►Run Temporary Macro) (Ctrl + Shift + P) § Macro Explorer (View ►Other Windows ►Macro Explorer) § Provides a project abstraction for Macros § Supports editing and saving of Macros and Macro projects § Setting Macro Keyboard Shortcuts (Tools ►Options ►Environment ►Keyboard)

Using VS. NET Add-Ins § The VS. NET IDE was designed to be extensible and many utility vendors have taken advantage of this extensibility by developing Add-Ins that plug into it § VS. NET uses an object model called the DTE (Design. Time Environment) object model to support Macros as well as Add-Ins [For further details see - Inside Microsoft Visual Studio. NET - Brian Johnson, Craig Skibo, and Marc Young] § Add-Ins can make the IDE more productive, and often help in analyzing and improving the quality of code that you write

Useful VS. NET Add-Ins § Project Line Counter (Wnd. Tabs) http: //www. wndtabs. com/plc/ Useful little Add-In for counting SLOC (Source Lines of Code)

Useful VS. NET Add-Ins § Quick. Jump. NET http: //www. codeproject. com/dotnet/quickjump_net. asp VS. NET already supports incremental search (Ctrl + I) mode, class view and dropdown class and member lists for easy navigation Quick. Jump is an Add-In that simplifies source code navigation in a different way § Alt + G gives a window showing a list of members in the current class which can be used for navigation § Provides a search and filtering mechanism to simplify navigation

More VS. NET Add-Ins § Total. NET Analyzer (FMS) http: //www. fmsinc. com/dotnet/Analyzer Code analyzer for. NET that warns regarding deviations from best practices and likely errors § Code. Wright for VS. NET http: //www. codewright. com/cwnet/default. asp Replaces VS. NET’s editor with Code. Wright’s editor and lets you use Code. Wright’s keystrokes and color syntax (amongst other features)

More VS. NET Add-Ins § IBM Rational XDE Developer. NET http: //www. ibm. com/developerworks/rational/products/x de/ Add-In that supports modeling through UML and also supports reverse engineering and model-to-code synchronization § Dev. Partner Studio Add-In that provides code coverage analysis along with a rules-driven engine that can be used to locate dangerous parts of code before they break down

Yet More VS. NET Add-Ins § A definitive list of VS. NET Add-Ins and other. NET utilities is available at http: //sharptoolbox. madgeek. com/

Add-In Hell § Having too many Add-Ins installed can slow down the IDE and affect system performance § Too many Add-Ins can cause shortcut key conflicts between individual Add-Ins § It is a good practice to uninstall Add-Ins that you no longer use

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