The Visual Studio .NET IDE Customization and Enhancements

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

2. 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

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

4. 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

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

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

9. Customizing VS .NET • Setting VS .NET Options (Tools ►Options) • Environment ►Fonts and Colors Use developer- friendly fonts (e.g. ProFont, Sheldon)

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

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

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

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

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

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

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

21. Useful VS .NET Add-Ins • QuickJump .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 QuickJump 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

24. 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 • CodeWright for VS .NET http://www.codewright.com/cwnet/default.asp Replaces VS .NET’s editor with CodeWright’s editor and lets you use CodeWright’s keystrokes and color syntax (amongst other features)

25. More VS .NET Add-Ins • IBM Rational XDE Developer .NET http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/products/xde/ Add-In that supports modeling through UML and also supports reverse engineering and model-to-code synchronization • DevPartner 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

26. 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/

27. 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

28. Thank You