aaron's weblog

Visual Studio Start Page RSS Feeds

aaronbrethorst — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:44:00 GMT

I received a suggestion through Microsoft Connect yesterday asking for an easier way to find all of the RSS feeds that we publish as part of each type of developer settings in Visual Studio. Although I don't think we'll be able to get to this feature request for Orcas, I wanted to still publish a list of these feeds. The following feeds are the complete list from VS 2005 Professional.

My Xbox 360 Seems to Hate Me

aaronbrethorst — Wed, 03 May 2006 02:54:00 GMT

Feed: cabana boy msft's Xbox 360 can blog
Posted on: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 4:50 PM
Author: cabana boy msft's Xbox 360 can blog
Subject: Cabana Boy MSFT's Xbox - 05/02/06

3 Processors, 512MB of RAM, custom graphics chip and multichannel surround sound all gone to waste today as Cabana Boy MSFT decided not to show up.

Windows Vista Software Logo Requirements

aaronbrethorst — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:24:00 GMT

I'm posting this more for myself, than anything else, but v0.5 of the Windows Vista Software Logo Requirements are online. They detail all of the critical aspects of creating software for the Windows platform that will allow you to place the "Designed for Windows Vista" sticker on your box.

By developing Windows Vista applications that adhere to the logo requirements, you can help ensure that your software products meet the expectations of your target market and are in demand by Microsoft customers. To customers, the Windows Vista partner logo means quality products that help them do familiar things more easily and new things for the very first time. Use this to your advantage by testing your software and displaying the Windows Vista logo.

GRAW

aaronbrethorst — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:22:00 GMT

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter for X360 simply rocks. There's really no other way to describe it, and nothing else to say. I spent several very frustrating, yet highly rewarding hours yesterday getting my Ghosts through the first couple areas of the game. Man-oh-man, the graphics and gameplay are just breathtaking; this game is really making me want to accelerate my timetable to buy an HDTV.

Feedback Requested: Visual Studio 2005's Look and Feel

aaronbrethorst — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 01:24:00 GMT

As you may be able to discern from the contents of this weblog, I'm the Program Manager who is responsible for a lot of the overall look-and-feel of the Visual Studio product line. Specifically, I drive User Experience, Shell UI, and Accessibility across Visual Studio.

You've all probably had a chance to work with Visual Studio 2005 a fair amount now that it's been generally available for a few months. I've been spending a great deal of time lately thinking about how we can improve Visual Studio's user experience in a number of areas, and I wanted to get feedback from everyone in the community on this.

Feel free to post a comment on any thoughts you may have, but here's a rough framework you can work from if you feel inclined:

Do you use Windows XP, 2003, or Vista with visual styles (themes) enabled?
If so, which OS and theme do you use?
If not, why not?
Regardless of your answers to questions 1-3, do you think Visual Studio 2005 looks better than VS 2002 or 2003? Why, or why not?
Do you think VS 2005 is easier to use than VS 2002 or 2003? Why or why not?
What is your least favorite part of VS 2005's UI?
What is your favorite part of VS 2005's UI?

Thanks, everyone! I look forward to reading your comments on this :-)

Feedback Requested: Orcas File Tabs

aaronbrethorst — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 01:47:00 GMT

Our Program Manager Intern, Jon, has a set of file tab prototypes we're considering for Orcas. He'd love to get feedback on his designs over on the Visual Studio IDE weblog.

I just left my feedback on there. I hope to see all of yours' too!

Input Requested: Redesigning Visual Studio's File Tabs

aaronbrethorst — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 03:22:00 GMT

Hi All - Long time, no blog. Apologies: finishing up Whidbey has kept me insanely busy, but I think the product is better for it :-). The Developer Division has done an incredible job on making Visual Studio 2005 a terrific product, and I can't wait until we finally get the RTM builds into your hands.

Anyway, my team's Program Manager Intern this summer is currently working on spec'ing a few new features for the File Tab Channel and he would love your feedback on it. You can see more here: http://blogs.msdn.com/vside/archive/2005/08/24/455998.aspx.

Thanks!
Aaron

Extending Visual Studio 2005

aaronbrethorst — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 20:44:00 GMT

I promised an article in .NET Developer's Journal's June issue a while back. I just received word that the article has made it online for your reading enjoyment: http://dotnet.sys-con.com/read/105646.htm.

Have you ever thought of a killer feature you would love to see in Visual Studio? Maybe you want to add support for a new programming language, or you have an idea for a new GUI designer tool. You can add support for virtually anything to Visual Studio through the SDK.

VS 2005 Extensibility

aaronbrethorst — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 23:38:00 GMT

Look for .NET Developers Journal's June 2005 issue for an article by yours truly on Extensibility in Visual Studio 2005. You can also find the accompanying source code through my weblog here. I hasten to point out that all code samples are provided as-is with no warranty. If you're interested in retrieving the SDK for VS, take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend.

Live from Tech Ed Orlando

aaronbrethorst — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:02:00 GMT

Apologies for how long it's been since I last posted here. We've been working hard on Visual Studio 2005 trying to get it finished and out the door. I've also been getting my team (VSCore) ready for Tech Ed 2005 in Orlando, which is where I am at right now. We're on Day 3 of the conference now, and we've all been having a blast. Being able to talk face-to-face with our customers and partners is always refreshing. We have been able to receive feedback from all of you on VS 2005 through the MSDN Product Feedback Center for almost a year now, but speaking with you directly is incredibly valuable for us.

I was interviewed by Mike Hall from the Mobile and Embedded Devices group yesterday for the Podcast series that they've been doing. You can check it out here: http://casting.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/5/7/2/572011dd-298a-4936-af67-8f3596d0a3b2/VisualStudio2005_demo.wmv. We have a website set up for all of this, along with links to different Podcasting clients, which is available here: http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2005/podcast.mspx.

Visual Studio 2005: Tool Window Tabs

aaronbrethorst — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 02:45:00 GMT

Aaaaand, I think we're all finished with the tabs for VS 2005. You won't see this design in Beta 2, but it'll certainly be present in RTM. Thanks again for all of the feedback we got on these, it really was a huge help :) We ended up not going with fins because we felt that there was too much text space lost in the process.

Aaron

Huxley: Next-Gen MMO Game (Holy Cow!)

aaronbrethorst — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 10:25:00 GMT

I just read an interesting (although unfortunately brief) interview on TeamXBox about an XBox Live-enabled MMO game due out in Summer 2006. The graphics in this thing are absolutely incredible. I mean, I'd seen what Unreal Engine 3 was capable of before, but it blows me away how good it could look in what will be playable bits in just over a year (then again, considering the hoopla over Half-Life seven years ago now, I suppose I'm also looking forward to how good UE3-based games will look in 2009 :grin:). Check it out here: http://interviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/1105/Huxley-Interview/p1/#top

Feedback Requested: Visual Studio 2005 Tab Design Iteration 2

aaronbrethorst — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 22:41:00 GMT

I want to thank everyone for all of the terrific feedback we received on our first pair of tool window tab designs for Visual Studio 2005. As of right now, we've gotten 124 comments, which is really outstanding!

I've been working with our designer, Corrina, to modify the tab designs we showed before in response to your feedback. The general consensus we received centered around a few key points:

It was hard to tell which tab had focus based upon colors in design 1.
Tab design 2 had a "Windows 2000" appearance, as opposed to a more WinXP-inspired design.
Tab design 2 made determining the active tab a no-brainer.

So, with this in mind we'd like to get some feedback on the following matchups.

First, we will present two new tab designs (Design 3 and Design 4). Please rate these two designs in the comments just like before. Second, please compare your favorite of the two new designs to Design 2 from the last blog entry and include this information in your comment as well.

Design 3:
Please rate Design #3 on a scale of 1-7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree):
1. It is very easy to see which tab is active.
2. The tabs are aesthetically pleasing.

Design 4:
Please rate Design #4 on a scale of 1-7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree):
1. It is very easy to see which tab is active.
2. The tabs are aesthetically pleasing.

Compare the Two Groups:
Finally, of the design above that you preferred (#3 or #4), do you like it more or less than Design #2 from the previous entry?

Please let us know what you think! We'd love to get just as much feedback on this as we did before :)

Feedback Requested: Visual Studio 2005 Tab Design

aaronbrethorst — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 21:45:00 GMT

//Update 2

I have posted a new set of designs for this at http://blogs.msdn.com/aaronbrethorst/archive/2005/03/16/397107.aspx. Please leave feedback on there. Thanks! :)

//End:Update 2

//Update

Corrina, the designer I have been working with on our new tabs posted this in the comments below. I wanted to make sure that everyone saw it:

Hi, I'm one of the designers on Visual Studio and I want to throw one more question into the mix...
Design #1 allows for slightly less tab text, so truncation may occur more often with this design (imagine 3 or more tabs docked together). Would that affect your tab preference?

//End:Update

Hi everyone – The Visual Studio Design team is currently going back and forth over a few different designs for the tool window tabs in Visual Studio 2005, and we wanted to elicit feedback from the community on what all of you prefer. With the tabs in Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 it can be difficult to determine at a glance which ones are active and which are inactive, which is how we ended up with the designs that we’re prototyping.

The first design style that we’re considering is to move to overlapping tabs, so that the active tab is always visually on top of all other tabs in a group.

Please rate Design #1 on a scale of 1-7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree):
1. It is very easy to see which tab is active.
2. The tabs are aesthetically pleasing.

The second design style that we’re considering is more reminiscent of the tool window tabs in Visual Studio 2003. Inactive tabs will blend into their tool window tab channel, and only the active tab will have a tab-like appearance.

Please rate Design #2 on a scale of 1-7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree):
1. It is very easy to see which tab is active.
2. The tabs are aesthetically pleasing.

Creating a Business Logo

aaronbrethorst — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:27:00 GMT

Ian Landsman from UserScape posted an article on his weblog about the process of creating a logo for his small software company and his product. Interesting reading for anyone running a MicroISV.