Managed code debugging tip: Make object ID

dancre — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 08:41:00 GMT

When debugging native code, it's easy to keep track of objects by their addresses. But, with managed code, you don't really have this option. This can make it hard to tell keep track of objects. But, when debugging in Visual Studio (at least 2005), you can right click an object and select "Make Object ID". This will put a number like {1#} after the object. You can do this on as many objects as you want to track. I found this really useful in investigating a bug that involved some nasty recursion and reentrancy.

Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts

dancre — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 08:08:00 GMT

The Visual Studio Hacks site has a good list of navigation shortcuts here. If you haven't read the Visual Studio Hacks book, it's worth getting.

One thing I didn't see mentioned there is using the find field to open files. If you have a project with lots of files, it can take some time to find the file in the Solution Explorer. But, you can go to the find field (control-/) and then type ">open filename". It even does autocomplete on filename.

I also like the search as you type (or whatever the feature is really called). If you hit control-I and then start typing, it will find the string as you type, so you can just type enough to get where you are going.

I also find I often use control-F3 which finds the next occurence of the selected text. I used to do the same in Mac text editors with cmd-E/cmd-G.

Dan Crevier's Blog : Tips & Tricks

Managed code debugging tip: Make object ID

Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts