Framework Design Studio Released

Published 04 April 08 11:10 AM | kcwalina 

When I was coming back from Mix 2007, I was bored on the plane and so started to write a dev tool. What a geeky thing to do on a plane. :-)

The tool allows comparing two versions of an assembly to identify API differences: API additions and removals. Comparing versions of APIs comes very handy during API design process. Often you want to ensure that things did not get removed accidentally (which can cause incompatibilities), and as APIs grow, you want to review the addition without having to re-review APIs that were already reviewed. The tool, called Framework Design Studio (FDS) supports these scenarios.

Later on, I got lots of help from Hongping Lim (a developer on our team), and David Fowler (our 2007 summer intern). David ported the application to WPF, and Hongping basically took it from an early prototype stage to what it is today and made it possible to ship it externally.

Anyway, you can get the tool at the MSDN Code Gallery, the user guide is attached to this post, and lastly, here is the API diff output that the tool generates. Hope you find it useful.

FDS

Attachment(s): FdsUsageGuide.docx

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Comments

# Greg D said on April 4, 2008 3:34 PM:

Does the tool support viewing the public and protected interfaces independently?  Do you think that would make sense as a feature?

# kcwalina said on April 4, 2008 5:13 PM:

Greg,

We don't support it today. But it's on the TODO list. Thanks!

# Van den Driessche Willy said on April 4, 2008 5:28 PM:

This is absolutely brilliant and probably the tool I have been waiting for for quite some time.  I've browsed the code a little and I've seen that it wasn't entirely written on that plane.  Not unless you chased  Phileas Fogg on it. :-)  

Thanks also for adding the command-line parameters to the tool.  The studio is nice for specific quest but the command-line is nice for automating things.

Two questions :

1) When comparing directories do you also consider the reference tree of a component (because a method moving to a base class in another assembly is also "compatible") ?

2) Is there any chance this makes it into Visual Studio one day ?

# David Fowler said on April 4, 2008 9:32 PM:

Nice to see the project got released!

# Scott McCraw's Blog said on April 5, 2008 8:16 PM:

One of my co-workers, Krzysztof Cwalina has been working on a tool that makes detecting the changes between

# Jorge Serrano - MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic said on April 6, 2008 4:24 AM:

De pequeñito quería ser como Krzysztof Cwalina ,... bueno, igual exagero un poco, pero es que el bueno

# Rob Relyea - Xamlified said on April 7, 2008 11:09 PM:

If you are building and evolving APIs, Framework Design Studio is a tool you should check out. 

# Bart said on April 8, 2008 4:18 AM:

Nice tool but how do merge the comments back to you code?

# abhishek said on April 9, 2008 10:37 AM:

I haven't tried either tool, but how different FDS is from LibCheck

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4b5b7f29-1939-4e5b-a780-70e887964165&displaylang=en

# slessard said on April 14, 2008 11:11 AM:

I like this tool and the timing couldn't be better.  My group is just about to start our API review and this tool will help tremendously.  One question I couldn't find an answer for in any of the documentation, what does it mean when an API element is shaded in gray?

# kcwalina said on April 14, 2008 2:37 PM:

The gray elements mean they are inherited, and so the API design decision has been made during the design of the base class or an interface, not "this" type.

# Framework Design Studio Released… « Archiveloper said on April 29, 2008 2:46 AM:

PingBack from http://archiveloper.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/framework-design-studio-released/

# Paulo Morgado said on May 4, 2008 7:33 PM:

The tool space for software architecture has been growing. There are new tools and continuous improvement

# Paulo Morgado said on May 4, 2008 7:34 PM:

The tool space for software architecture has been growing. There are new tools and continuous improvement

# Paulo Morgado said on May 4, 2008 7:34 PM:

O espaço das ferramentas para arquitectura de software em vindo a crescer. Têm vindo a aparecer novas

# Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - VS2008 and .Net 3.5 SP1 Beta - Should You Fear This Release? said on May 12, 2008 4:53 PM:

PingBack from http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VS2008AndNet35SP1BetaShouldYouFearThisRelease.aspx

# ASPInsiders said on May 12, 2008 5:01 PM:

The Beta of .NET 3.5 and VS2008 SP1 is out . I'm sure everyone is blogging the heck out of it, so I'll

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