The Visual Basic Team : IDE

CodeRush Xpress Released Today! (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:19:08 GMT

CodeRush Xpress is a FREE Visual Studio 2008 add-in containing 60+ refactorings, 7 editing features, and full support for C# and Visual Basic.

Download here

CodeRush Xpress includes the following features.

Duplicate Line
Highlight All References
Increase or Reduce Selection
Smart Clipboard Operations
Generate from Using (TDD)
Quick Navigation Window
Quick File Navigation

In addition, you receive the following refactorings.

Add Parameter
Create Overload
Create With Statement
Encapsulate Field
Encapsulate Field (read only)
Extract Interface
Extract Method
Extract Property
Extract XML Literal to Resource
Flatten Conditional
Introduce Constant
Introduce Constant (local)
Introduce Local
Introduce Local (replace all)
Inline Temp
Inline With Statement
Make Explicit
Make Explicit (and Name Anonymous Type)
Make Implicit
Method to Property
Move Declaration Near Reference
Move Initialization To Declaration
Move Type to File
Name Anonymous Type
Property to Method(s)
Remove Assignments to Parameter
Reorder Parameters
Remove Unused Parameter
Replace Temp with Query
Reverse Conditional
Simplify Expression
Split Initialization from Declaration
Split Temporary Variable
Widen Scope
Widen Scope (promote constant)
Widen Scope (promote to field)
Add Block Delimiters
Combine Conditionals
Compress to Lambda Expression
Compress to Ternary Expression
Convert to Auto-implemented Property
Convert to Initializer
Create Backing Store
Decompose Initializer
Decompose Parameter
Expand Lambda Expression
Expand Ternary Expression
Extract Method
Flatten Conditional
Inline Delegate
Inline Temp
Introduce Local
Make Explicit
Make Implicit
Move Type to File
Name Anonymous Method
Name Anonymous Type
Reverse Conditional
Split Conditional
Use String.Format
Use StringBuilder

CodeRush Xpress 9.1 Beta: 59 Refactorings, 17 Consume-first providers, and Much more! (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:07:21 GMT

Very exciting news! Developer Express is coming out with a new version of the FREE add-in we all know today as Refactor!. The new product, CodeRush XPress, builds on Refactor! by increasing the refactoring count to 59! It also includes a host of other editing functionality, making it a much richer tool for all-around IDE productivity. Consume-first providers enable a different way of programming, whereby you can refer to variables, properties, classes, and other members before they are defined. Then the IDE tools insert the definition for you, so you don't need to write all that plumbing code, or break your thought flow. There are a number of navigation features in CodeRush Xpress such as Tab to Next Reference, CamelCase Navigation, Quick Symbol Navigation and File Navigation. There are also editing features, including Smart Cut, Smart Copy, Structural Highlighting, and Duplicate Line.

The best way to learn these features is to see them in action. Take a look at the VB.NET video here:

CodeRush Xpress 9.1: VB.NET Video

It's a great demonstration of the features and also very entertaining, with fun personalities Mark Miller & Dustin Campbell. For more information, please see the blog post by Mark Miller, Chief Scientist of Developer Express. And finally, here's a link to the download!

FREE DOWNLOAD: CodeRush XPress 9.1 Beta for VS 2005 and VS 2008

Walkthrough: Quick Search for Files and Symbols in Visual Studio 2010 (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:00:22 GMT

Quick Search has to be one of my favorite features in the 2010 CTP. I find myself using it all the time! I hope you will find it useful in your development too. The Quick Search functionality has become a pretty common feature in development environments today. That's because it since it handles such a common scenario - needing to find something in your code! Read on to learn more about this exciting addition in VS 2010.

This blog post is part of a series on the walkthroughs included in the October VS2010 CTP. Each walkthrough guides you through a series of steps, to help you experience the new features coming up in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0. Even if you choose not to download the CTP, you may find that you are still able to give feedback based on the descriptions and illustrations below. Please leave your feedback on this feature set at the end of this post, or at the following forum:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vs2010ctpvbcs/thread/1eb74a01-0d50-4a58-b9b3-cdfae5807ef8

Thanks!
Lisa

Walkthrough: Quick Search for Files and Symbols

This walkthrough demonstrates the new Quick Search for Files and Symbols feature in Visual Studio 2010. Quick Search is a tool that helps you locate items in your code by using "fuzzy" search capabilities. You can access the Quick Search window from within any code file in a project by pressing CTRL+, (the CTRL key and the comma key). You can type any number of search terms in the Quick Search window and Visual Studio will search your project for symbols, which include file, type, and member names, that match the supplied search terms.

For convenience, this walkthrough uses the PeopleTrax sample that is included with Visual Studio. You can, of course, use the Quick Search feature with any solution or project.

To open the sample solution

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 10.0\Samples\1033\TeamDev Samples.zip.
Extract the files to a folder of your choice, and then navigate to the PeopleTrax folder.
Double-click the PeopleTrax.sln to open the solution in Visual Studio 2010.

To search for symbols by using the Quick Search window

Open any file. Click inside the code editor and press CTRL+,. The following window appears.
In the text box at the top of the Quick Search window, type get. The Quick Search window displays all symbols that contain the characters "get", as shown in the following illustration. The search is case-insensitive.
After "get", type a space and then name. The Quick Search window displays all symbols that contain both "get" and "name", as shown in the following illustration.
Press the DOWN ARROW key to select the GetNames entry in the results box. Press ENTER. Visual Studio will navigate to the GetNames method definition, in the file where it is defined.

Walkthrough: TDD Support with the Generate From Usage Feature in VS 2010 (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

As part of the October VS 2010 CTP, we also shipped a set of walkthrough documents explaining how to use the product to experience the new features. The CTP was released as a Virtual PC image, and can be a pretty hefty download to undertake. So for those of you just interested to know what's there, reading the walkthroughs can be a good alternative!

Below is the combined VB/C# walkthrough for "Generate From Usage". Please tell us your feedback on this new IDE feature, either at the end of this blog post or at the following forum:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vs2010ctpvbcs/thread/d37cd027-dfa0-4bbd-958e-765446dd3476

Thanks,
Lisa

Walkthrough: TDD Support with the Generate From Usage Feature

This walkthrough demonstrates how to use the new Visual Studio 2010 Generate From Usage feature that supports Test-Driven Development (TDD).

TDD is an approach to software design in which you first write unit tests based on the product specifications, and then write the source code required to make the test succeed. Visual Studio 2010 supports TDD by generating new types and members in your source code when you first reference them in your test cases.

Visual Studio 2010 generates the new types and members with minimal interruption to your workflow. You can create stubs for types, methods, properties, or constructors without leaving your current location in code. When you invoke a dialog box to specify options for type generation, the focus returns immediately to the current open file when the dialog box closes.

In the release version of Visual Studio 2010, the Generate From Usage feature can be used in conjunction with any test framework that integrates with Visual Studio. In this walkthrough, the Microsoft Unit Testing Framework is demonstrated.

To set up a project and test project

1. In Visual C# or Visual Basic, create a new Windows Class Library project and name it GFUDemo_VB or GFUDemo_CS, depending on which language you have chosen.

2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the solution icon at the top, point to Add, and then click New Project to open the Add New Project dialog box. In the Project Types pane on the left, click Test.

3. In the Templates pane on the right, click Test Project and accept the default name of TestProject1.

4. Click OK to close the Add New Project dialog box.

You are now ready to begin writing tests.

To generate a new class from a unit test

1. The test project contains a file named UnitTest1. Double-click this file in Solution Explorer to open it in the Code Editor.

Locate the declaration for class UnitTest1 and rename it to AutomobileTest. Locate TestMethod1 and rename it to DefaultAutomobileIsInitializedCorrectly. Inside this method, create a new instance of a class named Automobile. Notice that a wavy underline immediately appears, indicating a compile-time error, along with a smart tag under the type name. Also notice that the exact location of the smart tag varies, depending on whether you are using Visual Basic or C#, as shown in the following illustrations:

Visual C# code

Visual Basic code

2. Rest the mouse pointer over the smart tag to see the error message that indicates that no type named Automobile has been defined yet. Click the smart tag or press CTRL+. (CTRL+period) to invoke the Generate From Usage context menu, as shown in the following illustration:

Visual C# code

Visual Basic code

3. Now you have two choices. You can click Generate Class 'Automobile' to create a new file in your test project and populate it with an empty class named Automobile. This option provides the quickest way to create a new class type in a new file with default access modifiers in the current project. However, you may prefer to place the new file in your source code project, or you may want to place the class in an existing file or specify its access modifiers. In such cases, click Generate other to open the New Type dialog box.

In the Project location list box, click GFUDemo_VB or GFUDemo_CS to instruct Visual Studio to place the file in the source code project, as opposed to the test project. Note that you can also specify the access of the type, in addition to whether the new type is a class, a struct, or an enumeration, in this dialog box. You can also choose to generate the type in an existing file.

4. Click OK to close the dialog box and create the new file.

5. In Solution Explorer, look under the GFUDemo_VB or GFUDemo_CS project node to verify that the new file has been created. Note that, in the Code Editor, the focus is still in AutomobileTest.DefaultAutomobileIsInitializedCorrectly, so you can continue writing your test with a minimum of interruption.

To generate a property stub

Assume that the product specification states that the Automobile class has two public properties named Model and TopSpeed. These properties are required to be initialized with default values of “Not specified” and -1 by the default constructor. This unit test will verify that the default constructor sets the properties to their correct default values.

1. Add this line of code to DefaultAutomobileIsInitializedCorrectly:

Visual C# code
Assert.IsTrue(myAuto.Model == "Not specified" && myAuto.TopSpeed == -1);

Visual Basic code
Assert.IsTrue(myAuto.Model = "Not specified" And myAuto.TopSpeed = -1)

2. Because the line references two undefined properties on Automobile, a smart tag appears. Invoke it and then click Generate property stub for 'TopSpeed’. After this stub is generated, a new smart tag appears under the Model property. Generate a property stub for that property as well. The following illustrations show these smart tags.

Visual C# code

Visual Basic code

3. If you want to, you can navigate to the automobile.cs or automobile.vb source code file to verify that the new properties have been generated.

To generate a stub for a new constructor

1. In this test method, you will generate a constructor stub that will initialize the Model and TopSpeed properties with values that you specify. In the next step you will add additional code to complete the test. Add the following variables and test method to your AutomobileTest class:

Visual C# code

[TestMethod]

public void AutomobileWithModelNameCanStart()

{

string model = "550 Barchetta";

int topSpeed = 199;

Automobile myAuto = new Automobile(model, topSpeed);

}

Visual Basic code

<TestMethod()>

Public Sub AutomobileWithModelNameCanStart()

Dim model As String = "550 Barchetta"

Dim topSpeed As Integer = 199

Dim myAuto As New Automobile(model, topSpeed)

End Sub

2. Invoke the smart tag under the new class constructor and then click Generate constructor stub…. In the Automobile class file, note that the new constructor not only has correctly inferred the types of the arguments, but has also examined the names of the local variables that are used in the constructor call, found properties with the same names in the Automobile class, and supplied code in the constructor body to store the argument values in the Model and TopSpeed properties. (Note that in Visual Basic, the_model and _topSpeed fields in the new constructor are the implicitly defined backing fields for the Model and TopSpeed properties.)

3. After you generate the new constructor, a wavy underline appears under the call to the default constructor in DefaultAutomobileIsInitializedCorrectly. The error message informs you that the Automobile class has no constructor that takes zero arguments. To generate an explicit default constructor with no parameters, invoke the smart tag and click Generate constructor stub….

To generate a stub for a method

1. Assume that the specification states that a new Automobile can be put into a Running state if its Model and TopSpeed properties are set to something other than the default values. Add the following lines to the method:

Visual C# code

myAuto.Start();
Assert.IsTrue(myAuto.IsRunning == true);

Visual Basic code

myAuto.Start()
Assert.IsTrue(myAuto.IsRunning = True)

2. Invoke the smart tag for the myAuto.Start method call and click Generate method stub…. Next, invoke the smart tag for IsRunning and click Generate property stub….

The Automobile class now looks like this:

Visual C# code

public class Automobile

{

public int TopSpeed { get; set; }

public string Model { get; set; }

public void Start()

{

throw new NotImplementedException();

}

public bool IsRunning { get; set; }

public Automobile(string model, int topSpeed)

{

// TODO: Complete member initialization

this.Model = model;

this.TopSpeed = topSpeed;

}

public Automobile()

{

// TODO: Complete member initialization

}

}

Visual Basic code

Public Class Automobile

Sub New(ByVal model As String, ByVal topSpeed As Integer)

' TODO: Complete member initialization

_model = model

_topSpeed = topSpeed

End Sub

Sub New()

' TODO: Complete member initialization

End Sub

Property TopSpeed As Integer

Property Model As String

Property IsRunning As Boolean

Sub Start()

Throw New System.NotImplementedException

End Sub

End Class

To run the tests

1. From the main menu, click Test, point to Run, and then click All Tests in Solution. This command runs all tests in all test frameworks that have been written for the current solution. In this case, there are two tests, and they both fail, as expected. The Test Results window looks like this:

To navigate to the source code

Now that the tests have run and failed, the next step is to navigate to the Automobile class and implement the code that will cause the tests to pass. Quick Search is a new feature in Visual Studio 2010 that enables you to quickly enter a text string, such as a type name or part of a name, and navigate to the desired location by clicking the element in the result list.

1. Open the Quick Search dialog box by clicking in the Code Editor and pressing CTRL+, (CTRL+comma). In the text box, type Start, as shown in the following illustration:

To implement the source code

When the Start method is called, it should set the IsRunning flag to true only if the Model and TopSpeed properties have been set to something other than their default value. Remove the NotImplementedException from the method body and implement the desired behavior in any way that will cause the tests to succeed. Do the same for the default constructor.
Add code to the default constructor so that the Model, TopSpeed and IsRunning properties are all initialized to their correct default values of “Not specified”, -1, and True (true).

To re-run the tests

From the main menu, click Test, point to Run, and then click All Tests in Solution. This time, the tests pass. The Test Results window looks like this:

VB 2008 Keyboard Shortcut Posters -- Download your copy today! (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Some of you may be using the 2005 posters we released last year. There is now a 2008 version available as well!

There aren't too many changes. We've actually tried to stay pretty consistent with the VB keybindings (going back to at least VB6), since we know there's nothing more frustrating than upgrading and finding the keystroke that used to take you to the watch window now deletes the current line. :)

However, we have added a few new keyboard shortcuts for 2008 features, so you might want to download the 2008 copy to have the latest.

Happy shortcutting!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=255b8cf1-f6bd-4b55-bb42-dd1a69315833&displaylang=en

Did you know? You can unwind the call stack from exceptions (Bill Horst)

VBTeam — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

The ability to unwind the call stack from exceptions is one of the debugger features that was newly introduced in Visual Basic.NET 2005. When the debugger hits a first-chance exception, you can unwind the call stack in order to make code edits to fix the exception and continue debugging with the changes. The exception assistant UI will have an “Enable Editing” option which will unwind the debugger to the topmost call stack frame with code in the current solution.

When an exception is unhandled, the unwind will occur automatically, but this can be turned on and off from the Options dialog (under Tools).

If you attempt to edit code after an exception has been hit, but before an unwind, you're allowed the option of unwinding and editing the code, stopping the debugging session, or canceling the edit.

The user can also unwind from the call stack window, by right-clicking the desired frame and selecting “Unwind To This Frame”. This is only available when an exception has been hit and not yet unwound, and only on frames sufficiently high on the call stack.

We hope that this functionality will allow you to be more effective in their debugging, and will help you better leverage the “Edit and Continue” capabilities in Visual Basic.

Did you know? There are many ways to insert a snippet into your code (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Code snippets were introduced in the Visual Basic 2005 release. They provide an easy way to learn how to do a particular coding task, or to re-use a piece of code in various parts of your application. Code snippets can be inserted in a variety of ways. The method you choose will depend upon the situation. When browsing for a code snippet, use the Code Snippet Inserter:

Code Snippet Inserter

The Code Snippet Inserter can be invoked in the following two ways: by typing ‘?+Tab’ in your code file, or by right-clicking and selecting "Insert Snippet..." from the context menu that appears. You can then navigate the snippet directory structure and select the snippet you want to use. Notice that tooltips appear beside the titles to give the description and shortcut of the currently selected snippet:

For snippets that you use more frequently or for which you want quicker access, you should use the snippet's shortcut. Once you know the snippet's shortcut, you can just type the shortcut+Tab in code to insert the snippet. To learn a snippet's shortcut, either select it in the Code Snippet Inserter (as pictured above) or view it in the Code Snippets Manager. The Code Snippets Manager can be accessed via the Tools menu, and is pictured below. It displays a number of relevant fields of the snippet:

Code Snippets Manager

The ‘shortcut+Tab’ insertion method also gives a neat effect for snippets which use keywords as their shortcuts. For example, type ‘Select+Tab’ in your code, and you'll see the following code snippet inserted. These kind of snippets function as expansions.

An Expansion Snippet: Select Case

If you ever press Tab and end up inserting a snippet that you don't want, just type Ctrl+Z and your code will return to its previous state.

For other, more task-oriented snippets, the snippet shortcuts start with an abbreviation for the corresponding snippet directory. Thus, the shortcut for the "Send an Email" snippet is 'conEmail', since the snippet lives in the 'connectivity' directory. Note: although most shortcuts include capitalized letters, the casing that you type does not have to match in order for the snippet to insert correctly. That is, you could also type 'conemail' or 'CONEMAIL', and the snippet would insert just fine.

Often, you may only remember a part of the snippet's shortcut. In that case, you can type the beginning of the shortcut, press ?+Tab, and a shortcut completion list will appear. For example, to insert a snippet from the Application snippet directory which uses ‘app’ as its shortcut prefix, you could type 'app'+?+Tab or 'a'+?+Tab in order to invoke the list. The shortcut list appears and the title of the currently selected snippet displays in the tooltip. You can then double-click or press Enter to insert the snippet into your code.

Snippet Shortcut List

Most of the methods we've discussed for inserting a snippet into your code involved some sort of inline typing. However there is still one more way to insert a snippet, which has a different feel than the others. And that is: drag-and-drop. In their essence, code snippets are xml files with a .snippet extension, which get copied to your computer when you install Visual Basic. The Code Snippets Manager displays the location of the snippet files, so that you can find them on disk. Once you determine that path and locate your snippet files on disk using Windows Explorer, you can simply drag and drop a snippet directly into your code!

Try out all these different techniques, and decide which you like best!

Video: Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Tips and Tricks (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 19:00:53 GMT

I've blogged the session materials for this presentation before, but now we finally have the video available too!

Here are some section markers:

Enjoy!

http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer/tv/default.aspx?vid=79

Video: The Joy of Writing Code in Visual Studio 2010 (Karen Liu)

VBTeam — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:00:40 GMT

We've had a couple recent posts about the Code Focused development experience coming up in the Visual Studio 2010 IDE:

Code Focus Announcements in the TechEd EMEA Keynote

Code Focus Videos on Channel 9

Now for the ultimate coverage (a complete TechEd presentation on the subject), check out the following video by Karen Liu!

http://www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer/tv/default.aspx?vid=80

Code Focused Development in Visual Studio 2010 (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:36:43 GMT

Do you spend a lot of your day in code? (Writing code, navigating code, modifying code, understanding code, testing code, debugging code, etc.) If so, then the Visual Studio 2010 IDE has got a lot in store for you! In this release we're focusing on optimizing for code-focused development, which covers each of these tasks. There are a number of new features being added, designed to make your day easier. Here's the list:

Quick Search
- for better navigation...
Highlight References
- to better understand and navigate your code...
Call Hierarchy
- to better understand your code...
Generate from Usage
- to write code more quickly, and help with Test-Driven development...

The VS 2010 Editor has also been rewritten using WPF and MEF (Microsoft Extensibility Framework) which allow us to create features with better visualizations and make it easier to create killer add-ins.

Here are a few videos you can watch to see these features in action!

Channel9 videos with IDE lead, Karen Liu:

Jason Zander's TechEd EMEA Keynote

Visit the forums to submit your feedback.

Forums
- Test-driven Development Support with the Generate From Usage Feature (forum)
- Call Hierarchy (forum)
- Quick Search for Files and Symbols (forum)

Finally, download the CTP to try them out yourself! There are some great walkthroughs included in the CTP download, to help you explore the new features.

Did you know? 300+ Visual Studio Tips & Tricks (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:10:00 GMT

Did you know that Sara Ford just recently passed the 300 mark for her Visual Studio Tips & Tricks? Sara used to be a tester on the Visual Studio Core IDE team, and knows the IDE inside and out! I remember the first time I met Sara was 4 years ago when she was writing some automation and called to find out the expected behavior for arrowing over tab stops in VB. :-) Now she works on CodePlex, but she still keeps up her Tips & Tricks blog going! These tips are most-often language-independent tips to help your productivity when working with Visual Studio. Here's where you can find them:

The first three links above are RSS feeds. The last link is an Amazon pre-sale for her book, which is a compilation of the first 251 tips. More info on the book creation here.

Enjoy!

Channel9 Interview: Meet the VS "Development Experience" Team (Beth Massi)

VBTeam — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:00:07 GMT

Today I posted another Channel9 interview. This time I met with the team that brings us the "experience" of coding in Visual Studio, also sometimes referred to as the VS IDE Team. I ask them how their design process works, what the top requested features are for the code editors, how they work with the language teams as well as what their favorite and hardest features are to build and test.

Meet the Visual Studio Managed Languages Development Experience Team

Enjoy,
-Beth Massi, Visual Studio Community

Visual Basic and CSharp IDEs Uncensored (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:00:00 GMT

Interested in hearing about what the Visual Basic and CSharp program managers *really* think about the two IDEs? Come join Karen Liu and me as we chat about the goals, similarities and differences of the VB & C# IDEs. We also discuss our favorite features and where we think IDEs are going in the future. This talk was recorded at TechEd North America 2008 Developers conference. The video is posted at the TechEd Online Library. You can also find a direct link here.

Visual Basic at TechEd SouthEast Asia (Lisa Feigenbaum)

VBTeam — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:29:00 GMT

This is a follow-up to my presentations at TechEd SouthEast Asia. Please find all the descriptions and materials for the presentations on the following resource page: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/techedsea

Here are some direct links to the materials:

TLA 314 - Visual Basic 2008 Tips and Tricks

TLA 323 - Best Practices for the VB9.0 and CSharp 3.0 Features that Make LINQ Work

TLA 335 - Conquering XML with Visual Basic 9.0

And now, some pictures below. :)

Channel 9 Interview: New Editor Features in Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (Beth Massi)

VBTeam — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:00:02 GMT

Today I posted another Channel 9 interview on SP1. This time, Yang Xiao, a tester on the VB IDE team is back demonstrating new improvements to the "Go To Definition", "Find All References" and Rename capabilities in the editor when flipping between code and XAML in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1.

New Editor Features in Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Enjoy,
-Beth Massi, Visual Studio Community