How do you use Tab Size and Indent Size?

VSEditor — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:32:00 GMT

The Editor team wants to build the best product possible, and we need your help! This week, the team would like to ask for direct feedback on how you use tab size and indent size. Tab size is the amount of space each tab occupies, while indent size is the amount of space automatically inserted for each level of indentation at the left of a line. Both options can be found in Visual Studio under ToolsàOptionsàText Editorà[Your Language]àTabs, and by default both are set to 4 spaces.

For example, if you turn on visible whitespace with tab size = indent size = 4, your code would look like this:

But with tab size = 4 and indent size = 8, the same code would look like this:

One of the many advantages of the new editor is that unlike previous versions, Visual Studio 2010 can support multiple font faces and multiple font heights. With this new capability, there are more choices than ever for how to format your code, which led the Editor team to some interesting design questions. We want to make sure we design features that look great and feel natural in your most important use cases. With that in mind, we'd like to know:

· What are your preferred tab & indent size settings? Why do you choose that particular configuration?

· Do you keep tabs or insert spaces?

· Is there a case where you use different tab & indent sizes? If so, please tell us the scenario.

Feel free to leave a comment or use the Email link. The more we understand about how you use Visual Studio, the more we can improve it. And stay tuned for the next post, when we’ll give you a sneak peek and a chance to tell us what you think about an updated UI for code outlining.

Brittany Behrens
Program Manager, VS Platform Team

New Editor, New Font: 10-pt Consolas

VSEditor — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:18:00 GMT

To complete the VS 2010 Editor’s new look, we’re updating the default font to 10-pt Consolas! It’s a fixed-width font that Microsoft’s typography experts designed specifically for developers, so it’s great for reading and writing code. Consolas also has proportions that are closer to normal text than Courier New, the default for VS 2005 and 2008, making it more readable while still maintaining monospaced width. Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

You’ll see the new default font in the upcoming VS 2010 beta, but the Editor team is also interested in your feedback now. Although it’s new to the default role, Consolas has been around for a few years, so you can try it in your current version of Visual Studio. If you’re running Windows Vista, you already have Consolas installed; just go to ToolsàOptionsàEnvironmentàFonts and Colors in Visual Studio and change the font. If not, it’s available as a free download from Microsoft here.

To see the best results, I strongly recommend turning on ClearType in Windows XP or Vista before trying Consolas. ClearType improves font quality and readability in WPF and can be optimized for your display. For instructions on how to enable and configure it, check out Microsoft’s ClearType tuner here.

I hope you’ll enjoy Consolas’s natural readability for coding in VS. As always, please use the comments and e-mail link to send us your thoughts. Love the new font? Have ideas to improve it? Let us know!

Brittany Behrens
Program Manager, VS Platform Team

Visual Studio Editor Blog : formatting

How do you use Tab Size and Indent Size?

New Editor, New Font: 10-pt Consolas