It wouldn't be a Visual Studio release without an entire overhaul of the Help system.
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< just don't waste any more money on help docs, and use that money to make Visual Studio starts faster > Or how about getting it to actualy work. Currently VS2010 is so unstable it comes under the heading unusable - even some of their own example programs crash VS2010. Role on the first Service pack! So at the moment help is irrelevant! Now ask me about VS 2008 help (no, better not......)
I post this not to just be contrarian, but to encourage you - there are setups that work: I use VS2010 every day in a production environment, with hardly a trouble (perhaps once a month it crashes on me), and find it to be more stable than 2008 by far. So keep digging! I'm using the latest hardware, drivers, and Win7 Pro, if that makes any difference. (It does crash every time if I try to build a project for the .NET Compact Framework - in upgrading to 2010 and removing 2008, somehow I got that platform munged. Luckily I only do embedded programming for fun :))
Before .NET 4.0, object Universe = NULL;
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What is you favorite and least favorite feature of the Help system in Visual Studio 2010? My favorite: 1. The version on the web looks the same as the locally installed version. Least favorite (in order of annoyance) 1. I can't click on the help page text (to give the page focus), and then use PgUp and PgDn to scroll through the text. I have to use the moust to scroll. Lame. 2. I was looking up TFS specific APIs, and it wasn't able to find it locally, even though I installed everything that was installable locally. I think when they release an API with Visual Studio, they should include it in the local version of the help. 3. Dynamic help was actually very useful. Sad to see it go
I find the help system itself to be more stable, since (for me, anyway) it's running on MS servers - my context-help goes directly to FireFox and brings up a MSDN page. The gripe I really have about the help system is the same one I've had for years: the content. - Some methods throw exceptions that aren't in the help - Most of the help assumes that you already know everything about the class already. - Examples are incredibly simplistic, even for advanced classes (some of them just de-reference and print a few properties of the class, instead of showing me how the class is used in real life). Example is the WPF
Treeviewcontrol - the data is created and bound in the XAML - who would do this?!?!? There is no example showing data bound from aDataContext, or MVVM style - Not enough thought has gone into linking classes to other classes, the way a real programmer uses them. Example:Exceptionclass should have links all over it toAppDomain.UnhandledException. - non-working links. Example:Stringclass. Click on String Operators. What's sad about this one is that a couple of these can be automated to ensure code-coverage. All that being said, it is getting better than years past. But once you've used Borland's Delphi/C++ Builder help, using MS's help is just depressing.Before .NET 4.0, object Universe = NULL;
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Loading a large project in VS2010 takes much less time than in VS2008. This certainly impressed me a lot.
TOMZ_KV
That's good to hear. Is this a C# project or C++? What I would like to see is the IDE itself come up fast.
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That's good to hear. Is this a C# project or C++? What I would like to see is the IDE itself come up fast.
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< just don't waste any more money on help docs, and use that money to make Visual Studio starts faster > Or how about getting it to actualy work. Currently VS2010 is so unstable it comes under the heading unusable - even some of their own example programs crash VS2010. Role on the first Service pack! So at the moment help is irrelevant! Now ask me about VS 2008 help (no, better not......)
I would totally agree with you if that were my experience. But it hasn't been. I'm not sure why, but VS2010 hasn't crashed for me once.
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< just don't waste any more money on help docs, and use that money to make Visual Studio starts faster > Or how about getting it to actualy work. Currently VS2010 is so unstable it comes under the heading unusable - even some of their own example programs crash VS2010. Role on the first Service pack! So at the moment help is irrelevant! Now ask me about VS 2008 help (no, better not......)
Visual studio 2008 is quite good. Actually 2005 was better. With every new release, the IDE of the studio and the help becomes more fancy with the taste of the microsoft designers (and of course ten times slower than the previous one). Because simple user like fancy-looking programs, but programers like programs that actually work and Visual Studio is for programmers, they put a thousand new features, that nobody actually use, and after I am no longer happy, but bored looking at new features, I just write my code and press Build Solution (something that is not changed since VS98). The best feature of the VS 2010 - the new icon. The worst - I don't know, I am still trying to start VS 2010 under my configuration :)
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What is you favorite and least favorite feature of the Help system in Visual Studio 2010? My favorite: 1. The version on the web looks the same as the locally installed version. Least favorite (in order of annoyance) 1. I can't click on the help page text (to give the page focus), and then use PgUp and PgDn to scroll through the text. I have to use the moust to scroll. Lame. 2. I was looking up TFS specific APIs, and it wasn't able to find it locally, even though I installed everything that was installable locally. I think when they release an API with Visual Studio, they should include it in the local version of the help. 3. Dynamic help was actually very useful. Sad to see it go
Kenneth Kasajian wrote:
Least favorite (in order of annoyance) 3. Dynamic help was actually very useful. Sad to see it go
I found Dynamic Help to be a quick help for everything and miss it dearly. Another feature I miss is the registry hack to enable margin guidelines in the editor. VS2010 will only display the margins with the help of an extension which is fine on my development box. But many of the boxes I work on only have an Express version installed and can't utilize extensions - unless that's changed?
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What is you favorite and least favorite feature of the Help system in Visual Studio 2010? My favorite: 1. The version on the web looks the same as the locally installed version. Least favorite (in order of annoyance) 1. I can't click on the help page text (to give the page focus), and then use PgUp and PgDn to scroll through the text. I have to use the moust to scroll. Lame. 2. I was looking up TFS specific APIs, and it wasn't able to find it locally, even though I installed everything that was installable locally. I think when they release an API with Visual Studio, they should include it in the local version of the help. 3. Dynamic help was actually very useful. Sad to see it go
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What is you favorite and least favorite feature of the Help system in Visual Studio 2010? My favorite: 1. The version on the web looks the same as the locally installed version. Least favorite (in order of annoyance) 1. I can't click on the help page text (to give the page focus), and then use PgUp and PgDn to scroll through the text. I have to use the moust to scroll. Lame. 2. I was looking up TFS specific APIs, and it wasn't able to find it locally, even though I installed everything that was installable locally. I think when they release an API with Visual Studio, they should include it in the local version of the help. 3. Dynamic help was actually very useful. Sad to see it go
NOTE: I am assuming that not all MS Products Help systems work like SQL Servers so if that is incrroect tehn ignore part 1 below. NOTE2: I also have not use VS2010 so if any of teh suggested items (In PART2) are in VS 2010 please reply back and let me know. Thanks! PART 1: Independent Product for HELP THe VS Help system along with the HELP for every MS product all need to have a HELP that is the same framework and that is independent of the Product but that the product can plug into. For example with SQL Server the Help is a seperate product called BOL (or Books On Line) that like a regular product has its own regular updates and seperate install. The SQL Server product can integrate help to give the look of an integrated Help system that is in reality another independent software app. If all the MS Products, at least the Severe & Development apps like VS & SQL Server were to use the same common but indenpendent help system it would be far easier to manage the help process due to the followng bebefits. Part 2: Mising HELP Features Most Needed Assuming the seperate Help product or app as listed above the features that I think would be best added are: 1) HELP FAVS ORGANIZATION - It kills me how there is no customization at all of the Help product, at least with SQL Server. The best you can do is change the name of something you've added to your HELP FAVORITES section. There's no way to group or organize the links so if you actually use this feature it quickly becomes unmanagable. 2) ANNOTATE - Its frustrating that there is also no way to makr up or annotate the info in the Help system; to add to it any missing info which in the case of SQL Server has been on more then the rare occassion. Even if the ability to add comments or markup the help were resticted to just the OnLine version it woudl still be a steo in teh right direction.
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NOTE: I am assuming that not all MS Products Help systems work like SQL Servers so if that is incrroect tehn ignore part 1 below. NOTE2: I also have not use VS2010 so if any of teh suggested items (In PART2) are in VS 2010 please reply back and let me know. Thanks! PART 1: Independent Product for HELP THe VS Help system along with the HELP for every MS product all need to have a HELP that is the same framework and that is independent of the Product but that the product can plug into. For example with SQL Server the Help is a seperate product called BOL (or Books On Line) that like a regular product has its own regular updates and seperate install. The SQL Server product can integrate help to give the look of an integrated Help system that is in reality another independent software app. If all the MS Products, at least the Severe & Development apps like VS & SQL Server were to use the same common but indenpendent help system it would be far easier to manage the help process due to the followng bebefits. Part 2: Mising HELP Features Most Needed Assuming the seperate Help product or app as listed above the features that I think would be best added are: 1) HELP FAVS ORGANIZATION - It kills me how there is no customization at all of the Help product, at least with SQL Server. The best you can do is change the name of something you've added to your HELP FAVORITES section. There's no way to group or organize the links so if you actually use this feature it quickly becomes unmanagable. 2) ANNOTATE - Its frustrating that there is also no way to makr up or annotate the info in the Help system; to add to it any missing info which in the case of SQL Server has been on more then the rare occassion. Even if the ability to add comments or markup the help were resticted to just the OnLine version it woudl still be a steo in teh right direction.
Funny thing is, Windows Help used to have the annotation facility built right in.
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Funny thing is, Windows Help used to have the annotation facility built right in.
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I recall in the mid-90s when the help system in Visual Studio was replaced with HTML. It was less useful, but for some reason it was believed that since HTML that's better. At least one Microsoft person, this is a matter of 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. In the end, it's a better strategy. However, it didn't help the guy in the audience who explained that while he's debugging a web page, Internet explorer is stuck in the debugger, and if he tries to bring help in the middle of the debugging session, it can't access Internet Explorer and the entire system freezes.
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I recall in the mid-90s when the help system in Visual Studio was replaced with HTML. It was less useful, but for some reason it was believed that since HTML that's better. At least one Microsoft person, this is a matter of 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. In the end, it's a better strategy. However, it didn't help the guy in the audience who explained that while he's debugging a web page, Internet explorer is stuck in the debugger, and if he tries to bring help in the middle of the debugging session, it can't access Internet Explorer and the entire system freezes.
It seems like Microsoft jumps onto the 'Its Hot Now' bandwagon and so as they did with the Web based switch over in teh 90's I'm suprised that in the 2000's they din;t make the help full xml based since xml was to be the end all to all things sofwtare related. I guess we can soon expact the Help system to be cloud based and so once again if your not connected to the web then your SOL.