Top issues?

Nick Parker

Chris Maunder wrote: What are your top hates and top wish list items for the IDE? Even thought I am running an AMD XP 1600, you can still tell there is a lag sometimes during certain processes. I would assume this is possibly some sort of garbage collection that is the root. I am hoping for more integration of other applications into VS.NET like they did with MSN Messenger and the Web Matrix project.

Nick Parker

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. - Albert Einstein

Jeff J

Stability. I and many devs I know, have found the new IDE to be crash-prone, though some users somehow do not seem to be affected. By contrast, VS6 was rock solid for most everyone I know. Reliable Data. Just mouse-hovering over vars, frequently pops-up incorrect info, especially strings and bools. I've even found problems in the locals and autos windows. Sometimes have to do Debug.Write or Debug.Assert to correctly confirm data. Code completion sometimes display members for completely different classes! Not exactly inspiring.

Michael P Butler

Top Hate: Screen Clutter, even on hi-res and big monitors, the screen still seems cluttered. Also Dynamic Help - every time I turn it off it seems to come back on again. It really annoys. Michael Fat bottomed girls You make the rockin' world go round -- Queen

theoutlander

I like the collapsable functions and the fact that you can collapse any part of the code once you are done with it. This makes it very easy to read through 10,000 lines of code. What I hate is that it EATS up my CODE. Issues with TabControl..... Issues with Switching Windows from Code to Design Mode..... - Shardool

Tom Welch

------------------ HATES ------------------ Multiple monitor support is really messed up. Windows appear in wrong display or worse, both displays. Toolbox is either Pinned or Unpinned. Cannot be automatically Pinned for Dialog editing and automatically unpinned in Source editor Help files are littered CE topics which are given preference over other SDK topics. IDE changes menus too much depending on what is currently selected. (i.e. single project solution does not place Properties on the Project menu unless a project is selected. and many other examples). Must be editing a WindowsForms file or have a class file selected in ClassViewer to get the proper Properties window for a class (lightning bolt, windows messages, virtual functions). These should be shown when you are editing any class member function. Macros are really slow... is it just me? Eliminate Dynamic Help. I don't know anyone who hasn't disabled it entirely. --------------------- WISHES --------------------- Edit and continue for C# Real Code Browser - like old Browse Info File. .NET help topic that are more that just function name and parameters. -- If it starts to make sense, you're in a cult.

Kevin McFarlane

The new IDE is effectively version 1.0. Whenever MS moves to a radical new IDE the first version is always unstable. VS6 (VC++) is certainly rock-solid. But the first version of DevStudio (VC4) wasn't. Kevin

Jeff J

I remember. Patching severe bugs was a top issue then, and still is now. A year after the official release, I still have to write code within VC6, or risk constant rebooting, and I am far from alone. Up through the VC4 days I worked at the command line a lot, and I suppose I have to get used to it being that way again. The next time my employer insists I continue fixing bugs post-release, I will remind him that customers have no right to desire stability for at least a year.

Kevin McFarlane

Jeff, I also remember being surprised to learn that VS .NET was only going to have two betas. A product this complex deserved at least three. Much less complex products elsewhere had as many as five. Kevin

peterchen

remember the "collapsed region" settings...

If I could find a souvenir / just to prove the world was here [sighist]

peterchen

ohh... and more features: collapsed "<summary>" comments should be treated like regions: boxed (or similary distinguished), showing the first line of the summary

If I could find a souvenir / just to prove the world was here [sighist]

Not Active

Fix the disappearing properties window when autohide is enabled

Not Active

Have CP intergated.;)

Simon Steele

I'd like to see: A dialog resource editor that doesn't make me feel like tearing my hair out every time I use it. More information about programming with Visual Styles (for examples of why this is problematic see here). Windows API help! I am not programming with MFC. I do not want the help for WM_* to bring up CWnd methods related to these messages :mad:. The only way I've found of simply getting to this help is to leave Dynamic Help turned on. At least that seems to actually list the correct win32 method references. In fact, the help seems incredibly difficult to navigate for any information if you're not after .NET or VB or ... (basically if you're looking for real information it's quite well hidden - don't even talk to me about filters, they're hopeless). I really, really, really want all of the little build-result and find windows (etc) to disappear when I press escape. Where has my control of the screen real-estate gone! WTL support built in - any extra support there would be more than lovely. Different screen layouts for different doc types. I want the toolbox and properties windows when editing dialogs, and I want them hidden when editing code (usually). There are other windows to which this kind of logic could also apply. Oh, and if I could please have the moon on a stick it would really make my day. -- Simon Steele Programmers Notepad - http://www.pnotepad.org/

James T Johnson

Kevin McFarlane wrote: A product this complex deserved at least three. There were several releases that weren't released to the public. Back in 2000's PDC the first semi-public release was made; then later came Beta 1 followed about six months later by Beta 2. Then at 2001's PDC a new version came out; this one was considered RC0 and was supposed to be feature complete and all focus was supposed to be on bug fixes. Even though RC0 was handed out at a PDC, shortly after MS offered it to the public; unlike the PDC 2000 release. After that I think there were 5 or so more RCs but they were limited to select groups of people. All of this comes from second-hand information gleaned from various mailing list posts where people from MS or those with private releases have let slip a few words. Of course my mind probably has distorted some facts over time. James - out of order -

Kevin McFarlane

Yes, I know there were a few RCs after Beta 2 but they all came with little time before final release and weren't as widely distributed as the betas. But I think, given the severe IT slump, MS would not have lost much by delaying final release by a few months. I can't imagine there were millions of customers eager to start rolling out .NET. Kevin

James T Johnson

Kevin McFarlane wrote: MS would not have lost much by delaying final release by a few months. My theory is that MS should never have advertised that VS.NET was going to be released at last years VSLive. I think they modeled the whole conference after it which tied them down to a Feb. release date. James - out of order -

WizardOfPeyton

I would like to have Auto Replace within the code editor. I would like to be able to type a predefined sequence of characters and have them automatically replaced. For example I would like to type 'sys ' and have that replaced with 'System'. It would be nice to have a dockable view to allow for the configuration of this feature. I have looked into creating a Add-In, but have not found a way to get keypresses from the editor window, only when the LineChanged.

Kevin McFarlane

Ah, right! Kevin

revert

VC++: - "Project configurations are out of date" ... "Would you like to build them?" Very annoying dialog - have a checkbox to "Alert me when my project configurations are out of date". - Class and Method browsing - Definitions and Declarations. This is still quite buggy and slow. If this could be improved to be at par with VC6 speed and versatility then it would make me happy. - Class Wizard - Adding classes to the project - ignores capitalization of #include filenames - especially if the new class is derived from a base class. - Tabbed code windows are great, except if you have too many open - sometimes the tab's title is blank if the number of open source documents is greater than 20-ish. - The "Types in xxx.cpp" and "Methods in xxx.cpp" drop downs at the top of each source document seem to take you to the declaration more often then the definition. It has a mind of its own as to which you will be navigated towards. - Edit and Continue is hopeless. I disable it by default. - The Object Browser is clunky and confusing. Once again, if you could retain the useability of VC6 in the code browsing, I'd be happy. Suggested additions, VC++: - Have a "class browser" that allows the developer to view base classes at the top and derived classes at the bottom. Essentially the developer can then have a quick peek at the class hierarchy. This seems more intuative then checking each class via "Class View" for its base classe(s). Overall, I am a strong supporter of the VS.NET I find it a joy to use each day - so please keep upi the great work! Jim Q

Brian Olej

Michael P Butler wrote: Top Hate: Screen Clutter, even on hi-res and big monitors, the screen still seems cluttered Even with autohide on the different elements? If you auto hide toolbox/server explorer theres just as much room as in VC6...:) Why waste time learning when ignorance in instantaneous -Hobbes