Regions: Love or Hate

[jim lahey]

Regions are a necessary evil. I find them helpful for grouping related or similar blocks of code within a file. Using

ctrl + k + s

and

ctrl + m + p

takes a lot of the pain out of them.

[Abhinav S]

Try remembering the following and you should be ok. (of course these may be different based on your settings)

Ctrl + M, M - Toggle Outlining expansion
Ctrl + M, L - Toggle all outlining
Ctrl + M, P - Stop outlining
Ctrl + M, Ctrl + U - stop hiding current
Ctrl + M, O - Collapse to definitions

Too much of heaven can bring you underground Heaven can always turn around Too much of heaven, our life is all hell bound Heaven, the kill that makes no sound

[Reiss]

I also use To Refactor at the top of my code file for stuff that works, but could be improved on - by doing this I find that when I edit a file to make a change, I also tackle these too if time allows.

[vonb]

I use them sometimes (Interface related, etc.) but in WPF, as there is much more design than code, it doesn't make many sense.

[Keith Barrow]

Used to like, now dislike: Used to like and used them to tidy up "sections" of classes (e.g. fields, properties, methods) now I've come round to the opinion that is just hides code. Too often they hide incorrect class structure and poor general design. The worst offenders in this case are inside methods where a region is used to hide what should be refactored into private methods in some poorly written god-method. I've seeen them used to hide Data Access stuff in an object model which should have been a whole different architectural layer and entire "classes" within a god-class.

Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

[Dave Kerr]

Nice, that's a useful tip

[BillWoodruff]

I like them ... used judiciously. best, Bill

"Is it a fact - or have I dreamt it - that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time? Rather, the round globe is a vast head, a brain, instinct with intelligence!" - Nathanial Hawthorne, House of the Seven Gables

[Chris Maunder]

Like anything in code their use needs to be part of your coding standards. What I'd like to see is a way to colour the entire background of a region (specifically, green or yellow). I use them like

#region Public Methods ----------------------------------------------

and having the entire line highlighted would make them so increidbly valuable as markers. And I know: If your files are short enough you never need something like this... cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP

[W Balboos GHB]

Region is the opiate of the people! Ooops. I read that wrong. Never mind

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

[Tom Deketelaere]

Devexpress has something similar to that. Regions can be colored in a differant colour but not the entire region background unfortunately. There is a line indicating the start and end of the region and the option to have the name of the region both at the start and end. I find that it helps but could still be improved on. By the way something seems to be wrong with your sig. Don't see the line seperating your message and sig and there is html in it. This is what I get:

And I know: If your files are short enough you never need something like this...

cheers,
Chris Maunder

The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP

[Mario Luis]

I like them as long as used sensibly. They're also great when working with a section of controls events, I put all the events of a group of controls together and stick them in a region, makes it much easier to read.

[S Houghtelin]

If regions are being used to hide code then they are being used incorrectly. When someone "hides" something that means they don't want you to see it. Sweeping a mess under the carpet does not eliminate it, now you have a lumpy rug that someone will trip on. I absolutely agree with using them to group related items, I especially likes Griff’s list above. The ability to change the background to have them stand out would be nice.

It was broke, so I fixed it.

[Nemanja Trifunovic]

I use an editor[^] that supports real code folding. [^]. Why would I need "regions"? :-\

utf8-cpp

[V 0]

good use is a bliss, bad use; hell. :)

V.

[S Houghtelin]

V. wrote:

good use is a bliss, bad use; hell

Very appropriate description of how to write code in any language old, outdated or new. +5 :thumbsup:

It was broke, so I fixed it.

[GuyThiebaut]

I did not know what K&R was so I looked it up - euugh! X| That is a seriously bad way to screw with people's minds!

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)

[Dave Kerr]

Just snorted tea all over my desk with that one

[Dave Kerr]

That's what I was thinking, if they could change the whole background then they might be a bit more visible. I suppose it could be done in VS2010 as WPF plugins can be written to draw in the code editor

[W Balboos GHB]

You should not be surprised to learn that you've just made my day.

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

"As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

[AspDotNetDev]

Keith Barrow wrote:

I've seeen them used to hide Data Access stuff in an object model which should have been a whole different architectural layer and entire "classes" within a god-class.

Guilty.

Martin Fowler wrote:

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.