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  3. I am starting to hate Visual Studio.

I am starting to hate Visual Studio.

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
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  • OriginalGriffO Offline
    OriginalGriffO Offline
    OriginalGriff
    wrote last edited by
    #3

    I did, in the end. It's just so sodding annoying that MS adds the confusion, can sort it out from context and not blow compilations of older projects, but refuses to do so and throws hundreds of new errors instead. If it can working out from context for an explicit var definition, why not from an explict class?

    I'm becoming convinced the devs at MS are not testing anything they don't use ... and they don't have to maintain their own code ...

    "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
    "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

    1 Reply Last reply
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    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

      I know, I know - its the best dev environment out there. Just give me a minute.

      I made a tiny, inconsequential addition to an old app (to cope with a new thought. Literally one line of code. ran it in the debugger, and tested it. Worked fine.

      So I built it for release. And all hell broke loose. Errors everywhere, all complaing that one of my classes was an ambiguous references with a system class. 522 errors. So I start qualifying my class reference. Which (understandably) is taking quite a while.

      But then I had a thought. "What if I switch to var instead of an explicit class when I declare the variables?" (Which I tend to avoid as the maintainer - i.e. me - has to work out the type from context, which takes longer than an explicit typing.)

      And what do you know? it works. With "var x = ...;" it works out what class it is from context. With "MyClass x = ...;" it doesn't ... For fawks sake MS!

      P Online
      P Online
      PIEBALDconsult
      wrote last edited by
      #4

      Soo... not actually Visual Studio, but MSbuild or whatnot?

      Visual Studio 2010 was the last usable version. Versions after that are too intrusive, definite productivity inhibitors.

      OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • P PIEBALDconsult

        Soo... not actually Visual Studio, but MSbuild or whatnot?

        Visual Studio 2010 was the last usable version. Versions after that are too intrusive, definite productivity inhibitors.

        OriginalGriffO Offline
        OriginalGriffO Offline
        OriginalGriff
        wrote last edited by
        #5

        @PIEBALDconsult Nope, it's VS. If you use a var, the IDE picks up on the context to work out for itself what the type is. If you explicitly state the type it will not even try to infer it from context.

        Thinking about it that way, it makes some sense - but when you are faced with several hundred errors in a project that compiled fine in previous versions it's rather annoying ...

        "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
        "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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        • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

          @PIEBALDconsult Nope, it's VS. If you use a var, the IDE picks up on the context to work out for itself what the type is. If you explicitly state the type it will not even try to infer it from context.

          Thinking about it that way, it makes some sense - but when you are faced with several hundred errors in a project that compiled fine in previous versions it's rather annoying ...

          P Online
          P Online
          PIEBALDconsult
          wrote last edited by
          #6

          Then what happens when you compile it outside of VS? Calling MSbuild from the command line?

          OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
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          • P PIEBALDconsult

            Then what happens when you compile it outside of VS? Calling MSbuild from the command line?

            OriginalGriffO Offline
            OriginalGriffO Offline
            OriginalGriff
            wrote last edited by
            #7

            @PIEBALDconsult Dunno - I never do that!

            "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
            "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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            • P Offline
              P Offline
              Prahlad Yeri
              wrote last edited by
              #8

              Sailing in the same boat here. Each new version of Visual Studio seems to come with more and more bloat. Up until around 2015–2017, it was still somewhat bearable. At this rate, people might just skip it altogether, install the .NET SDK, and use plain VS Code with a heavier command-line workflow. Maybe that’s the direction they’re nudging us toward with all this extra cruft!

              P raddevusR 2 Replies Last reply
              1
              • P Prahlad Yeri

                Sailing in the same boat here. Each new version of Visual Studio seems to come with more and more bloat. Up until around 2015–2017, it was still somewhat bearable. At this rate, people might just skip it altogether, install the .NET SDK, and use plain VS Code with a heavier command-line workflow. Maybe that’s the direction they’re nudging us toward with all this extra cruft!

                P Online
                P Online
                PIEBALDconsult
                wrote last edited by PIEBALDconsult
                #9

                a heavier command-line workflow.

                Because VS is so heavy, I consider my command-line workflow to be lighter, not heavier.
                My primary use for VS is the debugger, but that's been giving me trouble lately, not loading symbols (VS 2017 Pro at work, I can't upgrade it or anything). Everything else VS provides is either "nice to have" or "I don't want that".

                P.S. Here at home, I have VS 2022 and one of the nicest-to-haves is Regular Expression coloring.

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                • D Offline
                  D Offline
                  Dave Kreskowiak
                  wrote last edited by
                  #10

                  I've had VS 2022 go insane with small changes making huge numbers of errors that didn't make sense. I end up just restarting VS and reload the solution. Problem solved and sanity returned.

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                    I know, I know - its the best dev environment out there. Just give me a minute.

                    I made a tiny, inconsequential addition to an old app (to cope with a new thought. Literally one line of code. ran it in the debugger, and tested it. Worked fine.

                    So I built it for release. And all hell broke loose. Errors everywhere, all complaing that one of my classes was an ambiguous references with a system class. 522 errors. So I start qualifying my class reference. Which (understandably) is taking quite a while.

                    But then I had a thought. "What if I switch to var instead of an explicit class when I declare the variables?" (Which I tend to avoid as the maintainer - i.e. me - has to work out the type from context, which takes longer than an explicit typing.)

                    And what do you know? it works. With "var x = ...;" it works out what class it is from context. With "MyClass x = ...;" it doesn't ... For fawks sake MS!

                    ChoroidC Offline
                    ChoroidC Offline
                    Choroid
                    wrote last edited by
                    #11

                    @OriginalGriff Do you mind sharing the version of VS you are using ?
                    I have a W7 machine running VS 2019 works fine for VB.Net & C# apps

                    I have a new W10 machine and can not find a community edition of VS 2019
                    Considering VS 2022 or VS 2026 my concern is the evasiveness of AI in 2026
                    Your thoughts Paul or anyone else care to comment. Thanks in Advance

                    OriginalGriffO 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                      I know, I know - its the best dev environment out there. Just give me a minute.

                      I made a tiny, inconsequential addition to an old app (to cope with a new thought. Literally one line of code. ran it in the debugger, and tested it. Worked fine.

                      So I built it for release. And all hell broke loose. Errors everywhere, all complaing that one of my classes was an ambiguous references with a system class. 522 errors. So I start qualifying my class reference. Which (understandably) is taking quite a while.

                      But then I had a thought. "What if I switch to var instead of an explicit class when I declare the variables?" (Which I tend to avoid as the maintainer - i.e. me - has to work out the type from context, which takes longer than an explicit typing.)

                      And what do you know? it works. With "var x = ...;" it works out what class it is from context. With "MyClass x = ...;" it doesn't ... For fawks sake MS!

                      Graeme_GrantG Offline
                      Graeme_GrantG Offline
                      Graeme_Grant
                      wrote last edited by
                      #12

                      @OriginalGriff This conversation reminds me of this video: VS2008 vs VS2026 speed (not the title of the video, but what the video is about)

                      “I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times.” - Bruce Lee.

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                      0
                      • ChoroidC Choroid

                        @OriginalGriff Do you mind sharing the version of VS you are using ?
                        I have a W7 machine running VS 2019 works fine for VB.Net & C# apps

                        I have a new W10 machine and can not find a community edition of VS 2019
                        Considering VS 2022 or VS 2026 my concern is the evasiveness of AI in 2026
                        Your thoughts Paul or anyone else care to comment. Thanks in Advance

                        OriginalGriffO Offline
                        OriginalGriffO Offline
                        OriginalGriff
                        wrote last edited by
                        #13

                        @Choroid I'm using 2022, having updated from 2019 when it came out.
                        The debugger was weird - it didn't work quite the same (becuase it's been reworked to better support multithread9ing, I think) and it took me a while to get used to it's new quirks in unthreaded apps.

                        Some bits are really nice to have though - the AI suggestions also included sensible code fragments which can really speed your dev work once you are used to them - autocompleting foreach for example using context from existing code.

                        All in all, it takes some work to switch, but it's probably worth it. Just be careful when opening old projects or you are goign to get a shit-ton of new errors and warnings!

                        "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                        "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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                        0
                        • honey the codewitchH Offline
                          honey the codewitchH Offline
                          honey the codewitch
                          wrote last edited by honey the codewitch
                          #14

                          My only real complaints that I feel are sometimes legitimate are speed related. The rest is just me being set in my ways and resistant to new features/organization AFAIAC.

                          But...

                          For my part, if visual studio starts getting slow I start eying the price of new hardware. Not that visual studio should drive hardware purchases per se, but when my computer can't handle it anymore, there are other things it no longer does as quickly as I'd like, like compiling large C/++ projects. So it's indicator for me that it's time for a change/upgrade. YMMV.

                          That being said, I am on VS2022. VS2019 or VS2022 (i think 2019) was the first one that shipped with a C++ compiler that would compile my C++17 standard code, so I won't use an earlier version. People say otherwise, but damn if Microsoft's attempts at providing a standards based compiler aren't hot wet garbage. Finally they've achieved something usable for me, so I'll put up with slowdowns just for that.

                          I don't need anything newer, and I paid for a license relatively recently as far as I am concerned so I'm hesitant to upgrade.

                          And yeah I don't like some of the automagic stuff it does, like trying to put code in my code when I'm just trying to tab out. It is what it is though. I'm trying to be a Buddhist about stuff like that.

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                          • P Prahlad Yeri

                            Sailing in the same boat here. Each new version of Visual Studio seems to come with more and more bloat. Up until around 2015–2017, it was still somewhat bearable. At this rate, people might just skip it altogether, install the .NET SDK, and use plain VS Code with a heavier command-line workflow. Maybe that’s the direction they’re nudging us toward with all this extra cruft!

                            raddevusR Offline
                            raddevusR Offline
                            raddevus
                            wrote last edited by
                            #15

                            @Prahlad-Yeri

                            @Prahlad-Yeri said in I am starting to hate Visual Studio.:

                            skip it altogether, install the .NET SDK, and use plain VS Code with a heavier command-line workflow.

                            That has been my exact way of moving foward.
                            The dotnet command line is extremely easy and powerful to use and I develop Cross-Platform apps* from Linux and VSCode makes that very easy and possible.

                            Although recently, even VSCode started driving me crazy with all the copilot stuff and I moved to neovim

                            • Check out my FOSS (Free & Open Source) cross-platform TaskManager written in C# (with HTML5, JS, CSS User Interface) on github: https://github.com/raddevus/DiscoProcs

                            7cc131d8-64c5-4a91-abc9-cc70ca185119-image.png

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