Rory Primrose

I came across this post about the direction of ReSharper for VS2008 via a Scott Guthrie post. It is good to hear where ReSharper is going now that VS2008 has been out for a couple of weeks.

I am using VS2008 with a ReSharper beta and for the most part it is working fine. I have read about people having many problems with the beta, but I haven't had that many issues. I think a buggy ReSharper is certainly better than no ReSharper. I tried going back to VS refactoring and it was so unproductive.

I find it unfortunate that some people are giving the ReSharper team a hard time for not getting a new version out sooner given that VS betas have been around for quite a while. Perhaps they have no idea how much work would be involved in developing and testing something like ReSharper. Maybe they also haven't heard about work/life balance. Those kinds of negative comments don't help developers motivation to get the work done.

I am looking forward to the next ReSharper version. Obviously sooner is better than later, but stable and reliable is better than sooner. [:)]

Tags:

I have been playing with CodeSmith recently. I have created a NAnt script that compiles and executes a set of CodeSmith templates based on a project definition and also integrates with TFS for any changes. I did come across a problem recently with CodeSmith being able to compile my templates though.

The naming of my .cst files included format masks that my NAnt script can use to determine the template output filename rather than being defined by the template itself. The issue here is that CodeSmith by default takes the template file name and uses that as the compiled class name.

CodeSmith correctly handles special characters, so a filename like dbo.sp{3}Delete.proc.sql.cst would be correctly compiled. This example is actually fine, but there is a bug in CodeSmith if the template name (after special characters are stripped) starts with a number, {3}DeleteDac.cs.cst for example. In this case, the special characters are stripped correctly, but the class name will start with a number which causes a compiler error in C#.

I contacted CodeSmith support regarding this issue. Their response was to use a ClassName and Namespace attribute on the CodeTemplate directive to use a more appropriate name. Interestingly, I couldn't find any references in the CodeSmith help regarding these attributes.

Tags: CodeSmith, NAnt

I guess this is good news, but I am not so eager as I once was about this product. While I think the product itself is absolutely fantastic, the installer experience of Beta 3 left a very sour taste. I still have the same issues with the unified installed which won't work behind a corporate environment, but at least my default IE search provider is no longer overwritten when I specifically ask it not to. It is still rude that the "option" is selected by default, like I must have become bored of the search provider I had previously configured. Oh well, can't have it all.

Now I just need to figure out where to get the standalone installer for Windows Live Writer so I can use it at work. After installing via the unified installer on my laptop, the registry indicates that the msi is C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources\Install_{9176251A-4CC1-4DDB-B343-B487195EB397}.msi, but executing that directly asks for the .Net framework. Still, it might work on my work machine.

Tags: Great Tools

This was an interesting one. I just installed Orcas Team Suite Beta 2. I would have assumed that Team Suite was the complete package. Everything I needed. Nope, not quite. Team Explorer is missing.

To get Team Explorer, you have to run the setup package for Team Foundation Server in order to then install the Team Explorer client software. Does this sound right. Having to run a server installer to get access to client software???

Tags:

A sure sign that I haven't blogged recently is that Windows Live Writer has dropped off my recent programs in the start menu.

Anyway, I have seen this first set of content before (perhaps even blogged it), but it is worth including again as I have found another set of information for VS performance. Here are the goods:

http://dotnettipoftheday.org/tips/speedup_visual_studio.aspx

Speed up Visual Studio 2005

• Make sure Visual Studio 2005 SP1 is installed.
• Turn off animation.
  Go to Tools | Options | Environment and uncheck Animate environment tools.
• Disable Navigation Bar.
  If you are using ReSharper, you don't need VS2005 to update the list of methods and fields at the top of the file (CTRL-F12 does this nicely). Go to Tools | Options | Text Editor | C# and uncheck Navigation bar.
• Turn off Track Changes.
  Go to Tools | Options | Text Editor and uncheck Track changes. This will reduce overhead and speeds up IDE response.
• Turn off Track Active item.
  This will turn off jumping in the explorer whenever you select different files in different projects. Go to Tools | Options | Projects and Solutions and uncheck Track Active Item in Solution Explorer. This will ensure that if you are moving across files in different projects, left pane will still be steady instead of jumping around.
• Turn off AutoToolboxPopulate.
  There is an option in VS 2005 that will cause VS to automatically populate the toolbox with any controls you compile as part of your solution. This is a useful feature when developing controls since it updates them when you build, but it can cause VS to end up taking a long time in some circumstances. To disable this option, select the Tools | Options | Windows Forms Designer and then set AutoToolboxPopulate to False.

http://dotnettipoftheday.org/tips/optimize_launch_of_vs2005.aspx

Optimize the launch of the Visual Studio 2005

• Disable "Start Page".

1. Go to Tools | Options.

2. In Environment | Startup section, change At startup setting to Show empty environment.

• Disable splash screen.

1. Open the properties of Visual Studio 2005 shortcut.

2. Add the parameter /nosplash to the target.

• Close all unnecessary panels/tabs to prevent them from appearing when the IDE loads.

Tags: Useful Links