October 2006 - Posts
A set of free extensions to Visual Studio 2005 has just been released and is now available for download via the Microsoft Download Center.
The new tools include:
- Source Code Outliner:
The Source Outliner tool is a Visual Studio extension that provides a
tree view of your source code's types and members and lets you quickly
navigate to them inside the editor.
- Visual C++ Code Snippets:
The Visual C++ Code Snippets tool lets you insert snippets in your code
by using a pop-up menu that contains programming keywords. VB.NET and
C# languages have this functionality in Visual Studio 2005.
- Indexed Find:
The Indexed Find tool is a Visual Studio extension that uses the
Microsoft Indexing Service to provide improved Search capabilities to
the integrated development environment (IDE). It sends the results of a
search to the Output Window.
- Super Diff Utility:
The Super Diff Find tool is a Visual Studio extension that compares
text files. It uses color coding and graphics to show the difference
between the files in deleted text (red), changed text (blue), inserted
text (green).
- Event Toaster Utility: The
Event Toaster tool is a Visual Studio extension that notifies users
about specific events within the Visual Studio IDE.
These
are certainly welcome additions to Visual Studio's feature
set. I'm glad to see the Super Diff Utility which lets me quickly
see code differences without alt-tabbing out of VS to another compare
program. Perhaps this is already in the works (or someone can
write an Add-in), but it would be even more useful if you could
right-click on the files in Solution Explorer and choose to compare
them.
I'm finding the Source Code Outliner very useful as
well. It presents a list of the members of whatever code file you
have open and lets you click on the member to quickly navigate to the
code.
After installation, you can find the new tools via View
-> Other Windows save for the Event Toaster, which is configured
via Tools -> Options -> Power Toys -> Event Toaster.
-Chris
Yesterday, at Code Camp 6,
I started breaking the news that I am joining Microsoft! The most
common reaction from people who know me has been a blend of
"Congratulations!" and "It's about time!"
As of November 6th, I
will be joining Microsoft as Developer Evangelist for New
England. This is the same role that, until recently,
was performed superbly by Thom Robbins. The position became open when Thom moved to to Redmond to become Director of .NET Marketing.
While
I don't start for another two weeks, I couldn't be more excited to get
to work. I have been part of the New England professional
developer community for many years and have directly seen the value
that Thom provided as an active and consistently helpful Developer
Evangelist. I look forward to the role with
energy, enthusiasm, and respect for the responsibility that the
role encompasses.
Thanks to everyone for the
words of encouragement I've already been receiving. To those of
you I haven't yet met, I look forward to meeting you soon.
-Chris
P.S. I don't have a Microsoft address yet, but you can reach me via the "Contact" link at the top of this blog.
The schedule for Code Camp 6 is
now available. This time around, we're trying a different format
of packing all of the sessions into one day this Saturday (10/21)
instead of the usual full weekend. Registration begins at 8:30
and the sessions will run from 9 AM until 6:15 PM at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, MA.
I'll be giving a demo-heavy talk, "PowerShell in a Nutshell" (sorry, couldn't resist) in which I'll show how PowerShell can be a great tool for anyone, but especially for .NET developers.
If you haven't registered, you can do so here.
Hope to see you there!
-Chris