If you’ve been using VS 2010 for anything more than a few minutes you have probably had the clipboard issue – ie, copy and paste randomly breaks.  This is documented on MS connect here and probably elsewhere. 

The current recommendation is to install VS 2010 SP1 beta which I did this morning.

Unfortunately this doesn't work for me.  I still get random errors, albeit slightly different.  Now when I paste, the cursor moves back to what I had selected and nothing is pasted.

Happy days !

I’ve been enjoying the stability and extra performance of a 64 bit OS for about 2 years now so I am surprise and somewhat disappointed that the latest round of goodness from Microsoft – i.e. SharePoint 2010, Office 2010 and Visual Studio 2010 have some annoying incompatibilities in this mode.

Datasheet View of  a SharePoint list with a 64 bit version of Office does not work, you just get this annoying dialog:

Apparently this is because the ActiveX control is not available for 64 bit OS’s.  I have only tested on 2008 R2 server – Windows 7 64 bit may be ok.

Also, Intellitrace in Visual Studio – aka Historical Debugging - does not support SharePoint (or any 64 bit app?).

I’m sure Microsoft are aware of these limitations and will offer solutions in due course – but really, 64 bit has been coming for a while and I think we can expect not to see this sort of incompatibility, especially for Office. 

For me this has tarnished my experience only a tad, but overall, 64 bit everywhere is better than 32 bit in the same way that cake is better than two week old bagels.

I haven't used WIX a lot so I'm no expert, but I do know that is way better packaging solution than anything else that ships with Visual Studio currently.  Version 3 of WIX had progressed to the point that MS were helping to have it included in the VS 2010 out of the box.  Which is slightly ironic if you know the history of WIX.

However, it appears than plans and people have changed and WIX will NOT ship with VS2010.

This is very sad for us poor developers who are left with little out of box choices for solution packaging.  Sure you will still be able to get WIX yourself but many shops don't like to let developers help themselves to open source tools and are even meaner when it comes to paying for tools.  Inclusion of WIX with the VS2010 release would have moved WIX to the mainstream and finally put a nail in the coffin of VDPROJ packages.

For the full story, read here.

If you think this is a mistake then it may not be too late.  Microsoft always listen to customers.  If enough of us talk about this and express opinions then they may change their mind or at least offer WIX as a Power Tools or some such thing.

If you would like to have your say then either blog about this yourself or send an email to Soma (VP of Developer Division) via his blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/contact.aspx

<TestDBServer>fred</TestDBServer>
<TestDBName>$(BuildNumber)</TestDBName>
<TestDBCreateConnectionString>
 data source=$(TestDBServer);integrated security=SSPI;Pooling=true
</TestDBCreateConnectionString>

<Message Text="Creating test database " Importance="normal"/>
<ExecuteSQL ConnectionString="$(TestDBCreateConnectionString)"
    Command="create database [$(BuildNumber)]" />

This created an empty database with a name of whatever the BuildNumber is.  Note the [ and ] around the $(BuildNumber). 

Next, I execute the script to create the database objects and populate it with sample data:

<Exec Command="isql.exe -E -S $(TestDBServer) -i $(BuildDirectoryPath)\SUMS3\SUMS3Debug\Sources\Airways.SUMS3\CreateTestDB.SQL -d [$(BuildNumber)]" />

The SQL script is checked in with the solution files, hence the funcky path to it.  I could have had it in the Team Build project folder, but it's more visible in the solution.

So, now my Team Build produces completely isolated instances.  Users can happily compare old versions with the latest and greatest version. 

• The ToolStrip designer is less than stable.  If a ToolStrip overflows to the drop down menu you can add new ToolStrip items but you cant move them or delete them.
• The WebDev.WebServer STILL drops connections which makes it useless for debugging.  I logged this as a bug a while ago.  I also managed to speak to the chap in Redmond who wrote this (or is at least responsible for it) while I was there for the summit.  Sorry, can't remember his name now, but he knew nothing of the issue then.  It may be just an issue on our systems (I've seen it on 2 machines) or with our project.  Has anyone else seen this problem?
• Visual Studio locks up frequently.  Actually, it's not dead, just not responding.  The Task Manager shows about 50% cpu activity on devenv.exe but I have to kill the process.  I'm not sure but I suspect this might be a Team System Source Control issue.
• Help is very slow to load.
• Visual Studio can be very slow to load.
• I had an issue with a solution yestuday that wouldn't let me open the projects in it or re-add them.  I had to create a new SLN and add the projects back in.  I think Team System Source Control is/was caching an incorrect path so even though I had a proejct file in C:\SomePath and I selected the project to add, it would look in a different path (where the project once was). 

Class designer won't load in Visual Studio

namespace MyWebService.MyDataSet {

    public partial class MyDataSet : DataSet {

 

      public List<MyDataSet.SomeRow> GetListOfEmployeesByName(string name) {

          MyDataSetHelper helper = new MyDataSetHelper();

          return helper.GetListOfEmployeesByName(this, name); 

      }

    }

}

 

// proxy version

using MyDataSet.Shared;

namespace MyProxy.MyDataSet {

    public partial class MyDataSet : DataSet {

 

            public List<MyDataSet.SomeRow> GetListOfEmployeesByName(string name) {

          MyDataSetHelper helper = new MyDataSetHelper();

          return helper.GetListOfEmployeesByName(this, name);     

      }

        }

}

 

// shared code

namespace MyDataSet.Shared {

    public class MyDataSetHelper {

            public List<MyDataSet.SomeRow> GetListOfEmployeesByName(MyDataSet ds, string name) {

          // blah

      }

  }

}

 

 

 

 

I'm using the new ToolStrip and ToolStripContainer in our VS05 application and it looks hot!  However, I've had a lot of trouble getting the toolstips to behave and stay where I want them in design mode.

This morning I discovered that using the Document Outline works really well for moving stuff around on your winforms.  Now it all looks sweet.

A word of warning.  In VS 05, if you REMOVE a project from a solution, it actually get's deleted from disk and Team System Source Control.  Thank [insert your devine being here] for Undo Pending Changes!

This is one of those Friday afternoon problems.

In my 2005 Winforms client I have a nice fancy splash screen that displays the current version - 3.0.0.0 (yes, this is the 3rd version but the 1st .Net version) - which it retrieves from Application.ProductVersion.  Under the covers, ProductVersion is actually just AssemblyFileVersion from assemblyinfo.vb/cs.

Now, I wanted to have this auto increment the build number.  In VS03, you do something like this: [assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("3.0.0.*")] and the asterix is replaced with the next version on each build.  Well this didn't work.  All I got was "Version 3.0.0.*" in the splash screen.

Ok, fair enough, probably a beta issue or there is another way of doing it I'm not aware of.

HOWEVER, when I tried to exit the app, it crashed trying to save Properties.Settings.Default.  It said there was an invalid character in the file path.  Of course, there was an hour between these two issues so it took me a few minutes but eventually I figured that the version number is used in the settings file name.  Removing the asterix solved this problem.

FYI

I don't want to burst anyones bubble here, but I think there's a lot of people under the impression that SQL 05 & VS 05 are going to be released on November 7th.  From everything I've seen announced, this is the LAUNCH date, not the RELEASE date - they could be quite seperate things.  At the very least, I wouldn't expect to see DVD's/CD's in your mail box before December. 

But then, I could be wrong... and it wouldn't be the first time.

I have a DataGridView where I allow users to type in cell values, but I only want upper case.  To do this, you need to capture the control as it's being created and assign a KeyPress handler.  E.g:

    private void MyGrid_EditingControlShowing(object sender, DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventArgs e)
    {
      if (e.Control is DataGridViewTextBoxEditingControl)
      {
        e.Control.KeyPress += new KeyPressEventHandler(Control_KeyPress);
      }
    }

    void Control_KeyPress(object sender, KeyPressEventArgs e)
    {
      e.KeyChar = e.KeyChar.ToString().ToUpper()[0];
    }

Of course, you can extend this further to do all sort of things, but if your requirements are complex then it's probably advisable to create your own custom column.

I like IE7, it's clean and fast and seems pretty stable.  HOWEVER, Work Item Tracking in Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite does not like it.  It causes VS to crash.

Luckily it uninstalls nicely and restores IE 6 as it was, so no harm done.

Last week I had a small disaster with the source control in Team System.  I managed to overwrite 3 files and lost about 2 weeks work.  The files has not been checked in correctly since mid June.  This was not a nice thing to happen :{

For some reason known only to - pick your God here - I mucked around with the file attributes on these files and then did a "Get Latest", which of course, overwrote the local versions with the old server versions.  Yes, that was a stupid thing to do!  However, I still haven't a clue why the files where not getting checked in correctly.  It may have something to do with the readonly file attributes being out of sync or something else.

So, a word of warning, don't get too comfortable with the Source Control yet - IT'S A BETA !!!  Go and check now that all your files are being checked in correctly and before doing a Get Latest, backup your local versions.

Roll on beta 3...

I'm not the most efficient coder.  Things like Resharper are a waste of time for me.  I prefer to repeat myself 4 million times rather than learn 23,000 keyboard shortcuts.  I think it's something to do with creative flow.

However, sometime you see things that are so easy and quick to use that you just adopt them without thinking.  Snippets are one of these.  David reminded me of this.

So, here's a custom snippet I created for inserting properties. This is pretty much the same as the default prop snippet, but I've added summary comments and I like my member vars to have a leading underscore:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<CodeSnippets  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
 <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
  <Header>
   <Title>jprop</Title>
   <Shortcut>jprop</Shortcut>
   <Description>Code snippet for property and backing field</Description>
   <Author>Peter G Jones (modified version of prop from Microsoft Corporation)</Author>
   <SnippetTypes>
    <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
   </SnippetTypes>
  </Header>
  <Snippet>
   <Declarations>
    <Literal>
     <ID>type</ID>
     <ToolTip>Property type</ToolTip>
     <Default>int</Default>
    </Literal>
    <Literal>
     <ID>property</ID>
     <ToolTip>Property name</ToolTip>
     <Default>MyProperty</Default>
    </Literal>
    <Literal>
     <ID>field</ID>
     <ToolTip>The variable backing this property</ToolTip>
     <Default>_myVar</Default>
    </Literal>
   </Declarations>
   <Code Language="csharp">
        <![CDATA[/// <summary>
  /// Backing variable for property $property$
  /// </summary>      
  private $type$ $field$;

  /// <summary>
  /// Property $property$
  /// </summary>
 public $type$ $property$
 {
  get { return $field$;}
  set { $field$ = value;}
 }
 $end$]]>
   </Code>
  </Snippet>
 </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

I can see that creating more elaborate snippets is pretty easy.  I wonder if it would be possible to have CodeSmith snippets?  That would be really cool!

I'm trying to format contents of a cell in a DataGridView using the following code:

private void RosterGrid_CellFormatting(object sender, DataGridViewCellFormattingEventArgs e)
{
  ShiftCell sc = e.Value as ShiftCell;
  if (sc != null && sc.RosteredShiftRow != null)
  {
   if (!sc.RosteredShiftRow.ShiftRow.IsForegroundColorNull())
     e.CellStyle.ForeColor = Color.FromArgb(sc.RosteredShiftRow.ShiftRow.ForegroundColor);
   if (!sc.RosteredShiftRow.ShiftRow.IsBackGroundColorNull())
     e.CellStyle.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(sc.RosteredShiftRow.ShiftRow.BackGroundColor);
   e.Value = sc.ToString();
   //e.FormattingApplied = true; // tried this and it make no diff
  }
}

This should set the current cell colours for some cells only.

However the result is crap:

Anyone got any ideas?

Update:  I fixed this by making sure I set the background colour to something valid.  Sometimes is was being set to 0 and other times it was not being set at all.  Now I either set both colours or none and it works really well. 

Rob Caron has posted that the June CTP of Team System is available for download.

I've got too much on at present to bother with this and we were also asked not to upgrade or patch past Beta 2 as part of some programs we are on with Microsoft.

I'd really like a new cut of Visual Studio though.  Some of the bugs drive me nuts.

Wow!  My boss found this yesturday - I think it's a new feature in VS05 because I've never seen it before.  I'll be really annoyed if it's been in VS03 and I just never found it.

When you create a winform user control you normally need some container to test it in.  In the past I've always just done this as part of the larger application.  Now, when you have a control library project in VS, you can hit F5 and it will launch the UserControl Test Container:

Even better, you can load froms from any dll or exe:

Very cool!  This is a lot like the old ActiveX test container - but way nicer to use.

How to retrieve multiple results sets from a stored procedure into a dataset with a DataAdapter.

I've been coding steadily for a couple of months now so I thought it was time for a few more favorites of VS05.

Refactoring
I tend to not use fancy tools like Resharper as I like a nice clean environment, even at the risk of getting OOS/RSI/CTS.  However, I find myself using the refactoring tool in VS 05 a lot more than I thought I would.  I particularly like the automatic method stubs it creates for you.  Also having it insert the namespace is very useful.  Both of these mean you don't lose your place in the code and can just continue on with the same train of thought.  I get easily distracted so this is a big boost for my productivity.  Things like rename, parameter delete, extract method are less useful at this point, but are more important features to have automated.

Snap Lines
I do a lot of win forms ui development - a lot more than I care to mention.  With snap lines, you can line up your controls horizontally and vertically in a simple visual way.  Very cool!  Don;t know why someone didn't think of this years ago.

Intellisence
Intellisence seems to be a lot more intelligent in VS05.  I can often enter several lines of code with very little typing.  When you type '.' the list of methods and properties is often positioned on the right item.  I think I type about 1/3 less than I do with VS03.

Source Control
The new team system source control is very fast and as far as I can tell, very secure and reliable.  The integration with VS is seamless and I'm not having nearly as many issues as I used to with VSS - it's seems a lot easier to create a source structure that matches your repository structure.  I haven't had the chance to use Shelving in anger yet, but I'm, sure it will be very useful when I need it.

The integration of work items into the checkin process is also very useful but I do find it awkward finding the correct work items in the list.  This is probably because of the way I work - which I think needs to change.

Data Sources & Data Binding
I know a lot of people hate data binding and it's a bit if a dirty subject, but I'm not afraid to confess that I use it.  I must admit though that it's not without it's problems at times.  Most of the issues I have had in the past (and some in the very recent past!) are due to a poor implementation in the tools or lack of understanding of how it works.

I think MS have got it right this time.  Setting up a data binding to a control is simply a matter of dragging a table or field from the data source window onto your form.  You can also bind to an existing control by dragging a field onto it.  You still need to write some code to attach the binding source to the actual data, but this is trivial.

If you don't like using data binding then just using the data source window to add controls to your forms will save you a lot of time.  Once you've dragged on your fields, just remove the binding source from the form and all the data binding will be removed with it.

Nullable types
I didn't think I'd use nullable types much, but it turns out I do.  I have created stored proc's that take int's and datetime values as parameters.  When I add a table to a dataset and specify the stored procs to use, VS05 automatically creates Fill & Get methods that have these parameters as nullable types.  Eg, the following stored proc:

   procedure GetEmployees
     @validdate datetime
   as
     select e.*
     from employee e
     where isnull(@valid_date, e.startdate) between e.startdate and e.enddate

VS05 will create an employeeTableAdapter with a Fill method thus:

   Fill(EmployeeDataSet ds, DateTime? validdate);

So I can call Fill(ds, DateTime.Now) to get all current employees or Fill(ds, null) to get all past and current employees.  No more need for DBNull!

Partial Classes
Partial classes make a lot of sence for win forms.  All of the designer generated code is in a separate file, making code changes a lot cleaner (and safer?).  However, I noticed that if you have an inherited form, you don't get a partial class - all the controls are included in the one form.

I normally wouldn't post about bugs in beta products (it's a beta after all) but this one is so annoying I thought people might like to know what I did to work around it.

Pre-beta 2 I noticed a rather annoying problem in Visual Studio 05 - some keys stop working.  Usually this is backspace, delete, undo, escape etc.  Everything but alpha keys.  It was very annoying!

So, I was a good chap and logged this on the product feedback site.  MS have recently responded and said that it will be fixed in a forthcoming CTP.  In the meantime,  I've been getting this a LOT recently and I was having to either restart VS.Net or reset the window layout - often 5 - 10 times a day.

The bug is caused by the tool windows (solution explorer etc).  You can usually get it to fault by pinning and un-pinning the solution explorer or properties window.

I found a better workaround.  Simply undock all the tool windows that live on the sides of VS and move these to your 2nd monitor.  Everyone has a second monitor right?  Well, if not, then you may not have room.  Since doing this a couple of days ago I have not had the problem.