6. Improved Custom Controls
Development
This feature addresses a nasty defect we’ve
encountered in the current version of Visual Studio. This defect
rears its ugly head when you implement multiple user controls and
Windows forms
in a single .NET assembly, and you
attempt to drag-and-drop an instance of a control onto a form
that are both defined in the assembly. First of
all, you need to insert the control into the toolbox manually. Then, when
editing the form in the Forms Designer, the IDE will often
remove the instance of your control, and all the associated initialization
code, without warning! Visual Studio
2005 fixes this problem
by automatically putting all custom controls in the toolbox automatically (after
the first compilation of the assembly) and not automatically
removing instances of custom controls from the form.
7. Partial Classes
Partial classes is a
feature specific to the C# programming language that allows
a single class to be defined in multiple source files. This allows
multiple developers to more easily work on a
single class simultaneously. All
properties, methods, and events must be unique to the
overall class. Thus, two methods with the same name and signature
are not allowed in two separate source
files for a single class.
8. Generics
A generic is a new C# programming language
feature that is similar to a C++ template. It allows the
programmer to parameterize the data type of a class, struct, or
interface to allow the compiler to generate multiple versions of
the construct. The net result is a performance
gain, smaller code, and compile-time checking of
parameterized data types. For example, instead of implementing a List class that maintains
a collection of objects, a generic List class may be
implemented that maintains a collection of any specific data
type. The programmer may now refer to objects in the List as
specific data types (instead of generic objects) without boxing and
un-boxing and has the advantage
of compile-time checking, resulting in fewer possible runtime errors and better
runtime performance.
9. Code Refactoring and Method
Rename
The code refactoring feature allows the
developer to automatically break a long method into two smaller
methods. To accomplish this, the developer highlights a series of
statements contained in a single method, and selects the refactor item from the context menu.
The IDE then creates a separate method, with relevant
parameters, containing only the code statements that were highlighted, and inserts
a call to the method, with parameters, where the highlighted code was
removed. The method rename feature allows the developer to easily and
quickly rename an existing method. It is activated either through a context
menu or a smart tag that appears when the user hovers over the
method definition. When activated, the name of the method, as
well as every call to the method in the entire
solution, is renamed. If you’ve tried to do this in the current
version of Visual Studio, you’ve had to rename the method, build
the entire solution so that the compiler will report all the build
errors resulting from the renamed method, and then go fix
each of these manually. This feature accomplishes all these steps without
any user intervention.
10. New SplitContainer
Control
A
new, native SplitContainer control provided by Visual Studio 2005 provides a much
simpler way to provide a vertical or horizontal splitter on your Windows
form. The SplitContainer provides two containers upon which controls may
be dragged-and-dropped. These containers are separated by a splitter which may
be oriented either vertically or horizontally. Multiple instances of
the SplitContainer may be nested to allow for multiple splitters on
a single form.
