Rosario Preview #3 - Developer Edition
The 3rd preview of Rosario's April 2008 CTP will focus on the Development Edition. This edition has some great features, my favorites are: Historical Debugger, Standalone Debugger and Rule Sets for Code Analysis.
(Click on image to enlarge it)
Historical Debugger
Visual Studio Historical Debugger captures and records what the application does while it is running. When an error occurs, you can quickly find the root cause by investigating the information that was recorded by the Historical Debugger. At any time during debugging, you can go backward and forward in time to determine where an error occurred.
Historical Debugger increases debugging productivity by reducing the time it takes to reproduce and diagnose an error in your code.
Code Analysis with Rule Sets
We are presented with a list of built-in rule sets when we configure Code Analysis. We can either use the minimum recommended rules, or we can select alternative rule sets that relate to our project type. In either case, the rule sets can also be customized to fit your project requirements
For example, you can select a rule set that is suited for scanning code for a publicly available API.
Available Rule Sets
| Rule Set |
Description |
| All Rules |
This rule set has all rules enabled. |
| General API Design Guidelines |
This rule set contains rules that apply to any API, especially if the API is intended for external use. These rules closely follow the design guidelines for the .NET Framework. Use this rule set if you are building a programming interface such as a class library, Web service, WCF service or workflow library. |
| General Web Development Guidelines |
This rule set contains rules that apply to Web development. This includes Web applications, server controls, AJAX and Web services. This rule set enables additional security and performance rules that help ensure that your Web site is reliable. |
| General Windows Application Guidelines |
This rule set contains rules that apply to Windows application programming. Use this rule set to help you assess the quality of your Windows application. This rule set applies to Windows Forms applications, console applications, WCF applications, WPF applications and workflow applications. |
| Legacy Code Cleanup |
This rule set contains rules that can help clean up legacy code. The rules that are violated can be fixed without having to change the public interfaces of your code. Therefore, they are ideally suited to cleaning up a legacy code base. These rules apply across all project types for which analysis is enabled. |
| Minimum Recommended Rules |
This rule set has the minimum set of rules enabled. If you encounter warnings when a scan with this rule set is enabled, it is likely that there is an error in your code. |
| Release Criteria |
This rule set contains rules that should be applied to an application that is undergoing final checks before release. |
Debugging with the Standalone Debugger
Visual Studio Stand-Alone Debugger is a lightweight, stand-alone debugger that allows you to quickly diagnose problems in development, test, and production environments.
Visual Studio Stand-Alone Debugger (VSSD) does not require setup or configuration, which makes it ideal for situations where it is important to have minimal impact on the environment. In addition, deploying Visual Studio Stand-Alone Debugger is as simple as copying a few files. We can carry Visual Studio Stand-Alone Debugger on a USB thumb drive for “Just-In-Time” troubleshooting....
Creating the Standalone Debugger
Wizard ...
This is the wizard's product - folder which contains the debugger...
And the debugger!!
Once the Standalone Debugger is running, we can click the “Attach: Process” link on the start page to start debugging.
Additionally, the VSSD does not touch the system's registry. The VSSD uses most of the features that are available in the Visual Studio Debugger.
Summary
The development edition has several new features, most of them in the area of the debugging and testing. I'm sure that the productivity of the developers and the quality of code will increased.
Enjoy!!
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