In Chapter 1, you learned that you can create your C# applications using Notepad. In this chapter, you’ll learn why you never will. Microsoft developed Visual Studio 2005 to facilitate the creation of Windows and web applications. You will find that this Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a very powerful tool that will greatly simplify your work.
Visual Studio 2005 offers many advantages to the .NET developer, among them:
A modern interface, using a tabbed document metaphor for code and layout screens, and dockable toolbars and information windows.
Convenient access to multiple design and code windows (this will make more sense when you are creating web applications, as shown in Chapter 19).
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) visual design of Windows and Web Forms.
Code completion, which allows you to enter code with fewer errors and less typing.
IntelliSense, which displays tips for every method, providing the return type and the types of all the parameters.
Dynamic, context-sensitive help, which allows you to view topics and samples relevant to the code you are writing at the moment. You can also search the complete SDK library from within the IDE.
Immediate flagging of syntax errors, which allows you to fix problems as they are entered.
A Start Page, which provides easy access to new and existing projects.
The same code editor for all .NET languages, which shortens the learning curve. Each language can have specialized aspects, but all languages benefit from shared features, such as incremental search, code outlining, collapsing text, line numbering, and color-coded keywords.
An HTML editor, which provides both Design and HTML views that update each other in real time.
A Solution Explorer, which displays in outline form all the files comprising your solution.
An integrated debugger, which allows you to step through code, observe program runtime behavior, and set breakpoints, even across multiple languages and multiple processes.
Customization capability, which allows you to set user preferences for IDE appearance and behavior.
Integrated support for source control software.
A built-in task list.
Ability to modify your controls’ properties, either declaratively or through a properties window.
Ability to integrate custom controls that you create or purchase from a third party.
Rapid and easy deployment, including the ability to copy an entire web site development project from one machine to another.
Ability to integrate third-party tools into Visual Studio.
Ability to program extensions to Visual Studio.
Ability to rename methods, properties, etc. and have them renamed automatically throughout the program.
In addition, Microsoft has added these new features to VS2005:
Support for all three coding models: inline, code-behind, and mixed inline and code-behind.
Access to web sites through the filesystem, FTP, IIS, or Front Page Server Extensions. (You no longer need to install IIS on the developer’s machine, because a built-in web server is provided.)
Full support for look-and-feel features, such as skins, themes, and master pages.
A Server Explorer, which allows you to log on to servers that you have network access to, access the data and services on those servers, drag and drop data sources onto controls, and perform a variety of other chores.
Ability to import and export user preferences.
Integrated build and compile support.
Ability to drag and drop controls onto your web page, either in design mode or in HTML mode.
Visual Studio 2005 is a highly useful tool that can save you hours of repetitive tasks. It is also a large and complex program, so it is impossible in this chapter to explore every nook and cranny. Instead, this chapter will lay the foundation for understanding and using Visual Studio 2005, and will point out some of the nastier traps you might run into along the way.
This chapter has a lot of information in it, and you won’t need all of it all at once. In fact, much of the information will not even apply to console applications, but will be valuable when you are ready to create Windows or web applications.
Many readers like to skim this chapter the first time through, and then come back for the details later. But it is your book, you paid for it (you did pay for it, didn’t you?), and so you are free to read the entire chapter, take notes as you go, skip it entirely, or otherwise use it to your best advantage.
Whether or not you read this chapter, I do strongly recommend you spend time (lots and lots of time) exploring Visual Studio in detail. You will forever be surprised at how much is in there and how much you can set it up to behave as you want; it is your principal development tool. Ignoring Visual Studio would be like a race car driver never looking under the hood. In time, you not only want to know how to change the oil, but you also want to understand how the valves work and why the linkage sticks.