November 2009 - Posts

• [Tip] Enable Visual Studio 2010 Online Template/Extension usage

  Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 uses a new feature called the Extension Manager to add, remove, enable, and disable Visual Studio extensions. The Extension manager has a UI similar to that of the Windows Control Panel, and can be opened from the Tools menu in Visual Studio by selecting Extension Manager…. In addition, third party templates may now be installed from the New Project Dialog Box by clicking Search Online Templates… in the Templates pane. To Enable Online Extensions download and usage, follow the below steps: From Visual Studio 2010 go to Options Extension Manager Check “Load per used extensions when running as administrator” P.S. if you don’t have this option installed Visual Studio will notify you when selecting “Online Templates” from New Project dialog. Posted Nov 14 2009, 10:16 PM by Hosam Kamel with no comments

• Introduction to Spec Explorer (another tool from MSDN DevLabs)

  Spec Explorer 2010 is a tool that extends Visual Studio for modeling software behavior, analyzing that behavior by graphical visualization, model checking; and generating standalone test code from models. Behavior is modeled in two ways: by writing rule machines in C# (with dynamic data-defined state spaces) and by defining scenarios as action patterns in a regular-expression style. One of Spec Explorer’s major features is the ability to compose models written in these two styles. This technique enables users to slice out test cases from large state machines by defining relevant scenarios, thus tackling the notorious state-space explosion problem pervasive in model-based testing. Spec Explorer also supports combinatorial interaction testing with a rich set of features.    Watch the Channel 9 video, Spec Explorer: Model-Based Testing Made Practicable Posted Nov 10 2009, 09:28 AM by Hosam Kamel with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Visual Studio, Community Projects, Free Tools, Visual Studio 2008, Geek tools, MSDN DevLabs, Visual Studio 2010