So, as I suggested in a previous post, I'd like to use the VS2005 CTPs. All of 'em. However, I don't want to tear my hair out trying to figure out what version we should use because the stuff I'm working with is broken in the latest version. I also don't want to have to try working with someting for a day only to figure out that it is newly broken, especially if someone else has already suffered through it.
So, Without further ado, I give you the Visual Studio 2005 Community Tech Preview community running change log (VS2K5CTPCRCL).
What Dave Bettin and I (and hopefully more of you) wanted to accomplish with this is simple - make up for the lack of a change log with the CTPs. This way, we can all know what's new, what's newly broken, and what is really, really cool. Not much info is up there yet... but it's coming, and quickly. If you help, it will be that much more useful to the entire community. Otherwise, it may just be helpful to Dave and I.
[cross-posted from Philip Rieck's full blog]
I think the community can make the CTP drops much more useful to all of us.
MS said it: VS 2005 CTP is not a beta. VS 2005 CTP is not a beta. VS 2005 CTP is not a beta. VS 2005 CTP is not a beta. Developers.
The Problem:
The expansions in C# - one of my new favorite features of visual studio - no longer work well. That is, they still produce an "expansion" when you type the shortcut, but....
- You have to hit tab twice now, and Ctrl-Alt-M, X is gone (sort of replaced by [Ctrl-R, X], but entirely different behavior). It took me a few tries to get 'em going, because they show up in the intellisense menu (now), so you'd assume that just one tab would work (or selecting with mouse, or hitting ). Nope.
- The cursor position is all screwed up. For example, with "prop", the cursor goes to the beginning of the file. Oops.
- The expansion vars (places where you type in items that get replaced) are no longer navigable with "tab".. Well, they do get selection rectangles around them when you hit tab, but the cursor isn't moved around.
- When you enter a expansion replacement area, all the text in that area isn't highlighted. You have to delete what's there, then type new content.
It's much, much, much less useful and useable than the PDC bits. If I wanted to play with expansions, I may be better off using the PDC drop. I didn't know that until digging in a bit. However, I may be wrong - perhaps there's something else different (and better) that I missed...
So anyway - The Solution. You.
Dave Bettin and I are setting up a Wiki where the community can post and track these changes, figure out CTP breaks what feature, what CTP adds what feature, etc. -- A community-built running change log that will allow for interaction as well.
Why? If I'm reading correctly, these CTP drops will be somewhat frequent. I'd love to have this "running change log" so that someone using CTP7 knows that if they want to play with some specific new feature (say, the Data Container in windows forms) they should use CTP5 instead because it's broken in CTP7. Or a person looking for the refactorings knows that moving to CTP2 is worth the headache because it adds twelve new ones.
Is this a dumb idea? Would it provide any benefit to anyone? Comment here and let me know. We should have something up quite soon, but if no-one wants it, we won't sink the effort in.
Is this a good idea but needs more oomph? Is there something that must be included? Comment here and let me know.
[This entry was cross-posted from Philip Rieck's full blog.]