VS.NET 2005 CTP - First Impressions

Well, I just finished installing VS.NET 2005 CTP, and first I have to say - great job on the installation VS.NET Team!  This was the shortest install I've ever seen for VS.NET.  It didn't eve look like the thing was installing, I thought I was still installing Pre-Reqs...but no - its done.  Here were some of my first impressions/insights/notable items:

  • The splash screen is funky, some text is overlayed on the image, and the separate images for whats installed look like crap...but I digress because it is a non-Alpha version.
  • Upon the first launch, I had to choose some layout that I really didn't understand... and well, I chose the wrong one, and my solution explorer/class view were on the left, and toolbox was on the right.  After trying to just drag them over there, I realized you had to make them sticky prior to moving it.  Bug? I think so.
  • I definately like the new look of it, very Office 2003 ish...though, I wish it could support my current theme like Office 2003 products.
  • Startup time is tremendously faster...but I haven't opened up any projects yet, or started VS.NET with any projects, so who knows about that.  It is much obliged on the speed increase though :)
  • Some of the icons in the menus are still "old" looking.  Its really hit & miss on which ones are updated and which ones are not.  Am I really that picky?
  • I'm definately diggin' all the new project types.  You've really outdone yourself on these.  Even the Excel and Word Applications/Templates are in there.  I'm not really sure why I would want to use those, but I'm sure theres a reason.
  • I like the option to automatically add a project into source control right when you're creating it.  Saves a lot of headache later on when you're trying to figure out how to do it.
  • So I launched up a Windows Forms app... I definately like the new look of the toolbox & tabbed items... Another thing to note, the grid lines are gone...and I really can't find out how to turn them on.  I guess I'll just get used to not having them.
  • Woah - the properties for a project got revolutionized...instead of a dialog window...now its all in the editor area.  Very sweet lookin too.  It does seem a little laggy switching between everything, but maybe thats just VPC for ya.  Either way, still uber cool looking.
  • When in Debug mode, and an exception is thrown, a very nice window is shown... Well, mostly nice - its using Magenta for most of the window...eek!
  • I did get my first error message trying to preview data after I setup a data connection. Doh!  Mental note...don't do that again.
  • Dropping components with no UI is done just like before, however a nice Magenta (why magenta?) area is shown instead.  Uber ugly, but I can live with it.
  • Ohh - found some more magenta, the grid lines for the "Task List" are the pretty color we've all got to know and love.

Well, I think thats about it for tonight...very cool stuff.

4 Comments

  • Thanks for sharing!

  • For the designer grid lines, there is an option to toggle them (go to the Windows Forms Designer branch of options, it's in there somewhere), but even when it's turned on (the default, for me at least) they aren't actually showing up in the designer.

  • FYI on those magenta colored windows and lines - this was an internal "feature" introduced to flush out code in the IDE that was not using the VS standard colors (that respond correctly to XP themes for instance). Rest assured that these will be fixed before final release :)

    -Rahul Kumar

    Dev Lead, IDE Team

  • Not a problem, I kind of figured it was something of that sort.

Comments have been disabled for this content.