C# Editor features you can blame on me.

Now that the Express products are available, and Beta 1 is out the door, I thought I would let you know what features you can blame me for.

Basically they are:

  • Auto Formatting in C#.
  • Auto complete on identifier.
  • Cyrus and I both worked a lot on putting keywords in completion lists, and filtering them to the appropriate ones.
  • ASP.net 2.0 integration with C#.\
  • C# Tools->Options pages.

Let's talk about each of them briefly:

Auto Formatting

With this feature, we will automatically format your source code, whenever you:

  • Paste.
  • Type a }
  • Type a ;
  • Issue a “Format Selection“, or “Format Document“ command.
  • Use “Uncomment Selection“

This formatting now goes beyond setting the indentation.  It also actually changes the whitespace between tokens.  In order to control this, there are quite a few options at Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Formatting.  If you find that the way you like to program isn't supported by the formatting engine, please let us know at the Feedback Center.  If you let us know about it fairly soon, we may be able to add it before we ship, otherwise, you're stuck with what you've got.  Finally, here's something to watch out for:  We only format if we can understand your code.  That means that if there is a red squiggle inside a function, we won't format that function, and if there is a red squiggle outside of a function, we won't format that file.  It really helps intellisense out if you can keep your code in a parsable state, so I'd recommend you just always try to keep it that way.

Autocomplete on identifier

This is the feature that if you start typing a new name, we bring up intellisense immediately, instead of waiting for you to type a dot.  I personally really like this, although there is a reason why some people don't like it.  It can make it hard to type the name of something that you know doesn't exist yet.  This can make it harder to use Generate Method Stub, since you may complete to something else.  If you find that you run into that type of situation a lot, there are two things you can do.  1. Tell us about it. 2. Turn the option off at Tools->Options->Text Editor->C#->Intellisense.

Keywords in completion lists

Not much to say here, except that we basically had to do this to support Autocomplete on identifier.  We try to filter the available keywords to what's legal to type at that point, so please let us know if you're favorite keyword isn't in the list, and should be.

ASP.net 2.0 integration with C#

I've already talked about this enough for now.  Please let us know if there are any issues.

C# Tools->Options pages

Again, not much to say about these, other than that they are now written in C#, instead of C++.  Once again, let me know if you find any issues.

Lastly, please report any issues that you find using the product now, while there is still time to change it.