Visual Studio 2010 Feature Packs … “Cowabunga” … get them hot off the press

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If you are wondering what a feature pack is, wander over to Brian Harry’s blog and get a great story at What on Earth is a Feature Pack?.

Two new downloads which appeared on June 7th, which you must take note of are:

Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack (MSDN Subscribers Only)Visualization and Modelling Feature Pack (MSDN Subscribers Only)

For more information go here.

  • Expand the scenarios for exploring and understanding your code.
  • Generate code from UML class diagrams.
  • Create UML class diagrams from code.
  • Import UML class, sequence, and use case elements from XMI 2.1 files.
  • Create and view links from work items to model elements.
  • Generate dependency graphs for ASP.NET Web, C, and C++ projects.
  • Create and validate layer diagrams for C and C++ code.
  • Write custom code to create, modify, and validate layer diagrams.

Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack Runtime
Visualization and Modelling Feature Pack Runtime

Required for using the extensions created with the Visualization and Modelling Feature Pack to perform custom layer diagram creation, modification, or validation tasks.

Huh? How does this relate to the FeatureBuilderPowerTool.vsix extension? 
Thanks to Michael Lehman from P&P we have an answer: “It is a supplement, with a runtime that is specifically for Layer extensibility which is not built into the Feature Extension Runtime. It is the runtime for the Feature Pack which was partially derived from some of the earlier “Extensibility Pack” work which is incorporated by the Feature Extension Runtime. Having said that, there are no dependencies and both can run side-by-side without conflict. ”

Both of these feature packs are mentioned in the Visual Studio ALM Rangers Architecture Guidance, which is lurking on the horizon. Future revisions of the guidance, will include more on the features enclosed in the two packs.