Best feature(s) in Visual Studio 2008 (and VSTS)?

Question

Visual Studio has certainly gone from strength to strength since humble Visual Studio 6 (and previous renditions). There seems to be a lot more coming in Visual Studio 2010 (based on blogs, the PDC and the more recent CTP virtual machines).

The recent Service Pack 1 seemed to introduce some really intriguing new functionality and enhancements.

As it stands today, i.e. in Visual Studio 2008 (SP 1), what do you think is the most outstanding, couldn't-live-without-it feature in Visual Studio (including the Team Suite Editions)? Is it something you use daily?

Alternatively, what features in Visual Studio 2008 could really use an upgrade/makeover/bugfix?

Answer 1

IntelliSense is the best out there. Compare IntelliSense with JavaDocs, there you will see how good is that.

Best Regards!

Answer 2

The Load Test agent in VSTS Test Edition is great.

Answer 3

Split view, in addition to design and source view. I think VS 2008 is the first version with this feature, which allows you to see design and source horizontally split. And if you have two monitors (don't we all) you can split it vertically and have one screen for source and one for design. Many other HTML editors have had this feature for years.

Occasionally when I change focus from source to design view it messes up a small portion of my HTML and I haven't figured out why yet. It makes me spend more time looking at my pages before uploading them.

Answer 4

As far as VSTS concerns I like the bellow items.

• Work Items/Bug Tracking
• Agile Process support
• Code Analysis and Check-in policies
• Bug/Workitem associated check-ins

Answer 5

If you right click a tab and hit open containing folder it opens the folder in Explorer and selects the file.

Answer 6

• Refactoring
• Intellisense
• Automatic formatting
• Shortcuts:
  • CTRL + .
  • CTRL + ALT + P
  • F10 , F11
  • ALT + Enter
  • CTRL + K + C
  • CTRL + K + U
• Debbugging Features:
  • Break before exception throws
  • Immediate window
  • watch windows
• Unit testing
• Find in files
• Profiling
• Modules window

Answer 7

• Unit Testing. Though I would use xUnit.NET or NUnit, the fact that it is in the Pro product is a big deal
• Cyclomatic Complexity. Really a lot of the code analysis features are really interesting
• Profiling - being able to see things like how much time your objects spend in the various generations can be very helpful
• DBPro is awesome. I only wish it worked on things other than SQL Server
• Performance Wizard.
• Refactoring. As someone else pointed out it doesn't beat things like Resharper, but still it's better.

Answer 8

The blue guidelines that help you line up your controls in design view.

Not supporting .net 1.1, unfortunately this is needed where I work. Going back to Visual Studio 2003 is painful.

Answer 9

For me the best thing in VS 2008 is that such tools like VS.PHP can be build upon that. So that you can write a PHP website inside VS with all this goodies like intellisense an so on.

And the worst feature is DataSet designer that is "by design" full of bugs and other filthy stuff. It's just a pain in the ass to use it. So - I don't recommend DataSet Designer.

Answer 10

Most everything that has been posted so far has been in Visual Studio for a fair time now. My favorite new feature is;

Refactoring

The best features though aren't even in Visual Studio, the best are in Resharper!

Answer 11

• Intellisense
• Watch Windows
• Threads Window (doesn't available on express editions)
• Immed (to test stuff on the fly)
• Conditional Debugging (doesn't available on express editions)
• Go to Definition / Find Usages
• Extensibility

Answer 12

Intellisense.

Edit-And-Continue.

Immediate Window.

Watch windows.

The ability to drag the little yellow 'next instruction' arrow to an arbitrary position for the 'next' instruction.

Answer 13

IntelliSense