Visual Studio 2008 is not rendering right on window resize or maximize.
This happens a lot -- does anyone know how to fix it? It's very annoying.
(Note I blurred the code, that's usually fine, but the code pane keeps the previous size while the rest of the window resizes.
Also, SSMS does the same thing and I know they are build on the same technology.
EDIT: I'm on Windows 7 x64 Professional.
Visual Studio 2008 Professional with resharper 5.
Doing some googling, it seems the problem might be related to an nVidia graphics driver.
That doesn't really make sense to me though, it's just 2D standard winforms isn't it?
Newer versions of Visual Studio do use the graphics card for rendering, and the Aero theme (which you have enabled) uses it as well.
I suspect two possibilities: either a buggy combination of extensions or a combination of extension and buggy graphics card driver. If this does not happen in any other applications using the Visual Studio shell (i.e. Sql Server Studio), I would try disabling your extensions, starting with ReSharper. I would suggest upgrading to the latest version of ReSharper.
As a workaround, you can resize the window by dragging it to full screen.
Same happened to me, and it was driving me crazy. I solved it by just dissabling aero from the tool bar
(Right click on the tool bar -> properties -> uncheck use Aero Peek to
preview the desktop)
and all seems fine now, i hope for a long long time.
Related
It is really not practical to write a Xamarin.Forms application without a UI previewer. All platforms offer a design preview option, especially if the code needs to be compiled. As far as I know, currently Xamarin only released a previewer for Xamarin Studio for Mac in its alpha channel, which we can't even use in Visual Studio. Why is it that Xamarin still does not provide a previewer? We should not be forced to use a third party tool for this process. (And even the third party tools are in their beta releases.)
Shouldn't there be at least a roadmap or a planned date announced since it is such a fundamental part of the product? It would be nice if someone from Xamarin would answer.
Using the latest version of Xamarin you can use the following steps:
Use the View > Other Windows > Xamarin.Forms Previewer menu in Visual Studio to open the preview window.
The Xamarin.Forms Previewer is there on Windows (it has been for a few years), but it now contains several improvements in Visual Studio 2019, many focused on making it more reliable.
To show the Previewer, click the design buttons on the bottom right of the .xaml file pane, like chucky mentioned. It's no longer under View > Other Windows, instead now using the same split pane tabbed UI used by the UWP/WPF designers.
See here for more on how to use the Previewer:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/xamarin-forms/xaml/xaml-previewer/?tabs=vswin&pivots=windows
I realise that there are many existing questions regarding this issue, but I haven't found any that discuss specifically shortcut keys, usability etc.
Can people please give me good/bad feedback on using the above development tools on the 15" MBP (2010), with regards to the following:
Shortcut keys in VS - how do they perform running in a VM, does os x interfere etc?
(one example being F10 and F11 for stepping through code)
Lack of dedicated delete and # key - does this create a frustrating dev environment?
" and # switched on keyboard - too frustrating when doing storedprocs etc?
any other things I've missed relating to ussability of the above
I don't particularly want to use bootcamp, as I might as well just not have a Mac then.
This is all to decide whether to have a MBP as my main machine for personal + professional use.
I have a 2009 MacBook and I have Virtual Box setup on it with Windows 7, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL 2008 with Management Studio. I use this not for my main development machine, but rather if I need to quickly look at something and already have the MacBook out and on.
For proper development I have a separate Windows 7 machine which is obviously much more powerful than running a virtual machine on top of OS X. Using the MacBook is OK, but you couldn't use it day in day out for serious development.
Over the years I've tried Parallels, VMWare Fusion and Virtual Box and overall performance and functionality doesn't vary hugely in the real world. The main difference here is that Virtual Box is free.
As to the keyboard differences, under System Preferences you can opt to have the function keys act as regular F keys which solves that issue, and then using something like DoubleCommand you can remap the other keys that are giving you trouble.
See this SuperUser question about it:
MacBook Pro Keyboard - How to Swap / Remap Keys?
I used a 2008 MBP 17" with Visual Studio...
You kinda have to either plug in a pc keyboard or live with the macbook keypad really...
I was in the same position as yourself, I didn't want to install Bootcamp unless I really had to.
Turns out some software called PARALLELS allowed me to install windows vista in a VM environment whilst logged into OSX, it literally feels like Windows is running in its own window, although you can have full screen of course.
Performance turned out to be great, parallels will setup the networking too so you can still access the Internet from your VM environment.
http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/desktop/
Edit: I should make it clear that if you are serious about .NET development then it would be much much better to actually get a PC with Windows running natively - with things like parallels you cant obviously devote all resources to the virtual OS.
As .NET is a strong part of my career I no longer use the mac, I have PC with Windows 7 installed now. It really does depend on how you define 'professional' use of visual studio... it can be done on the mac however!
I have a late 2009 13" MBP with only 2GB of memory running VS2008/SQL Server 2008. I used Bootcamp as I don't see what the big deal is - the install was a snap and Apple has released 2 updates to address compatibility issues.
The speed is good, not great, and I've been putting off going to 4GB of memory, but most definitely workable.
The function keys work for debugging. The most annoying thing to get used to is the fn key at the bottom left, as I'm really used to having the control key there. There are keyboard equivalents to delete, pg up, pg dwn, etc...
Also annoying is the keyboard backlite. The only way I found to disable it is to kill the Bootcamp process, sleep and wake.
Not sure what you mean by # and " switched on the keyboard, as I've been using shift+2 and the " two keys right of l.
I've built some fairly large web apps using VS and I'm happy with the MacBook as I use it to build iPhone apps as well, so I need a Mac. It's also nice to have 2 OSes. You can't get a Windows machine to run both Windows and OS X as easily as you can get a Mac to run OS X and Windows.
Also, not keyboard related, but design related. Apple, IMHO, put aesthetics over usability in making the edges of the body so sharp. When you lean your wrists on the keyboard, the edges dig in and after leaning on them after awhile, you have pretty deep dent marks. I've seen videos where people actually file down the edges (I think I saw that the MacBook was still powered on in one video. Ouch.)
What does the Visual Studio development team at Microsoft use to develop new versions of Visual Studio? Do they use VS2005 to develop VS2008? Thinking about it makes my head hurt a little...
One of the PDC videos I recently watched said they use VS2010 to develop VS2010.
You may imagine how quickly bugs get fixed that way.
They start on an abacus and work there way through mathematical instruments until they reach computers. At this point they stop and roll another funny cigarette and wonder is this what life has come to?
We dogfood our products, and VS is no exception.
/me goes back to his happy world of rainbows, unicorns, lambdas, auto, and dynamic ;)
C was implemented to write UNIX. UNIX is written in C. On UNIX, currently. At some point, you use what you've built to keep building it.
I'd imagine the very first go of VS2008 is written in VS2005, but then they start using VS2008 as soon as is feasible to continue developing VS2008.
I'm starting developing with Flex on my Mac but i don't find good tools to ease the development (apart from Flex Builder).
What is your favourite choice for Flex development on Mac?
TextMate + the Flex and ActionScript 3 bundles is a great combo. Throw in ProjectPlus and you have an almost full featured development environment. What's missing is visual design tools (which I'm sceptical of anyway), debugger (the command line version isn't very easy to work with) and a profiler.
I've long used TextMate and the additions mentioned above for all my Flex development, but lately the lack of debugger and profiler has made me use FlexBuilder too, just to get those tools.
Unfortunately, you're pretty much limited to Flex Builder or some text editor combined with the Flex SDK. I've been hoping that someone would port FlashDevelop, my favorite AS/Flex IDE over to the Mac (at least via Mono), but no dice as of yet.
If you can wait X number of years, perhaps my CocoAS IDE will be complete ;-)
TextMate is great, but if you're looking for something free, you can hack as3 onto XCode (I've used it, and it is fine, but some of the highlighting is off, and auto-completion is weak).
As for a debugging environment, I would recommend XTrace (http://mabblog.com/xtrace.html). The library that comes with it is as3, but you can easily port it to as3 (as I did).
Is it realistic to try and learn and code a Flex 3 application without purchasing FlexBuilder? Since the SDK and BlazeDS are open source, it seems technically possible to develop without Flex Builder, but how realistic is it.
I would like to test out Flex but don't want to get into a situation where I am dependent on the purchase of FlexBuilder (at least not until I am confident and competent enough with the technology to recommend purchase to my employer).
I am experimenting right now, so I'm taking a long time and the trial license on my Windows machine has expired. Also Linux is my primary development platform and there is only an alpha available for Linux.
Most of the documentation I've found seem to use Flex Builder.
Maybe I should use Laszlo...
IntelliJ IDEA works as a Flex IDE, if you happen to also be a Java developer. It's free if you contribute to open source projects.
Check out FlashDevelop for Windows. I like it better than Flex Builder.
I've been using Flex since version 2 and Flex3/BlazeDS since it came out of beta. I also have some experience with Lazzlo and the difference is day and night (Flex rocks!). I have not regretted once using Flex. Regarding FlexBuilder, it is worth every penny. While it is completely possible and reasonable to write Flex application without FlexBuilder, the productivity gains of using it will more than recoup the investment. Try the evaluation for 30 days and compare it to some of the other options suggested about (I'm going to try FlashDevelop).
Some things you get with FlexBuilder include:
Code completion
Visual editor
Debugger (it is fantastic!!)
Profiler (also very good)
Regarding Linux, the alpha version of FlexBuilder does not have a visual editor. Other than that, I understand it is reasonably feature complete, still free, and many of the Adobe employees I've talked with that use Linux are happy with it.
FlashDevelop is really easy to setup with the Flex SDK. Just download FlashDevelop, then download the Flex SDK. In FlashDevelop go to Tools > Program Options > AS3Context (under Plugins) > Set the "Flex SDK Location" to the root of the folder you extracted the SDK to and build away. FlashDevelop even has a basic MXML project that will get you going.
If you use ColdFusion for the backend, having FlexBuilder in Eclipse and CFEclipse can mean one less IDE to have to get familiar with.
I'm going to join the choir here and say FlashDevelop for an alternative. The only reasons you might want FlexBuilder are:
Flex charts
Step-through debugging.
Profiler (I haven't used it)
Visual style editor
However, the code-completion and general bloody-awesomeness of FlashDevelop's code-completion and syntax highlighting knocks the gimpy eclipse crap out of the water. So, pretty much what Todd said, except for the code-completion part. Flex Builder is very flakey in that department.
Short answer: Yes
I'm working on a team of developers and designers. We code our .MXML and .AS in FlashDevelop 3 and our designer creates .FLA with skins and widgets that get [Import()]ed in ActionScript.
I wrote a little more about this subject here:
Flash designer/coder collaboration best practices
I have been using FlashDevelop for along time (4/5 years), I am actively using it to develop Flex4.5 applications, it has built in support for code completion, it has a profiler and a debugger that work excellently. The IDE itself is responsive and require the .Net framework, in fact here, I'll list some stuff.
FlashDevelop Pros
Free IDE
Code completion feature
Very capable Debugger
Profiler
Documenting
Ability to build Air / Flex files
Templating
Plugins
FlashDevelop Cons
Lack of UI desing support
.Net support only (Won't work with Mono)
Everything else is pretty simple to get running with, the instructions are available at http://www.flashdevelop.org/
Absolutely. I've been a Flex developer since Flex 2 and until recently I've used my regular editor, TextMate, for coding and Ant for building. TextMate has some good extensions for ActionScript and Flex coding, but I think you could get that for any decent editor.
What's been missing from my setup is a usable debugger, the command line version is a pain to work with. Because of that I've been starting to use FlexBuilder on the side, using it in parallel with my regular setup.
Having a profiler doesn't hurt too.
I've been using FlexBuilder for awhile now and just started to switch to using Eclipse with Flex SDK. I work for a non-profit so the word FREE is huge.
Initially, it is fairly intimidating so if you have the money, you might want FlexBuilder.
There is a lot you need to know and do if you use the SDK. The learning and experience may pay off though... I am still undecided myself.
I second FlashDevelop. You don't get the visual design stuff for the MXML, but for the code (both MXML and AS) it's excellent.
I also use FlashDevelop when working on AS3 projects. For me, the ugliness (UI design) and sluggishness of Eclipse/Flex Builder is enough of a deterrent to stay away from Flex Builder.
In addition to the weaknesses of FlashDevelop pointed out previously, one of my biggest gripes is that it is not a true .NET only app and therefore will never work in mono and therefore can not be easily ported to the mac - which is my platform of choice for development web/javascript/AS3 development.
Amethyst is also a pretty good option to try. It is a plugin for MS Visual Studio, and takes advantage of a lot of the goodies there. It is significantly less sluggish than FlashBuilder, has a really good debugger, and a decent visual designer as well.
The personal version is free, but quite crippled. You have to buy the pro version after a 60 day free trial. However, it is (at time of writing) almost 1/3 the cost of Flash Builder.
As an added bonus you don't need to pay for Visual Studio since it works with the free (albeit hard to find) "shell version (integrated)" of Visual Studio. It won't work with any of the free Express editions, though.