I am working on this windows app that uses Crystal Reports. I've never used it before and I thought "Hey! I could learn something new". So I opened this .rpt file in Visual Studio 2003 and I got the most incomprehensible interface ever. I mean, I will have to invest some hours just to understand what the report interface is all about.

But anyway, I thought I would take an existing report and then just change something, like adding a new field. I went with the mouse on an empty space, right click, context menu, Insert... I could insert text. I could insert Special Fields (report data like number of the page, creation date and so on). I could insert Fields. Only that option was disabled! I've tried every option in the context menu, no avail.

Finally I've decided I am to dumb to figure it out, I went to man's best friend: Google! The answer found in an obscure forum was:
- Go to View (in Visual Studio 2003)
- click Other Windows
- click Document Outline

Now a Field Explorer window is open and I can see all fields and drag them to the report. That was it! :-/

There is an article here that explains it better than I would. Basically, the new Visual Studio is finally released in beta and is supposed to be the IDE for .NET and Vista.
The .NET Framework 3.5 (that is 2.85 in normal versioning? :D ) is also to be released here.

Check out this little link: You receive an "interface not registered" error message when you try to build a Setup project in Visual Studio .NET
Why this is happening in the first place, I do not know, but the fix worked wonderfully. I was trying to build a Net 1.1 setup vdproj with Visual Studio 2003 and I got the error: "Could not find the file '[file that was obviously there]' 'Interface not registered' ".

Yes, you've read right. You can debug Javascript with Visual Studio. Here is a blog entry that blew my mind when I've read it: JavaScript Debugging.

Basically, what needs to be done is first go to Internet Explorer Options and disable Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer) (No, I didn't mistype, there is a checkbox that needs disabling and it's called Disable...) in the Advanced section. Be careful not to disable the other script debugging box, only the Internet Explorer one. Then, when an error occurs, the system asks you what debugger to use. You can choose Visual Studio 2003 or 2005 from the list (provided you have them installed :) ), trace, put breakpoints, etc.

There is also the javascript debugger keyword, which fires a debugging window at the specific location, so it's like a breakpoint.

Googling the net I've found that there are both free and commercial Javascript debuggers. There is even a free one provided by Microsoft: Script Debugger for Windows. One, unfortunately shareware, product that I saw recommended on the forums is 1st JavaScript Editor.

The only disadvantage to this, that I've seen, is that any javascript error will result in opening the debuggers window, without the ability to check "ignore errors on this page" or anything like that. It could be annoying while browsing. Yet I am surprised that I've heard of this method of Javascript debugging only now.

Update:

If it seems the list of debuggers does not appear anymore (or never did), go to Visual Studio Tools -> Options -> Debugging -> Just-In-Time and check the "Script" checkbox.

If it seems Visual Studio doesn't correctly find the right Javascript line to debug when entering debug mode, start the web site without debugging and then choose Microsoft Script Debugger. It gets the current line right, but has a difficult to use interface (Hint: use the Command Window). Of course, you have to download and install it first :).

I've tried compiling and using a dll from the net for a Pocket PC and, even if the compilation of the source worked, when trying to add it as a reference, I got an error and the dll would not show in the references. However, a lot of other errors occurred later on, as if the dll was still referenced. Reading the csdproj file directly, I noticed that the reference to the dll was there, but that every time the project was loaded, the same error occurred and the reference did not show. The only solution is to remove with a text editor the XML entry from the csdproj file.

Also, VS2003 hangs periodically after a few debug-deploy cycles, usually when trying to stop debugging, using 100% CPU and freezing. This might also be related with version 2.0 of ReSharper which I have installed, but somehow I doubt it, cause I love the guys at JetBrains! :) The only solution is to kill the process, which will close VS2003, then restart it and reload the project.

Another issue is with the file on the Palm being in use while you try to deploy. The solution is to get to the Palm Control Panel, go to Memory, select the Running Programs, kill any program that has the same name as the program you want to deploy and anything that looks like "Client".

There are other issues, but I don't care to remember them all B-)

What can be better than a rant on IT matters? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, VS2005 sucks! Compiling anything takes twice the time it took before, loading it takes 3 times as long as VS2003, resources used are also doubled.
This is not something unexpected from Microsoft, just check out the evolution of the Windows operating system, doubling in size like following a sick Moore law, but this is a developer tool, it is supposed to enhance productivity. I don't even know what I would do without ReSharper.
They also had this idea, which I think it's not bad, of trying to make VS an universal platform for any developer tool. This makes sense if you consider it all started from Visual InterDev. However, if this is not done with the limited resources of developers in mind, it will only annoy people. Who cares Visual Studio 2005 can integrate the team manager stuff, the code, the html, the css, the sql, if I only want to make a small console application and I have to wait 5 minutes for my handy tool to start? It sounds a lot like Weird Al Yankovic's It's All About the Pentiums.

This is a nice link about how to convert a UserControl to a WebControl.
Convert a Usercontrol to a WebControl - The Code Project - ASP.NET

Of course, afterwards it is best to take the time to really think the WebControl through, but for quick conversions like "I want a web control that has a datatable and a graph and another that is a textbox and a validator" it is perfect. Haven't really tested the result on real life user controls.

Among my most disgusting duties is creating setup projects, mostly with Visual Studio. One thing I've stumbled upon is the way to pass arguments to Custom Actions.

Imagine you want to add parameters containing spaces like:
/dir "[ProgramFiles]" /dir2 "[MyDocuments]"
In the custom action arguments box write this:
/dir "[ProgramFiles]\" /dir2 "[MyDocuments]

That's the only way I could make it work. I still don't have any idea why.
So if you want to have a parameter with spaces in it, add a quot in front of it, but don't add one at the end. If you need to have other parameters after this one, end the quot block with backslash+quot.

Update:
Apparently, Windows Vista and its MSI engine doesn't support custom actions anymore. If you want to make your setup projects "worthy" of Vista, you should avoid using custom action.

I've just installed Resharper 2.0. It still has little bugs, but it has that system where you can remember and ignore a set of errors.

What can I say? It's a the greatest software tool EVER. It can generate code, complete code, suggest changes, basically what Resharper 1.5 did, but
now it's WAY better.

The best thing in 2.0 I think it's Live Templates. They work like macros, but from just a few key presses and are way easy to configure. Imagine you
want to do something like :

throw new Exception("Any message");

all you have to do is type thr[Tab] and you get

throw new Exception(""); and the cursor between the quotes.

Of course that means also: itterating through a dictionary, creating for loops, transforming types into other types, automatic creation of aspx code
like datagrid columns, etc.

You want to put a piece of code in an if block, a region or a try catch, just select the code , press ctrl-alt-J and choose the type of block.
You want to add the properties and methods of an object inside your class to your class, just press Alt-Insert and choose the object and the members and you have them all in your class, referenced to the internal object and commented!

The Live Template system includes a scope of the template. That means that the template for creating a new method will not work inside a method, or
aspx code will not be generated into a cs file, etc.

Other two nice tools that I've found are :

- CommentReFlower - which takes care of the comments in your code. Not terribly useful, but time saving when you need to comment code
- RegionsAddIn - it allows you to take pieces of code and move them into regions, or create new ones.

Both are addins for visual studio 2003.

I can't explain it better than the four guys from Rolla, so there you have them:

Improving Developer Productivity with Visual Studio .NET Macros