Enable the output window to show up on build
By default, the C# profile doesn’t show the build output
window when you start a build (instead you need to manually show it). I
personally like to see the build output window always show up so that I can
better track progress (note in Web Projects it will now list each directory as
it builds them – so you can quickly see which directories are getting re-built
when dependencies change).
To enable this by default, select the Tools->Options menu
item. Then under Project and Solutions->General select the "Show Output
Windows when Build starts" checkbox.
Note that this option is enabled by default with the web
profile.
Show MSBuild Output Verbosity
"Normal"
By default, the C# and Web profiles send only
"minimal" MSBuild information to the output window. You can
configure additional levels of output information by selecting the
Tools->Options menu item. Then under Project and Solutions->Build and
Run you can select the MSBuild project verbosity dropdown to be: "Quiet",
"Minimal", "Normal", "Detailed", and "Diagnostic".
I personally like "Normal", since it gives me
build times for projects, and is also explicit about when/where files outputs
are updated and to where. This is very useful when you have pre/post actions
and are trying to track down when they are firing and what impact they are
having.
Here are two samples showing the output window differences
between the two settings:
Minimal Output
------ Build started: Project: ClassLibrary1,Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
Csc.exe /noconfig /nowarn:1701,1702 /errorreport:prompt /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.dll
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Xml.dll /debug+
/debug:full /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll /target:library
Class1.cs Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs
Compile complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings
ClassLibrary1 -> C:\Documents and Settings\Scott\My Documents\Visual Studio
2005\Projects\webtest\ClassLibrary1\bin\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll
Normal Output
------ Build started: Project: ClassLibrary1,Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
Build started 10/20/2005 9:24:41 PM.
Target CoreCompile:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Csc.exe /noconfig
/nowarn:1701,1702 /errorreport:prompt /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Data.dll
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.dll
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\System.Xml.dll /debug+
/debug:full /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll /target:library
Class1.cs Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs
Compile complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings
Target CopyFilesToOutputDirectory:
Copying file from"obj\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll" to"bin\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll".
ClassLibrary1 -> C:\Documents and Settings\Scott\My Documents\Visual Studio
2005\Projects\webtest\ClassLibrary1\bin\Debug\ClassLibrary1.dll
Copying file from"obj\Debug\ClassLibrary1.pdb" to"bin\Debug\ClassLibrary1.pdb".
Build succeeded.
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.21
The difference is subtle between these two settings, but I
think very useful. Notice how with the minimal output you can’t tell whether
the assembly was updated (note that it won’t be updated if no changes were made
to the project), whereas with normal output it is clearly called out. Normal
output also shows build-times per project.
Track Active Item in Solution Explorer
One feature that was on by default with VS 2003 that a lot
of people find useful was the ability to see the current document icon
highlighted in the solution explorer as you moved around from document to
document (it will also scroll the solution explorer so that the document is in
view). This can be useful when you have deeply nested content in sub-folders
and want to see the current document’s relation to others.
By default, the C# profile has this disabled, while the Web
profile has this on.
To enable this feature in the C# profile, select the
Tools->Options menu. Under Projects and Solutions->General select the
"Track Active Item in Solution Explorer" checkbox.
Build Configuration Manager Dropdown in
Toolbar
VS supports the concept of build configurations. For
example: you can configure different settings for “debug” and “release”
configurations (which projects build, etc) – as well as define your own (for
example: staging, test, deployment, etc). Note that the new Web Deployment
Project solution my team is shipping in a few weeks will let you do some really
cool things with this and VS 2005 web projects (including the ability to
dynamically replace configuration settings like connection-strings as part of
which build configuration you pick).
You can configure which configuration in VS is the "active"
one by selecting the Build->Configuration Manager menu item. This will
bring up a modal Configuration Manager dialog with a drop-down to let you pick
the active one. With the C# profile applied, you can also select the current
configuration via a configuration drop-down located in the standard toolbar
(this makes switching really fast – and was there by default with VS 2003).
This drop-down is not present in the VB or Web profile by default.
To enable it in the VB or Web profile, select the
Tools->Customize menu item. Click on the Commands tab in the dialog that
comes up. Select the "Build" item in the Categories list box, and
then scroll down to the very bottom of the Command list-box where you’ll fine
the "Solution Configurations" list item. To add it into one of the
IDE toolbars, you need to click it and then drag and drop it to the toolbar in
the IDE location you want to add it to.
Note: This completely fails the
"intuitive and discoverable sniff test" – but was actually the same
behavior in past versions of VS.
Hope these suggestions help. As you’ll discover as you
start to wade through the options dialog, there are literally thousands of
tweaks you can make.
