VS2005 C#: User Testing
Ian Boyd
The type or namespace name 'Drawing' does not exist in the namespace
'System' (are you missing an assembly reference?)
The answer, of course, is
Probably
So i right click and look for the menu option saying
Include namespace 'Drawing'
Hmmm...refactor, rename, extract method, insert snippit, go to definition,
outlining. Nope, can't find it.
*google*
Oh, i need to bring up the solution explorer and then pick the one file out
of hundreds on multiple tabs? Can't you have just given me the option?
2. "The type or namespace name 'Windows' does not exist in the namespace
'System' (are you missing an assembly reference?)
Oh for crying out loud, i have to do this for every one? Obviously i want to
include it, i put it in my usings. Do whatever it is you do to make it
available in my usings.
Still can't right-click and say "Add reference to 'System.Windows'
3. The type 'System.ComponentModel.ISynchronizeInvoke' is defined in an
assembly that is not referenced. You must add reference to assembly 'System,
Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'
So i right-click, and again i can't find an option saying "Add reference to
'System'"
Maybe i can right-click on the error down here in the "Error List". Nope, no
option to "fix it" there either.
4. Every time i manually add one of these references, the error highlight
doesn't go away. i have to go to Build, Build Project1. Can you update ala
Word/Excel/editors/Eclipse/etc?
5. On the line
backgroundBrush = new TextureBrush(new Bitmap("CoffeeBeanSmall.jpg"),
WrapMode.Tile);
ArgumentException was unhandled
Paramterer is not valid.
Ummmm, which parameter? So i click "View Detail" and a small window, with a
single uninformative entry that starts as collapsed (should be expanded by
default) appears. So i expand it, and see nothing useful, except a stack
trace line. When i hover over the item, i get a hint that contains 3 lines
of non-formatted text, with embedded "\r\n" and ends in a "..." as my stack
trace.
6. Could start off with a larger, well thought-out "View Detail" box? Could
we format the stack trace?
node - which is again collapsed by default.
7. Ah, now i see i can drop-down the stack trace, and what appears is
essentially a sizable hint window. Can we get a real window, with no
wrapping and a horizontal scroll-bar, and a maximize button so i can quickly
see the stack trace nicely formatted - rather than having to expand the hint
window until it stops scrolling?
i see, it doesn't like the filename i passed to the Bitmap constructor. No
problem, i'll just add the image to my project.
8. Right-click Project1->Add
Hmmm... "Existing Item" is grayed out. Must be because the program is
paused. Can we change it so i can just do stuff while the program is
running? It's not like you're going to be rebuilding it. Anyway, i
terminate all.
Right-click Project1->Add->Existing Item
9. Run it again, as now it should find it as a resource, and not be trying
to find it as a file on the hard drive. Is there no default key combination
to do a build/error check? Why not?
Still fails. i must need to call some overload of Bitmap constructor so it
uses the resource by name. i'll just check the overloads.
10. Can we get code-insight to so more/all of the overloads of a method,
rather than having to scroll up/down one at a time?
11. The only overload that looks promising is
Bitmap.Bitmap(Type type, string resource)
type: The class used to extract the resource.
The "class"? i dunno, i guess i want a resource extracting class - which it
should be using already since i'm giving it a resource name. Well, let's
check the help:
type
The class used to extract the resource.
Bugger.
12. Can we get some more explanation of what you're talking about in the
docs?
Well, the example in the docs uses
Bitmap bmp1 = new Bitmap(typeof(Button), "Button.bmp");
Okay, i'll change my code to:
backgroundBrush = new TextureBrush(new Bitmap(typeof(Button),
"CoffeeBeanSmall.jpg"), WrapMode.Tile);
Error:
Resource 'CoffeeBeanSmall.jpg' cannot be found in class
'System.Windows.Forms.Button'.
Ahhh, i get it. i have to give it the class of my....application? What?
backgroundBrush = new TextureBrush(new Bitmap(typeof(Project1),
"CoffeeBeanSmall.jpg"), WrapMode.Tile);
The type or namespace name 'Project1' could not be found (are you missing a
using directive or an assembly reference?)
Answer:
Maybe, i don't know, quite possibly, you tell me - is a project a class
also?
Right-click. Maybe there's an option now to "fix it". No, of course not.
Try googling - nope can't find anything. Screw it, i'll change the code to
backgroundBrush = new TextureBrush(new
Bitmap("c:\\CoffeeBeanSmall.jpg"), WrapMode.Tile);
Misc:
13. File->Open->Project Solution
The "File of Type" combo-box only drops down to show 6 items out of
about 16. Can we just default the drop-down to 25 items?
14. The "File of Type" combo-box does not support the mouse-wheel when
collapsed to browse the of types.
The real problem is that i don't know which magic file types are "openable"
so i just want to zing the mouse wheel until the files in my folder appear
and then i can open them.
15. There is no "All Files" option at the end - like most dialogs have.
Makes it hard to browse my hard drive when i can't see where i am because no
files match the secret criteria. Yes i could just type *.*, but give us the
option; it's what a Windows appliation would do.
16. i want to add a file to my project "File->Add" only has "Existing
Project" and "Existing Website", why not add "Existing File" ? Fumbling
around i see an alternative option under "Project->Add Existing Item",
strange since it's pretty much the exact same terminology for the exact same
concept.
One is
- Add -> Existing
the other is
- Add Existing
i'm sure the separation a very good reason why it won't be changed.
17. Every time i start a new project you reset my "current directory."
Don't do that. It was my current directory for a reason. Now i have to
browse back to it again. You're free to create files on the hard-drive when
i ask for a new project (although i would think you shouldn't NEED to create
any files until i save something).
18. Let me Ctrl+Click on a variable/class to jump to it's declaration. It's
done in other products, but that's not why you should steal it. You should
steal it because it is "web-like". Everyone intuitivly these days wants to
click on something to go into it.
End of part 1.
postscript. This is from the viewpoint of someone who is new to Visual
Studio altogether, not knew to programming. i tried carefully to separate my
not knowing the language from my not knowing the IDE. The IDE is a Windows
application, and as such should follow certain ease of use standards.
Also, i think i'm a bit spoiled by what Eclipse can do - even though there
are things in the Eclipse IDE that i can't stand; some of which Visual
Studio also does.
Brendan Green
I think you're being overly harsh in your assement.
"Ian Boyd" <ad...@SWIFTPA.NET> wrote in message
news:eWcfHNYc...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
Ian Boyd
Okay.
Ian Boyd
appear and disappear. This makes the tab-strip i was click on randomly move
up and down slightly - just enough that i can't simply move the mouse over
and click on the next tab, but i have to readjust up or down, depending on
where the tab strip jumped to. Same problem in SQL Server Management Studio
(which i guess is the same IDE, so of course it has the same problem)
19. Some people prefer having the X to close a tab in a fixed location (i.e.
on the right), others perfer having the X to close a tab on the tab itself.
20. If i hit Ctrl+Shift+Space to bring up the code insight for a method call
i am currently inside, default the overload to the overload i am using. Many
times when coming back to a method, i hit Ctrl+Shift+Space as super-short
documentation (which it is supposed to be), but right away i think that
whoever wrote the method got all the parameters wrong - then i have to hunt
through the (potentially long) list of overrides, trying to guess which one
is right. It would be nice if you just did it for me (other IDE's have)
End of 20 minutes from this morning.
Note: How almost nothing is the language or it's syntax, only user
interface.
Ian Boyd
- i am going to be attaching to a process in order to debug it, but in
order to get the menu option to attach to a process i have to open a file
first. So i have a empty text file c:\asdf.txt that i open right away just
so i can then attach. Some people may claim that "visual studio is a generic
container IDE, and what you can do depends on what you are currently working
on." i disagree. i opened "Visual Studio 2005" and not "SQL Server
Management Studio", and so VS2005 should have a debugging feature.
22. The Debug menu, and toolbar, and the "reset toolbar to defaults" and
"customize debug toolbar" contain the fairly common options "Step Into" or
"Step Out". At first i assumed that VS2005 didn't support stepping into
methods (a pretty big limitation). i didn't see it on the debugging toolbar,
but it also wasn't even on the debugging menu. It wasn't until i stumbled
across an unrelated forum post that someone mentioned that VS2003 supported
F11 for step out. i tried it and it happened to work. Hunting through the
"customize" i found the options and put them on the menu. Why not put them
there by default? "Because we can't put everything on the menu, we limited
the default to the most common features, what if someone else complains
about not having option XX and XY on the menu, we can't accomodate
everyone." Well then, perhaps the "Add or Remove Buttons from the debug
menu" feature should should me all debug options (i.e. the ones that appear
under "Debug")
Ian Boyd
there is no way to cancel the search. The entire IDE is blocked and unusable
until the search is done. This is especially if you're doing a "Find in
Files" on a web project.
Phil Cairns
> 21. No debug menu appears when you launch VS2005.
> - i am going to be attaching to a process in order to debug it, but in
> order to get the menu option to attach to a process i have to open a file
> first. So i have a empty text file c:\asdf.txt that i open right away just
> so i can then attach. Some people may claim that "visual studio is a generic
> container IDE, and what you can do depends on what you are currently working
> on." i disagree. i opened "Visual Studio 2005" and not "SQL Server
> Management Studio", and so VS2005 should have a debugging feature.
In an empty environment, choose Tools.Attach To Process...
You were looking for a menu labelled Debug, but attaching to a process
isn't necessarily part of a debug process, but definitely a tool. I've
used it simply in order quickly see which DLLs were loaded, or what was
emitted via the OutputDebugString function call as logging.
> 22. The Debug menu, and toolbar, and the "reset toolbar to defaults" and
> "customize debug toolbar" contain the fairly common options "Step Into" or
> "Step Out". At first i assumed that VS2005 didn't support stepping into
> methods (a pretty big limitation). i didn't see it on the debugging toolbar,
> but it also wasn't even on the debugging menu. It wasn't until i stumbled
> across an unrelated forum post that someone mentioned that VS2003 supported
> F11 for step out. i tried it and it happened to work. Hunting through the
> "customize" i found the options and put them on the menu. Why not put them
> there by default? "Because we can't put everything on the menu, we limited
> the default to the most common features, what if someone else complains
> about not having option XX and XY on the menu, we can't accomodate
> everyone." Well then, perhaps the "Add or Remove Buttons from the debug
> menu" feature should should me all debug options (i.e. the ones that appear
> under "Debug")
What version are you running? Looking at a clean VS.2005 Pro, I can see
Debug.Step Into and Debug.Step Over and their corresponding toolbar
buttons in the Debug toolbar in both C# and C++ projects, whether or not
there are any files open.
Phil Cairns
If you choose Find in Files again while the search is underway (I
usually do Ctrl+Shift+F), the dialog box reopens, and there is a "Stop
Find" button. Clicking this button stops the search.
Phil Cairns
> Ian Boyd wrote:
[snip]
>> 22. The Debug menu, and toolbar, and the "reset toolbar to defaults"
>> and "customize debug toolbar" contain the fairly common options "Step
>> Into" or "Step Out". At first i assumed that VS2005 didn't support
>> stepping into methods (a pretty big limitation). i didn't see it on
>> the debugging toolbar, but it also wasn't even on the debugging menu.
>> It wasn't until i stumbled across an unrelated forum post that someone
>> mentioned that VS2003 supported F11 for step out. i tried it and it
>> happened to work. Hunting through the "customize" i found the options
>> and put them on the menu. Why not put them there by default? "Because
>> we can't put everything on the menu, we limited the default to the
>> most common features, what if someone else complains about not having
>> option XX and XY on the menu, we can't accomodate everyone." Well
>> then, perhaps the "Add or Remove Buttons from the debug menu" feature
>> should should me all debug options (i.e. the ones that appear under
>> "Debug")
>
> What version are you running? Looking at a clean VS.2005 Pro, I can see
> Debug.Step Into and Debug.Step Over and their corresponding toolbar
> buttons in the Debug toolbar in both C# and C++ projects, whether or not
> there are any files open.
I just reset my environment settings to the "Visual C# Development
Settings", and that changed things a little. The Debug toolbar wasn't
there by default, and the keyboard shortcut mappings were changed. But
everything was still available.
Phil.
Jim Nugent
Ian Boyd <ad...@SWIFTPA.NET> wrote:
> Oh for crying out loud, i have to do this for every one? Obviously i
> want to include it, i put it in my usings. Do whatever it is you do
> to make it available in my usings.
I just created a C# ASP.NET Web project, and the form code-behind template
C# files contained these:
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.SessionState;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
and the corresponding references were set up. I wonder what the difference
was.
> Also, i think i'm a bit spoiled by what Eclipse can do - even though
> there are things in the Eclipse IDE that i can't stand; some of which
> Visual Studio also does.
Have to admit when Eclipse look at an error on a Java 'for (element : array)
{...}' statement and said oh, you need this quick fix, and set the compiler
to be compliant with 1.5 instead of 1.4 my eyes nearly popped out.
--
Jim
"Remember, an amateur built the Ark; professionals built the Titanic."
Ian Boyd
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
Version 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 2.0.50727
Installed Edition: Professional
Microsoft Visual C# 2005 77626-009-0000007-41323
Ian Boyd
> do Ctrl+Shift+F), the dialog box reopens, and there is a "Stop Find"
> button. Clicking this button stops the search.
Ahhh. My mistake. i accidentally clicked on Visual Studio window the instant
that "searching" box popped up, putting it to the background, and wondering
why VS was locked.
Ian Boyd
between Code view and Designer view. This is nice, As this was a feature i
was looking for. The frustrating thing is that there is no real way to find
this feature. The view menu has "Code" and "Designer", but neither has a
shortcut associated with it. i decided i wanted to customize the menu to get
rid of "Code" and "Designer" and instead put in the (obviously more useful)
"Toggle Code/Designer".
So, imagine a user testing session where the instructor asks the user "i
want you to put the the Toggle Code Designer option on the view menu". i
begin:
i) Right-click View menu and select Customize
ii) In Categories, select "View"
(strange that i have to select View again, since i just
right-clicked View)
iii) In Commands, hunt around for anything saying "Designer"
(perhaps a search, like the one on the keyboard bindings would be
helpful)
iv) Try inline searching for "Designer" by typing "d e s i g ", not
found
v) Try inline searching for "Code" by typing "c o d e ", not found
vi) Stumble across "View Designer" in the list. Hey! Now we're getting
somehwere.
vii) Realize there is also "View Code".
(Odd, since the View menu shows them as "Designer" and "Code" not
"View Designer" and "View Code")
viii) Still can't find anything to toggle Code/Designer, and yet the F7 key
magically does it.
(Eureka! Let's look at the key mappings to find what it is called!)
ix) Tools -> Options --> Environment --> Keyboard
x) Press shortcut keys: F7 Shortcut currently assigned to
"View.ToggleDesigner (F7 (Global))
xi) Right click View menu and select Customize
xii) In Categories, select "View"
(strange that i have to select View again, since i just
right-clicked View)
xiii) Search for "ToggleDesigner" by typing "t o g g l ", not found
xiv) Hunt around for anything related to toggle designer. Not found
xv) Search every other Category for "toggle"
Chrome..Toggle DebugServer
Class Diagrams...Toggle Lollipop Expand/Collapse
Debug...Toggle Breakpoint
Debug...Toggle Disassembly
Edit...Toggle Caret Paste Pos
Format...Toggle Guides
xvi) Conclude that there is no "menu" equivalent for "View.ToggleDesigner"
that by default maps to F7, and has two related menu items under the View
menu.
xvii) Scream
xviii) Post resut #24 of user interface testing to newgroups
xix) Take a break