I can't believe I've been writing packages for Visual Studio and didn't know about the series of blog articles on Visual Studio Exensibility by DiveDeeper or about the VSXtra project. Since I want a quick index of the LearnVSXNow! series, I'm posting links to every article. This is a series every managed package framework developer should read. LearnVSXNow! How to start VSX programming? Creating an empty package Creating a package with a simple command Creating a package with a tool window Basic ......
If you're creating toolbars and menus for Visual Studio, the only way to get a crisp icon for the item is to use a 32-bit bitmap, which is a 24-bit bitmap plus an 8-bit alpha channel. Unlike lower bit levels, 32-bit bitmaps support transparency which prevent your icons from looking like a box. Worse still, I discovered that using 24-bit bitmaps creates artifacts in the form of little black dots when rendered. Unfortunately, unless you have a license to Photoshop, you may discover that none of your ......
Mike Ormond has announced that Visual Studio Beta 1 (including .NET Fx 4.0) will be available to MSDN subscribers later today. He also posted a few screenshots. I admit that I'm somewhat saddened by the removal of the triangles ......
Visual Studio Team System is getting a new tool: Microsoft Test and Lab Manager. It was codenamed Camano and announced last year at PDC08, but new details have emerged via Jason Zander's blog. The tool will not only be included with Visual Studio Team Test since generalist testers (think domain experts rather than programmers) may not want to install the rather large Visual Studio on their testing boxes. The tool will also be included in Visual Studio Team Test 2010 Essentials and Visual Studio Lab ......