Visual Studio 2012: 50 Shades of Grey by Microsoft Microsoft offended thousands in April with a preview of its next Visual Studio, a John-Major-inspired, grey affair intended to take Microsoft’s all-encompassing IDE closer to the look of Windows 8. Thousands gave the new look a thumbs-down on the Microsoft UserVoice poll, with people demanding a return to colour. The day of …
"It also seems odd that Microsoft puts so much energy into IDE design rather than, for example, implementing more of C++11 in Visual C++." - yes, because I want someone who's good at IDE design to be implementing complex, close to the metal C++ features.
Not all developers (or designers, etc) are good at the same range of tasks.
C++ was so much of an afterthought in VS2010 that they shipped it without C++ Intellisense support. Now it's suddenly front and cetnre.
Setup and Deployment projects declared dead in VS2012- presumably in favour of building for the App Store.
It would be nice for once to be able to install a new version of Visual Studio and have it actually provide the same level of support for an existing code base as the previous version.
I wouldn't put too much stock in this article.
This is another Reg Hack 'review' designed to capture forum posts for advert revenue (oops, it worked, silly me!). The Register is going the way of Tech Republic and CNet - got to keep the flame wars going to sell 'views' to advertisers.
C++ isn't front and centre. Microsoft's component extensions to C++ are front and centre. C++/CX is a bunch of extensions heavily influenced by .NET (references, delegates, autoboxing, partial classes etc.) which allow to C++ to access the Windows Runtime framework. The vanilla C++ language, following its own loose interpretation of C++ standards is just along for the ride.
If anyone thinks that Microsoft are deprecating .Net in favour of going back to C++, they need their head examined.
I mean, seriously...
There are no templates for a Web, SOA or cloud Project in C++, no MVC, no Web API, no WCF, no Azure. None at all. Nada .
No C++ support for SharePoint, Office, or Workflow projects.
Not even support for C++ in Lightswitch projects.
The deprecation of setup projects tells you the focus is on web, cloud and store. C++ isn't front and center, it's standing at the back of the queue waving 'I am still here' at passers by.
This is one of the worst Register "articles"' in a long time.
OSX similarly lost all its colorful icons in the Finder sidebar and in some system applications with the 10.7 Lion release. Looks like the grayness illustrated in the article.
A free app is available to restore them (SideEffects), but not through the App Store.
I don't see the major issue with the UI. I find the dark theme easier on the eyes and I used the registry tweak to stop the menu being all upper case. If I wasn't able to do those things I wouldn't feel the need to complain about it. It has a place for writing code, debugger integration and a solution/project explorer. Sure I would have liked to see more C++ love but I don't see the fuss about the UI. It's better than most other offerings.
I'm pretty sure that's actually specifically stated in a previous version of a Windows GUI style guide.
So clearly the GUI screenshots are intended to convey that every single feature has been disabled and is unavailable.
I'll stick with a version that actually works, thanks.
Firstly, to be blunt, you may wish to spend less time worrying about the colour of buttons and more on the performance of the features relating to the actual development. Judging a development environment by button colour is quite astonishing and makes one wonder how much time you spend looking at code. The only excuse I can see for this is if it's a language that puts a lot of emphasis on features that involve vast amounts of messing in the UI such as Visual Basic .Net or C# UI design.
Secondly, a previous style guide should dictate how new versions of products operate? Next I'm sure people will be telling Microsoft off for not innovating enough and being behind the times.
God knows how we got past the extended ASCII code designed IDE phase of software development.
"Judging a development environment by button colour is quite astonishing". Yes, I judge it by its color because that IS productivity to me.
A mistake I believe you are making is that unless you are a really junior developer you've a lot more to do than learn a new UI just because Microsoft's design idiots need to justify their salary. Maybe it's me but I can't use key combinations and function keys because they vary so much across the IDEs (yes, more than one) such as Eclipse. The number of times I've sworn at myself for pressing F5 (run/continue in VS but run new debug instance in Eclipse while F8 is continue in Eclipse or when debugging JavaScript in Firebug) is depressing. So for me it's more like maze running. I remember *where* stuff is greatly helped by the color and shape of the icons. Since the icons are all now gray, a cornerstone of my navigation has gone. For that reason alone I will not be upgrading. Just can't afford the time. And for these reasons I take real exception to your narrow minded comment.
I don't get why Microsoft is removing choice. Why does Microsoft care whether I prefer color or monochrome? Why do they insist every menu should shout at me? Wasn't it the purpose of technologies like Xaml and Html to make theming easier? Why not let me apply the theme I prefer? Choice, it seems, is a lost world.
I know this isn't the correct place for this post, but please forgive me.
When you devs write new apps for win 8 - please, please, please try to remember there are a lot of people who use netbooks - who only have a limited screen resolution height.
Windows 8 preview works quite well on a netbook - but pretty-much none of the metro apps will work unless I plug-in a second screen. Looking at the apps I see no reason whatsoever (ie lots of wasted space on screen) to limit them in this way.
Hopefully it's not Microsoft mandated, and even Win8 itself will one day run on netbooks properly.
Pretty please?
Interestingly VC++ 8.0 was, at the time, the most C++ compliant mainstream compiler. Yes, Comeau has the title for the most compliant compiler, but it wasn't mainstream. Whilst I'm really looking forward to a lot of the features of C++11, I actually don't mind the support of it taking a bit of time coming in. I wouldn't be surprised if VC++ was fully C++11 compliant by the next release. It is certainly a better situation than with gcc where they happily add all the new features, but they keep generating serious compiler bugs as a result.
It's like a walk down memory lane. So many features I could care less about. So many attempts by MS to steer the development community, kicking and screaming if need be, to a new platform. That's not to say VS is a inherently bad IDE. It's just that there has been quite a few tools that I could just do without. The whole our way or the highway mentality.
Had to chuckle about the app store centric templates/projects. What about their customers that are building in house applications and want a proper installer? At least that was the impression I was left with. Guess there is/will be a version for desktop apps.
I've been using the new-look Visual Studio for a week or so now and from what I can see the use of colour is in fact very well thought out and much improved from previous editions.
Yes at a glance the initial lack of colour compared to 2010 was a little disconcerting, however one I started using it in my day-to-day coding I found colour being used to draw my eye to the important details, such as my code, the pass/fail state of my unit tests, notifications etc...
I do have some minor complaints (for example when debugging unit tests with all CLR exceptions being thrown I now have to hit continue about 8 times before my unit test actually starts running), however overall Visual Studio 2012 gets a definite thumbs up from me.
The screenshot at the first page looks an awful lot like the default setup of Microsoft Expression Web 4 (and Expression Design). The first is a HTML editor / website designer, the latter a vector graphic based editor, I've been using both for quite some years now.
Personally I think they had the right idea, but like everything these days completely exaggerated the final designs. A dark themed colour does indeed bring more attention to your main code window, IMO its a given.
But the lack of colours is something I wouldn't be surprised to see getting people headaches in the longer run. Someone else already mentioned it but I can only reaffirm; its going to tax you a lot more to find out which option(s) you need, which options were selected and so on. However; if you're using the GUI, if you're using keyboard commands then this applies to a lesser degree.
So quite frankly I see a new fail here; making this IDE much harder to get used to than others. How is that going to bring in new developers ?
"That's why they charge $13,299 for the Ultimate extra everything edition."
And sell the Professional version for 3% of that and give away the Express edition for free. You are aware that the Ultimate version has a tonne of performance management, environment management, version control handling, project reporting tools, architecture modelling, testing suite and is designed for development teams. You just went to MS and specifically searched for the most expensive version without any thought about who would actually need it, didn't you? If you have ten or twenty developers at $35k per year, then the $13k for the software they use doesn't sound as bad, does it? I would imagine any freelancer would be plenty happy with the Professional version for about £300 and depending on what they're working on, possibly even the free version.
Besides, you can program without Visual Studio, you know. Some of us even use text editors (vi), thanks.
"Clearly you are awesome. Why would anyone bother with a proper IDE when it's way cooler to write code in a simple text editor?"
Oh, you also forgot to mention that the price you mentioned includes a full MSDN subscription that gets you a copy of pretty much every MS product they make to develop against. But I guess saying £300 for their development suite wouldn't have made them sound as bad. My comment about the text editor was not really the point that I was talking about, it was just to illustrate that you don't need to pay MS anything to develop for Windows if you don't want to. You can also use products like Eclipse for free as well. I never said anything about it being better "way cooler to write in a simple text editor" that's just you resorting to mockery in place of argument. Though yes, I still do use Vi sometimes. It's very powerful and I'm comfortable using it. Whenever I'm just writing stuff out, e.g. a load of class prototyping, I tend to use it because I can work more quickly in it than most other tools. Never said anyone else needed to.
I just all feels so flat and I cannot really find any other word to sum it up. Just does not feel like a UI I can be productive within. No visual hints that draw the eye and so forth. Seemingly MS does indeed believe the world is flat! Maybe someone spiked the cool aid in the UI/Design section at the MS with any hope the trip they are on will wear off soon................
Pint cos it eases the pain.
Correction: VS 2010 is the best IDE out there.
VS2012? Meh. A step backwards in so many ways. Visually is only one of them.
The 2012 TFS explorer is crap and hard to navigate. Takes way too many clicks to just get to the work item list, let alone creating one.... Heck it took a while to figure out just how to get to that list. Oh wait, that's right all text is black now so you have to guess which text is a link to another page..
Due to the loss of installer projects we have several projects that can't be upgraded (unless we want to use the lite version of InstallShield. Which, quite frankly, has sucked monkey balls for so long that I will be keeping those projects in vs2010 until MS realizes the error of their ways and restores the setup projects in a service pack.
Icon changes: seriously? The project file icons don't match up between source control and the solution explorer. There are other issues like why do the icons change just because you expand a folder (look at App_GlobalResources. Then expand that folder..wtf?)
I could go on. I have a long long list after working in this for the past week (it RTM'd last week).
Show you a better IDE? How about Eclipse for a start. While it is dependent on Java it is non the less a class A tool that can be adapted for most modern development needs. From single lone developers right up the scale to sprawling shops that need all the trimmings. It supports in it's variance a multitude of languages on a multitude of platforms.
Paris cos she is also capable and willing to meet the needs of many.
Show me a better IDE.
Translation: my entirely subjective opinion is better than your entirely subjective opinion.
Really, kids, religious wars over programming tools were boring thirty years ago. Eternal September is eternal, I suppose. Now get off my lawn.
(Personally, I don't like any IDEs, and I've used a lot of them. Turbo Pascal 3's wasn't too bad, but pretty much all of the others are bloated monstrosities that just slow me down. I've never seen an IDE that comes anywhere close to a good shell, a good editor, and a good set of command-line tools. But that's just my preference; I don't claim it's better in some absolute sense.)
"Second, there is some support for C++ 11, though the extent of it is disappointing. The supported features are listed here. You do get features including lambdas, rvalue references, strongly-typed enums, and range-based for loops. Variadic (variable number of arguments) templates are missing though, along with numerous other features. Look elsewhere, for example to GCC, Clang or Intel compilers, for better C++ 11 implementations. The C++ runtime and libraries in Visual Studio 2012 do not support Windows XP, but are being revised to do so. In the meantime, you can use the Visual Studio 2012 compiler from the new IDE via a project setting, provided Visual Studio 2010 is also installed."
Why the hell should I want to buy this if I already have VS2010?
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