Technology Stuff : New features of Visual Studio 2012

With the release of Visual Studio 2010 just around the corner, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak at Visual Studio 2012. Here are a few of the exciting things I found.

Code window resize

A feature you can turn on/off is automatic resizing of the code window.

When you are editing your code, selecting the code window maximizes it at the expense of Solution Explorer, the Output pane, etc.

Edit code while it executes

You could do it with Visual Basic 6 back in the '90s and finally you can do it in VS2012.

While the code is executing, you can pause it (breakpoint / debugging) and modify the code. Just as it did back in the '90s, the compiler will carry on working with the code you just wrote.

Google It!

They just made everyone's life easier.

Automatically add semicolons.

Rumour has it that the compiler will also automatically add closing brackets and braces.

Advanced copy and pasting of code The art of developing good software includes the skill of copying and pasting code found on the Internet. To make your life easier, VS2012 will apply some sense to the pasted code and rewire it for you. Simply write your stub method...
Ask a question at StackOverflow.com or maybe try Googling the code you need. Once you have it, simply copy the code and paste it into your stub method. ...then the magic begins.
The compiler has recognised and wired up your connection string, replaced "textBox1.Text" with "term", and because you are returning a string from this method, it assumes that you want the first result from the table and so will suggest returning that for you.

Evil Code Monkey ™

After copying and pasting code, things can get pretty messy really quickly.

IntelliSense now includes Evil Code Monkey™ which will point out your ugly code, shaming you into Googling the correct way to write it.

Language Style VB, C# or F# - it's all just language styles! When you are viewing code you can opt to have it translated from its original source into VB, C# or into some of the new styles.	Simplified Visual Basic is an easier, prettier language.
Rush-C Is super-abbreviated, keyboard shortcut style C#