Case: One source file has a comment in it that is directly linked to a comment in another source file (it says see line 315 in xxx.cs for more information). The problem with this approach is that the comment on line 315 may not be at that line number in the future. Is there a way to link comments together in an IDE? (currently using Visual Studio 2010, but use other IDEs from time to time)
You can try this addin (I haven't used this):
http://hyperaddin.codeplex.com/
Besides this addin, the only thing I can think of is using a file link to directly go to the linked file; something like:
// ...
// See file://path_to_file
//...
The link will be converted to an actual link that you can click using Ctrl+Left Click but it won't take you to a given line number - it just opens the file.
The path can be a relative file path or a full file path - full paths work best if all team members use the same folder structure in the project. For example:
// file://w:/projects/GUI/frmMain.cs
Referring to a particular source file and line number is never a good idea, because someone might move things around in the other file without being aware that something is pointing at it. It's better to point at the particular type/method, for example See DoThings() in the MyThing class..
In Java, using Javadoc, you can use #link to do this, for instance See {#link MyThing#doThings()}. Eclipse will automatically update these when using its refactoring tools (e.g. renaming the class or the method). If the change is done manually, Eclipse will still warn that the target of the #link is invalid. (There is also #see which is more appropriate in some situations.)
I'm not sure about C# and Visual Studio, but it's likely that its XML-based doc format offers similar functionality.
The only way to handle this is to put the comment in the same file. Duplicating a comment is not the same as duplicating code, although ideally the code wouldn't need too much explanation in comments.
There are many, many reasons why the comment being in another file will cause pain. As you have stated, the line number may change but also it could be deleted (as they won't know another comment references it), updated in a way that changes its meaning and it is annoying to have to open another file in any case.
Related
What is the purpose of "Linked" Files in visual studio, and when I would use them versus simply including the class project that contains the file to my current project.
Project + Add Existing Item, arrow on the Add button, select "Add as Link".
Visual Studio strongly favors copying the item you select in this dialog into your project directory. This will keep you out of trouble, like accidentally modifying a source code file or resource that's also used in another project. Or forgetting to check-in the file into source control, by far the most dangerous mishap. Something you'll discover only a year or more from now, far too late to do anything about it.
The Add as Link option overrides that behavior, the file stays in its original location and the project file records the relative path of the file.
Good reasons to use this feature are very hard to come by. Trying to come up with some:
You may want to maintain a single source code file that's included in multiple projects, using Add as Link ensures you'll only ever edit that one single source file.
You may have a project that uses the same source code files as another project but with very different build settings, in which case you'd make all of the project items a link.
You may have a humongous resource that you don't want to have copied repeatedly in multiple projects
You may have a deployable item, like an unmanaged DLL, that you keep in a single directory but is used in multiple unrelated projects.
Digging yourself a deep source control hole is a high risk, be sure to think this through before you commit to using the feature.
Linked files are for when you want the code to be included in that project assembly.
"Wow Jimmy, thanks for pointing out the obvious. But why would I want to do this?"
Well, there can be several reasons, but for now I'll just list one example. Consider the scenario that your company|team requires every assembly to have certain constants or assembly attributes defined. Instead of creating a duplicate class in every single project, you could just have one copy of the file and link it into each project. Update the file once, and every assembly gets the changes.
Does it use modification timestamp or/and does it check whether the actual content has changed (e.g. by comparing the checksum)?
Edit: I need to know this since I use Git for source control and often change branches. It appears that sometimes even if I change the branch back and force (e.g. from develop to master and then back to develop), the VS rebuilds half of the sources files. I wonder why this happens and why does it happen sometimes and does not happen the other times.
Since Visual Studio is a closed-source project, I bet only developers would be able to give a definite answer on how exactly does it work. However, for my purposes it is enough to test some scenarios.
I have tested it with a small solution and a couple of files in it (one header and two source files). Test results bring to the following conclusion. Visual Studio looks for modification date and time. Even if the file content is the same - it compiles this file and also any other files that include it. If the modification date and time are the same - it won't recompile it even if the content is different. Visual Studio ignores creation and access dates and times.
I'm guessing it uses FileSystemWatcher on the project directories and linked files (if any), just because it's the right way to do this kind of thing.
Some googling finds for more about this class (or just look it up yourself):
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/use-the-net-filesystemwatcher-object-to-monitor-directory-changes-in-c/6165137
http://www.dotnetperls.com/filesystemwatcher
Of course when the source file is open, it's content by the time of editing, as wel as any user changes (even not saved) are loaded in the RAM, but it doesn't compare it to disk content (that'd be too slow), it listens to a system event when the system tells it the file changed.
Update:
Probably not that class itslf, but the Win32 version of it, you know most of the system related .NET functionality classes are just Win32 wrappers.
From this StackOverflow answer: How does FileSystemWatcher work on another computers directory?
I think it wraps this API (not sure): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365465.aspx
Update 2:
This is Microsoft's approach to monitor file changes:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/chzww271(v=vs.80).aspx
Update 3
This is an old answer, and it was mentioned above that it was a guess, as Visual Studio is closed source as mentioned in other answers. It's worth mentioning that the accepted answer suggests Visual Studio looks for file modification dates instead, which suggests it doesn't use the approach guessed in this very answer, and that it was wrong.
I hope the reader didn't mind the effort given to rationalize possibilities in this answer (causing reader discomfort or down votes). Keeping it for archival reason only.
I've written a basic LanguageService extension for Visual Studio 2008 for my studio's proprietary scripting language. It works perfectly fine, and I've implemented a basic symbol table to keep track of script definitions and calls allowing for goto definition functionality.
The problem I've run into is that I only know how to parse the current active view, and I'd like to scan the entire solution's contents so that the user can goto the definition of a script defined in a file they have yet to open and have parsed. I've figured out how to generate a list of all files in the solution, but now I need to create a new Microsoft.VisualStudio.Package.Source which requires a Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextManager.Interop.IVsTextLines and I have no idea how to create a new one based off of the file I have.
Maybe I'm going about the problem the wrong way and someone can point me towards a better way to cause a file to be parsed by the LanguageService.
Regards,
Colin
Poking around I found that the reason Visual Studio needs a new Source is that it's keeping an internal list of them, and they're like the view into the text file held by the editor.
I came to the conclusion that files that are closed do not need IVsTextLines or to be entered into the VS internal list of Source files because I'm not doing any operations directly on them, all I care about in this case is to build a table of symbols and their corresponding TextSpan. So instead I created a new API for my parser that just took in a string and built my AST instead of grabbing the text from a ParseRequest, and only worried about specific types of symbols I needed to record. I then pushed this into a BackgroundWorker.
So I guess I was going about the problem in the wrong way. Although it does seem weird I can't just trigger a file to be opened into the Source list.
Interestingly I asked this question to Microsoft on their support forums and they advised me I had to purchase some service and support plan for them to answer my question.
I often find myself writing small (5-20 lines) files for things like input validation, reading a URL and so on. In fact, I probably write nearly the same files over and over because I either forget that I've already implemented such functionality in another project or I don't want to have to go searching for that file.
I want to know if there is a way to simply add code to a global repository from an IDE (in my case Visual Studio) and simply extract that code into whatever project I'm working on. It should be able to:
Extract code to a new file or to the currently open file in my IDE.
w.r.t. #1 I want smart defaults based on how I added the code to the repository.
Easy to use UI.
I don't need replacement/substitution of variables.
For instance, if I right click on a file I want to add to the repository then the default extraction operation is to create a new file. If, instead, I highlight some text in the currently open file and commit that, then the default is just to paste the snippet into the currently open file.
I've tried VS's snippet manager a few times, always with disappointment and quick abandonment. My biggest complaint is its interface and complexity required to add new code to it, plus the inability to extract the code to a file versus just inside whatever I have open.
You might want to check out ReSharper's Live Templates.
I don't use them to the extent that you're obviously looking for, but you can definitely create new file-based templates. I use that all the time when I create a new unit testing fixture class - just Add New Item -> From Template -> NUnit Test Fixture, where "NUnit Test Fixture" is one of my defined file templates.
Additionally, all the templates can be assigned a shortcut sequence, so you can auto-replace a given combination of text with a code snippet.
All the template configuration is file based, so you can save them to solutions or global workspaces as well.
I'm working on a project which makes substantial use of code generation. Some of the files it generates contain >0.25 million lines of code. VS (2K5) doesn't cope too badly, but R# (4.01) throws an out of memory exception every two minutes or so.
Splitting them out into partial classes/separate files isn't an option in the immediate term, though it may be later.
Are there any clever IDE tricks to dealing with this?
EDIT: so people are immediately saying (very sensibly) 'don't have a file that big' and suggesting ways to break it out into smaller files.
That's fine, but I'm on a time-boxed task taking a look around and deciding what to optimise. My problem is very specifically 'how to view an insanely big file in an IDE without pain', not 'how to refactor the project'. For purposes of the question please imagine the file is read-only. :)
I would at least change huge files extention to something like .cpp_gen or .cpp_huge to remove syntax highlighting, outlining etc. and then reassign build tool back to C/C++ compiler tool for them.
Seems like this R# tool (is that Resharper?) is the problem. Can you disable it?
Otherwise, changing the file type for the generated code might make sense - presumably, you aren't going to be doing major editing on those files, so losing syntax coloring and other features specific to source files wouldn't be an issue.
WOW!
250 000 lines of code?
you should think not in a machine point of view, but in a human been point of view. Let's say that you want to pass that code to someone else, can you see the time to see what the code does?
Design Patterns were made to deal with this ind stuff, try to start small, refactoring it, then go deeper and start applying more D.P.
you will have less and less lines of code, and Yes, one of the best tricks is to separate into several files according to it's propose.
Assuming you're not hand-editing your generated code. (=BAD IDEA!!)
You could put the generated files in a separate solution that you compile from the command line and then reference those dll's from the project you're working in.
Is the problem when you open the file for editing in Visual Studio? I've noticed that VS editor can be quite slow and inefficient on large files. Also, you could try turning off certain options, e.g. word-wrapping kills my machine for some reason.
Otherwise you could use something else like Textpad with syntax highlighting installed to edit the problematic large source file... not as nice, for sure.
Don't use visual studio. There is too much going on in VS.
Since the file is read only, you wont be using any IDE features (Intellisense, Refactoring tools, formatting).
You will probably get better performance using a simpler application, such as notepad++ for simply viewing the file. Notepad++ will do standard language highlighting if you like color.
Can't you break up the files and use the preprocessor to bring them back together when you compile?
It must be possible somehow to group large chunks of those files in separate libraries. You'd then separate them into several projects. Tried this? What the is the current structure of your source code/ project?