When working in VS, the error messages in the bottom panel are compiler errors and warnings, right? Does this mean the app is being compiled all the time? I would expect those to appear only when trying to run the app.
This is probably a silly question, but I cannot find the answer.
Visual Studio continually parses the source code; this allows it to preemptively report some errors before you actually compile the source.
This is, of course, dependent upon which language you are using. C++ didn't get preemptive error reporting until Visual Studio 2010.
Visual Studio doesn't natively continuously compile code.
However, I just downloaded the 14 day trial of this little app called .Net Demon that's a plugin for Visual Studio. It costs $30, but definitely a nifty tool if you've got large solutions with many projects.
http://www.red-gate.com/products/dotnet-development/dotnet-demon/
I'll probably end up breaking down and buying it, it's pretty slick.
Each programming language is different (each provides a Visual Studio 'language service' specific to that language that provides the feedback), but for the most part, yes, it is being compiled over and over. In F#, for example, the compiler is divided into a few stages, main ones being lexer/parser, typechecker, and code generator, and the lexer/parser/typechecker are running inside VS, and every time you type a character into a file, that file is re-run through those stages of the compiler.
When you compile an application there might be errors and warnings which will be shown at the errors window. When you run the application errors will no longer be shown in Visual Studio but depending on how your application is organized it will either crash or handle them gracefully. Also notice that if you try to run the application with F5 or Ctrl+F5 Visual Studio will try to compile it first and if there are compile-time errors and warnings they will be shown.
Related
Relates to Error while using Qt in Visual Studio 2019
I have the same error. Unfortunately I cannot still fix it, as Qt VS Tools for VS 2015 aren't updated. But my question is not how to avoid background build.
My question: what is background build?
Oh, I believe you are running into the 32767 names for this.
Let me preface this by stating that 2015 may have been the last time I used Visual Studio or developed anything for a Microsoft platform.
Part of your answer is in this discussion.
I believe the latest (or more current) name for "background build" is "live code compilation."
This is a resource robbing, highly annoying, syntax checking thing Microsoft thought would be great. It ranks right up there with Microsoft Clippy as far as tragic ideas go.
Basically, as you type, visual studio tries to build your stuff, puts squiggles under errors and generally consumes a whole lot of resources.
If you are using that Qt plug-in to build a QMake project this can cause all kinds of hardship, especially when you have UI files that need to MOC compile and are in the designer modifying the .UI file.
Whatever version of Visual Studio I was forced to use for that project, the first thing I did was find out how to turn that off.
Qt appears to not play well with Visual Studio it seems.
Here is a more complete description if you happen to have the plug-in.
BuildOnSave is an extension for Visual Studio 2019 and 2017 that
builds the current solution as soon a file is saved, and in
combination with the the extension SaveAllTheTime, enables a live,
background build experience while you type.
This is a new one for me. I have been asked, for legal reasons, to setup a laptop with Visual Studio, but to disable the ability to compile projects/solutions. The purpose is to enable browsing of the source code, but not allow building or executing it.
Yes, I know this is really a stupid question and unfortunately I can't get into too many details. I've asked about using alternative text editors, but I have been told no. So until I can prove it isn't possible (or that I have at least made a reasonable effort), I have to try and make this work. Notepad++ would be an excellent alternative, but that has been rejected.
This would be in Visual Studio 2010 or later. Is there any way that I can do this?
UPDATE
After trying Marius Bancila's suggestion of removing the compilers and MSBuild, I was surprised to find out that VS continued to work fine (except for building, of course). I did not expect that functionality like F12 (Go To Definition) would continue to work.
This may mean that there still remains the ability to build something somewhere somehow. But as it stands with MSBuild permanently deleted and the Visual Studio Build command not working, it'll take some effort to get around it (if a way in fact does exist).
You didn't say what projects should not be possible to build (VC++, VC#, VB.NET, F#, etc.). Starting with VS2010 they are all built using MSBuild. So if you delete MSBuild they will not be able to build from inside Visual Studio. However, one can still be able to build from the command line, so the only possibility I see is that you delete all the compilers that come with Visual Studio.
It's a little bit crazy, but if you really have to ...
Try deleting some important binaries after installing Visual Studio e.g. linker (link.exe) and compiler (cl.exe).
Use a text editor instead. Notepad++ even comes with color syntax highlighting.
You cannot prevent people from compiling the code. Visual Studio Express is available to anyone, and the compiler can be executed from the command line, without Visual Studio's help.
I'm getting an error in Klocwork's Visual Studio integration stating that
On-The-Fly analysis did not start due to XX parser errors.
Is there a way to view On-The-Fly parser errors?
The Visual Studio solution is still building successfully, so I'm guessing it's something I need to make Klocwork aware of in the normal build process.
As of Klocwork Insight 10 the Visual Studio plugin will now display any parse errors in the Visual Studio Error List window.
In the previous versions, to view the parse errors you could look through the KWVS.log file which is written by the plugin to the user's temp folder, ie. the value of %TEMP%.
In general, the Klocwork parser is a bit more strict about things like missing semi-colons, etc. than the Visual Studio compiler is.
I've got a solution containing a mixture of C# and F# projects (it's a Silverlight app). When I attempt to compile it in Visual Studio 2010 SP1, the build process hangs on one of the F# projects. If I remove that project, it hangs on a different F# project.
The F# compiler (fsc.exe) isn't running, and I can't find any likely-looking process to kill (other than devenv.exe).
It compiles fine on the command line, using MSBuild. It compiles fine in VS11 beta. We can't (yet) migrate the solution to VS11.
This occurs on my PC, and one other PC. None of the other team members have this problem.
Has anyone seen this behaviour before? How do I go about debugging this?
It may be useful to go to Tools\Options\Projects&Solutions\Build&Run and change MSBuild output verbosity to 'diagnostic' and then check the output window to see exactly where things are getting hung, that may help diagnose.
I was looking around the net for a NUnit custom MSBuild task that would run on every build and also nicely play with Visual Studio UI (2008 is my version). I found MSBuild.Community.Tasks project that was great, but failed in Visual Studio integration part.
What I actually wanted to have is get failed tests displayed as warnings/errors in VS's error list window (and also FAILED project build when tests are not successful). So I wrote my own custom MSBuild task that does the job exactly how I wanted it to be.
BUT.
The only problem that I have is that normal VS UI error list behaviour is that when you click on an error it jumps to appropriate source file and highlights the problematic code. I was able to relate file and line number with failed test however I wasn't able in any way to persuade Visual Studio to HIGHLIGHT problematic code for me (when I double click the error). All I get is cursor in the right spot.
I tried all kinds of combinations of line, endLine, column, endColumn method parameters (Log.LogError()), but to no avail. And based on error output by compiler errors it looks like it also provides just line and column (no end values).
Anybody ran against this oddity and solved it?
Update 13 May 2009
You can get this project for free (without method selection) at
http://code.google.com/p/nunitmsbuildvsintegrated/
For this feature, you must create Visual Studio Integrated Package that display custom panel in Visual Studio. This custom panel will be called when your project is built.
Visual Studio Extensibility Developer Center
I have no solution to your exact problem, but have some thoughts.
Are you sure you want to run a full suite of unit tests at the end of each and every build? I personally find it to be a productivity killer. Rather, while working with code I tend to run a small subset tests which cover only the code in question, and this is where tools like ReSharper or TestDriven.NET come into play.
(source: jetbrains.com)