Just trying to learn Tasks and using Console.WriteLine in win app but no output

Lloyd Sheen 1,481

Title pretty much says it. I've tried Console.WriteLine and Debug.WriteLine and they show no where VS 2022.

Viorel 118K Reputation points

2023-02-21T06:32:58.98+00:00

Maybe the statements were not yet achieved in your tasks?
Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-22T17:24:23.6333333+00:00

Yes they were, had to change code to create a list of strings and add to the list instead of WriteLine. I have read about 100 posts about this and like so many other things MS has just ignored it.

1 answer

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 31,086 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-02-22T03:32:29.47+00:00
Hello @Lloyd Sheen ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

My understanding win app is just a category of project types including WinForms, WPF, WinUI etc. I tested WinUI app as an example based on your previous issues. I reproduced the issue in WinUI project in VS2022.

Actually, the Console.WriteLine isn’t for IDE output windows. It writes to console. But, as you know, the default output type for WinUI is windows application. Here’re some workarounds, you can try to achieve it:

If you want to use Debug.WriteLine to output ,you should build in debug mode. It will show the message/text in your output window that show output from Debug at the bottom of Visual Studio.

Example

System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("I am using debugging");

if you want to use Console.WriteLine(), here’s a simple way:

Right click project and then select : Project Properties -> Application -> Output Type -> Console Application. It can show output in console window.

example

Console.WriteLine("3233");

Result

Best Regards,

Tianyu

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Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-22T17:26:44.54+00:00

This is a win forms app and yes it is debug mode. I have read about 100 posts about this problem going back a long time and nothing has been done about it. I am using a win forms app just to make this faster (I thought) but like way too many things in VS there are problems which are not being fixed.

Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-22T17:31:18.91+00:00

And if I were to just do QA on VS I could spend a couple of days and come up with so many things that the QA people would have to hang their heads. Just for an example check out this image.

Notice that variables that exist do not exist in VS's mind. If I pass the values to another method they get passed. This is just one of so many problems that VS has.

Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-22T17:31:50.6433333+00:00

Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-22T18:50:44.0466667+00:00

And how about this??? Have an item selected and the properties window is blank. Does MS do any QA????

As I said I could do QA all day and come up with enough problems in VS to fill up this forum. Just add this to the Xaml Binding Errors window which shows nothing.

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 31,086 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-02-24T07:25:41.4033333+00:00

Hi @Lloyd Sheen,

For the first screenshot, the error CS0103 says that "The name XX does not exist in the current context". Can you confirm that the debugger is running/executing through this related code, or the corresponding code line has been executed?

I didn’t see the breakpoints from the screenshot shared above, if you didn’t set the breakpoints for the corresponding code lines, could you please try to temporarily set the breakpoints for this code lines and run your project then click "Step Into" button and let the breakpoints to be hit? After that try to "Add Watch" for the ub/arrayNum variables, and check if the same error appears.

If the same error appears, could you please share us the detailed steps to reproduce this issue and check further, including the necessary code snippets(a minimal reproducible sample will be better) and the operations that you performed?

For the second screenshot, I tested on my side, added several buttons and controls but the properties window showed correctly. Did you set something or write some code for this specific button? Does this issue also appear on a newly created Windows Forms project? Could you share us a minimal reproducible sample or detailed steps to reproduce this issue for checking?

Please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Tianyu

Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-24T15:22:41.9633333+00:00

The debugger is running, there are breakpoints, the code has run.

I have been using VS since 1997 and this version is by far the worst. If I had the time and wanted to spend the time I could provide MS with way to many problems for a "production" product.

The problem with the properties window is the same (I now find) in both apps that use XAML and winforms. It seems that when you click an element to get the properties you have to click on another element and then what you want. The problem I had with win forms is that I had to close VS and reopen to get the properties window to work.

As for the variables not found please notice that this is in the constructor of the winforms form. I created the letsSeeHowScrewedUpVisualStudioIs method to check this as the values do show up in this method when they are passed from the constructor so the values are correct but VS says "sorry I'm not going to show these values".

Now that I have posted this I can wait to get the two notifications about this answer. This site is about as screwy as VS is these days.

Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-24T15:44:39.4533333+00:00

As I attempt to update VS so that hopefully it might work better I now get this. I simply asked to update when VS is closed. Closed it and get this. I love the question about the process that I know nothing about. With every release of VS it gets worse. And if someone from MS would like to talk with me I would love to show them exactly how poor this development tool has become.

Lloyd Sheen 1,481 Reputation points

2023-02-24T18:05:06.93+00:00

Ok so when the update was finished the watch window problem is gone.

Tianyu Sun-MSFT 31,086 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-03-01T08:08:02.07+00:00

Hello @Lloyd Sheen ,

Glad to hear that the watch window problem disappears in the latest version of VS 2022.

The problem I had with win forms is that I had to close VS and reopen to get the properties window to work.

May I ask, if VS works well after being reopened but the next time you start the VS the same issue still appears?

I did some tests and check but I still fail to reproduce this issue, could you please confirm that this issue appears for the newly created projects like WinForm projects and could you please let us know if you added some code(or modified some specific properties)? If so, would you mind sharing us the detailed steps to reproduce this issue?

Besides, does resetting VS settings work?

Please feel free to contact us.

Regards,

Tianyu
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Just trying to learn Tasks and using Console.WriteLine in win app but no output

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