Immediate Window unexpected behavior when using .NET 5.0

Question

Immediate Window unexpected behavior when using .NET 5.0

CSharpRox 0

This is about Visual Studio 2022 Community edition. I have been heavily using Immediate Window for debugging a DLL during design time, and it works great for .net framework 4.8.x (in fact I've used Immediate Window for many years with no problem). However, recently when I created a project/solution to use .NET 5.0, I started getting a popup window telling me that "A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly" and it no longer works like it used to. Is there a fix for this problem? For now I have created a dummy calling app project and set it to startup project for temporary workaround (still with a lot of issues), but it takes significant amount of additional time to compile the blank GUI of that dummy project which is of absolutely no use to me, I rather not waste so much compiling time every time I have to make a small change, I have over 140 new DLL calls to implement). Please help if you have any knowledge on this issue or if you know a fix for it!

(I tried on two different computers, both show the same issue; I also tried .NET 1.0 all the way to .NET 6.0, all of them show the same issue, but when using any of the .net framework 4.x.x, Immediate Window works fine).

Viorel 106.5K Reputation points

2023-05-03T05:45:14.2166667+00:00

How to reproduce the problem? What are you doing in Immediate window?
CSharpRox 0 Reputation points

2023-05-04T16:12:32.87+00:00
Here are the steps:

I installed Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition with all modules needed for C# Class library development

Once VS is installed, I created a new project for a C# Class Library for .NET or .NET STANDARD (this targets .NET core instead of .net framework).

Under project properties, I selected the build for .NET 5 (or any .NET core, I've tried all the way from .NET 1 to .NET 6).

I created a very simple class, here it is:

namespace Calcs { public static class SimpleMath { static SimpleMath() { Debug.WriteLine("Created..."); } public static int addition(int i, int x) { return i+x; } } }

Then I built the project (although this is irrelevant because using the Immediate Window will automatically build it too).

Then I went to Immediate Window, and typed "?Calcs.SimpleMath.addition(3,4);" (without the quotes)

When I hit enter, I see a window popup whith tells me that "A project with an Output Type of Class Library cannot be started directly".

Now on the SAME Visual Studio (don't even need to exit and restart), if I create a project for C# Class Library for .net framework 4.6 (or even 4.8.x) and follow rest of the steps, I see an expected response of "7" on the Immediate Window after Step6. This debugging was working well for many years for me during development using 2.x ~ 4.x .net framework (and that continues to work as expected in VS 2022), but it does not work when developing a project using .NET 5. For development using .NET 5, I have to make a separate dummy project in the same solution with an executable output and then set it to Startup Project in order for the Immediate Window to show me the expected "7" as response - but when I do that, the GUI (blank, since I left it that way) of that dummy project also pops up on the side. I have no use for a GUI since I am developing a C# Class Library DLL, but every time I use Immediate WIndow, Visual Studio takes almost 10~15 seconds to first build the GUI which is a tremendous waste of development time for me.
CSharpRox 0 Reputation points

2023-05-04T16:14:31.9133333+00:00

Viorel 106.5K Reputation points

2023-05-03T05:45:14.2166667+00:00

How to reproduce the problem? What are you doing in Immediate window?
CSharpRox 0 Reputation points

2023-05-04T16:14:31.9133333+00:00

Answer 1

Hi @CSharpRox ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

I tested on my side and could reproduce your issue.

Please directly report the issue to product team by selecting “Help” menu > Send Feedback > Report a Problem.

Sincerely,

Anna

If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Immediate Window unexpected behavior when using .NET 5.0

1 answer

Activity