Framework Design Studio Released
When I was coming back from Mix 2007, I was bored on the plane and so started to write a dev tool. What a geeky thing to do on a plane. :-)
The tool allows comparing two versions of an assembly to identify API differences: API additions and removals. Comparing versions of APIs comes very handy during API design process. Often you want to ensure that things did not get removed accidentally (which can cause incompatibilities), and as APIs grow, you want to review the addition without having to re-review APIs that were already reviewed. The tool, called Framework Design Studio (FDS) supports these scenarios.
Later on, I got lots of help from Hongping Lim (a developer on our team), and David Fowler (our 2007 summer intern). David ported the application to WPF, and Hongping basically took it from an early prototype stage to what it is today and made it possible to ship it externally.
Anyway, you can get the tool at the MSDN Code Gallery, the user guide is attached to this post, and lastly, here is the API diff output that the tool generates. Hope you find it useful.
Comments
Anonymous
April 04, 2008
Does the tool support viewing the public and protected interfaces independently? Do you think that would make sense as a feature?Anonymous
April 04, 2008
Greg, We don't support it today. But it's on the TODO list. Thanks!Anonymous
April 04, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 04, 2008
Nice to see the project got released!Anonymous
April 05, 2008
One of my co-workers, Krzysztof Cwalina has been working on a tool that makes detecting the changes betweenAnonymous
April 05, 2008
De pequeñito quería ser como Krzysztof Cwalina ,... bueno, igual exagero un poco, pero es que el buenoAnonymous
April 07, 2008
If you are building and evolving APIs, Framework Design Studio is a tool you should check out. Anonymous
April 07, 2008
Nice tool but how do merge the comments back to you code?Anonymous
April 09, 2008
I haven't tried either tool, but how different FDS is from LibCheck http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4b5b7f29-1939-4e5b-a780-70e887964165&displaylang=enAnonymous
April 14, 2008
I like this tool and the timing couldn't be better. My group is just about to start our API review and this tool will help tremendously. One question I couldn't find an answer for in any of the documentation, what does it mean when an API element is shaded in gray?Anonymous
April 14, 2008
The gray elements mean they are inherited, and so the API design decision has been made during the design of the base class or an interface, not "this" type.Anonymous
April 28, 2008
PingBack from http://archiveloper.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/framework-design-studio-released/Anonymous
May 04, 2008
The tool space for software architecture has been growing. There are new tools and continuous improvementAnonymous
May 04, 2008
The tool space for software architecture has been growing. There are new tools and continuous improvementAnonymous
May 04, 2008
O espaço das ferramentas para arquitectura de software em vindo a crescer. Têm vindo a aparecer novasAnonymous
May 12, 2008
PingBack from http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VS2008AndNet35SP1BetaShouldYouFearThisRelease.aspxAnonymous
May 12, 2008
The Beta of .NET 3.5 and VS2008 SP1 is out . I'm sure everyone is blogging the heck out of it, so I'llAnonymous
May 22, 2008
PingBack from http://www.wowgoldip.com/2008/05/22/vs2008-and-net-35-sp1-beta-should-you-fear-this-release/Anonymous
August 30, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
September 01, 2008
You know, you could have contributed to NDepend instead of reinventing the wheel again...Anonymous
June 18, 2009
PingBack from http://outdoordecoration.info/story.php?id=1898