Visual Studio 2015: Getting familiar with IDE features
IDE Features
Feedback
You might never observed but there is a feedback icon on the top right corner of your visual studio main page .For convenience I have shown it below
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bZiSsMwUkV4/VrHHYVutYWI/AAAAAAAAACQ/tfhQYPOjysI/s1600/feedback.PNG
On clicking this icon you will get for options as you can see below:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4joPdAyY-lI/VrHH2EhUnPI/AAAAAAAAACg/RGY3GVzIF-Q/s400/fb2.PNG
Lets explore them one by one and see what they can do
Report a problem: Whenever you have a an exception or error in your code or any other problem occurring in visual studio ,you van simply go to this and write about your problem. You will surely get a solution of your problem from some experts.
Provide suggestion: If you think that you have a good suggestion about visual studio then go here and write about it .
Rate this product : If you want to rate visual studio, you can go here
Settings : This just allow you to select whether you want to participate in visual studio improvement program or not .
Notification
There is another icon of notification at the top right corner of visual studio 2015.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GOOvU9dWE4k/VrHIcwNLrgI/AAAAAAAAAC0/lRVapk_h-64/s320/noti.PNG
This notification system alerts you about :
- An update for a component of visual studio
- An environment you might be interested in
- An update itself in visual studio
These notifications have a 30 days expiry duration.
Quick launch
Just next to feedback you will find a textbox :
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-F7ZMsf2lw-k/VrHJhymVpFI/AAAAAAAAADE/X5DgAzebmwU/s320/ql.PNG
this search box is for searching quickly in menus , options , open documents , most recently uses and NuGet packages. To search in these categories follow the shortcut @category name
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mAhQTg9jCf0/VrHJyuNVsxI/AAAAAAAAADc/CcaEPWdl79U/s320/qs.PNG
Scroll bar
With the scroll bar in visual studio you cannot only scroll on the window but it also gives some information like
Cursor position : A blue line in scroll bar shows the position of the cursor
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Oxg_Hmvz1Vk/VrHKE1jhKgI/AAAAAAAAADk/XCHxMcXxUf8/s400/Capture.PNG
Errors : Red dots on scroll bar indicates that in which areas of the code there are some errors
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9ROAbenhfE/VrHKW8_D-eI/AAAAAAAAADw/IR5Ld2mpzzo/s200/error.PNG
Unused variables : Another thing that scroll bar in VS can represent is the part of the code where any unused variable exists . you will find green dots on scroll bar representing such areas .
Task List
It helps you to create a list of programming tasks . To add a task in the task list you have to use TODO and UNDONE keywords .
TODO represents the task to be done and UNDONE represent the task which is left incomplete.
For example: // TODO load state from previously suspended application
It will appear in task list as
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T9F811ZYEUs/VrHKwWB5SyI/AAAAAAAAAEA/cbUXHUlqvFU/s400/task%2Bl.PNG