Out with Clean Sources Plus, In with TreeTrim

May 8, 2009 — Christopher Hujanen

If you are a fan of CleanSourcesPlus to clean up your Visual Studio build files, but have either had problems with it in a “modern” OS like Vista :) or just don’t like the command prompt popping up, I have a suggestion:  check out TreeTrim from Steve Dunn.

image

It adds a right click menu option to your selected folder in Windows Explorer to clean up your source code folder and it works quickly and silently.  By default it adds two menu choices:

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The Clean source code works “out of the box” but the second one to clean, zip and email a working copy needs to be configured via its XML configuration file.  If you are like me and don’t email source code, then you can modify your registry to change or remove the menu option.  The registry key is located here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Clean, zip, and email a working copy of source code

I just removed that menu option on my system but the utility has a plugin model which allows you to customize commands that match your workflow.  Kudos to Steve Dunn!

Posted in Developer Tools, Visual Studio. 1 Comment »

Microsoft StyleCop

July 30, 2008 — Christopher Hujanen

I just found out about a C# source code analysis tool from Microsoft called StyleCop.  You can download it from code.microsoft.com.

The tool’s description is as follows:

StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce a set of style and consistency rules. It can be run from inside of Visual Studio or integrated into an MSBuild project.

For all the details on the tool, check out the team’s blog that wrote it at http://blogs.msdn.com/sourceanalysis/.

Posted in .NET, Developer Tools, Visual Studio. Leave a Comment »

Smart Paster Add-In for Visual Studio 2008

July 2, 2008 — Christopher Hujanen

I had the need today to take a bunch of JavaScript code and paste it into an ASP.NET code behind file.  I was using the script as a basis for a custom script that was placed into the Page using the ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptBlock method.  I did some quick googling and found the Visual Studio Add-In called Smart Paster from Alex Papadimoulis that was just what I was looking for.  It wasn’t supplied in compiled form, but it was easy to build and deploy.  Just open the solution file, compile for Release mode and then copy the two files (from the bin folder) into your Addins folder:

  • SmartPaster2008.AddIn
  • SmartPaster2008.dll

Note: Your Addins folder is located by default at C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins

Simply restart VS2008 and now check out the new Right Click “Paste As” menu option:

smart-paster-example

There are some options via the Configure menu item too.  Very handy!

Posted in .NET, Developer Tools, Visual Studio. Leave a Comment »

BitDiffer tool

February 27, 2008 — Christopher Hujanen

I just came across the developer utility BitDiffer by Bitwidgets which can be used to compare two versions of the same assemblies.  Here’s the description taken from their website:

BitDiffer allows you to compare multiple versions of assemblies for all types of changes and drill down to find the smallest changes, public or private.

I’ll have to try it out to see how well it works as I have used Lutz Roeder’s Reflector in the past to compare assemblies.  I’m not sure if BitDiffer is worth the $60 or not (being cheap I know), but I will add it to my list of tools to investigate.

Posted in Developer Tools. Leave a Comment »
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