If you hit a code file that’s using one of the new funky features of C# 3.0, and Resharper code analysis doesn’t recognize it, like property initializers, var, etc, just press the following to disable code analysis for the current code file only:

CTRL+8

Code analysis will turn off, and the red will go away.  Resharper will remember this preference for that code file until you close and reopen Visual Studio.

If you want to turn code analysis back on, just press CTRL+8 again.  You can turn it on and off as much as you like.  I’m finding this especially useful when giving presentations such as the ones at DevTeach.  I want to keep Resharper enabled in order to use all the features, but for some of the code files, I need code analysis turned off.  CTRL+8 allows me to keep the global option on and just turn it off for a single code file.  I love little hidden gems!!

Unfortunately, we don’t have a .Net 3.5-compatible NAnt distribution yet, but it’s trivial to get the latest version (.85) working with .Net 3.5 and a Visual Studio 2008 solution.  Open up you nant.exe config file, and add the following framework node just below your net-2.0 node.  Not much of a change, and it’s working well for me.

                <framework

name=”net-3.5″

family=”net”

version=”3.5″

description=”Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5″

runtimeengine=””

sdkdirectory=”${path::combine(sdkInstallRoot, ‘bin’)}”

frameworkdirectory=”${path::combine(installRoot, ‘v3.5’)}”

frameworkassemblydirectory=”${path::combine(installRoot, ‘v2.0.50727’)}”

clrversion=”2.0.50727″

                    >

                    <task-assemblies>

                        <!– include .NET specific assemblies –>

                        <include name=”tasks/net/*.dll” />

                        <!– include .NET 2.0 specific assemblies –>

                        <include name=”tasks/net/2.0/**/*.dll” />

                        <!– include Microsoft.NET specific task assembly –>

                        <include name=”NAnt.MSNetTasks.dll” />

                        <!– include Microsoft.NET specific test assembly –>

                        <include name=”NAnt.MSNet.Tests.dll” />

                    </task-assemblies>

                    <project>

                        <readregistry

property=”installRoot”

key=”SOFTWAREMicrosoft.NETFrameworkInstallRoot”

hive=”LocalMachine” />

                        <readregistry

property=”sdkInstallRoot”

key=”SOFTWAREMicrosoft.NETFrameworksdkInstallRootv2.0″

hive=”LocalMachine”

failonerror=”false” />

                    </project>

                    <tasks>

                        <task name=”csc”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>csc</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsnowarnlist”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportswarnaserrorlist”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportskeycontainer”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportskeyfile”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsplatform”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportslangversion”>true</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”vbc”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>vbc</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsdocgeneration”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsnostdlib”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsnowarnlist”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportskeycontainer”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportskeyfile”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsplatform”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportswarnaserrorlist”>true</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”jsc”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>jsc</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsplatform”>true</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”vjc”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>vjc</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsnowarnlist”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportskeycontainer”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportskeyfile”>true</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”resgen”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>resgen</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsassemblyreferences”>true</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsexternalfilereferences”>true</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”al”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>al</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”delay-sign”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>sn</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”license”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>lc</attribute>

                            <attribute name=”supportsassemblyreferences”>true</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”ilasm”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>ilasm</attribute>

                        </task>

                        <task name=”ildasm”>

                            <attribute name=”exename”>ildasm</attribute>

                        </task>

                    </tasks>

                </framework>

Next, change the following in your NAnt build:

<property name=”nant.settings.currentframework” value=”net-3.5″ />

Now you are off to the races.  If you have any differing experiences, please let me know.

Ok.  Now we have a problem.  Some folks want to use VS 2008 RTM while continuing to target an existing .Net 2.0 solution.  The project files don’t give us a problem, but the solution file does.  Here is the first line in a VS 2005 solution file:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00

When this file is opened in VS 2008, the nice upgrade wizard comes up.  This wizard will do crazy things to our solution file, like changing the first line to:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00

Joking aside, this is the ONLY difference in running a .Net 2.0 solution in VS 2008.  There is absolutely no change to the project files necessary.

Given that, it ought to be possible to have some members of the team using VS 2005 and some using VS 2008.  Why not?  One way to accomplish this is to have two solution files in the source code trunk.  The files will be identical except the version number.

Below, I’ve provided two solution files for my NHibernate demo trunk.  You can use TortoiseSVN to checkout this trunk to try it out if you wish.

Note that you will have to pick one of these solution files for your automated build.  I’d recommend typing your automated Nant build to the VS 2005 solution and keeping that as the gold standard because, after all, your continuous integration server should only have .Net 2.0 installed if that’s what you are targeting.  The members of the team using VS 2008 will have to ensure the VS 2005 solution gets any solution modifications that are necessary.  Both the local and CI build should use the VS 2005 solution file.  With that policy, team synchronization won’t suffer.

Tuesday at the VSLive conference in Austin, TX, I presented a session on Visual Studio 2008.  This was an all-demo session, but some of the demos required some prepared code, so you can grab that code, as always, from my Google Code SVN repository.  If you don’t want to checkout the trunk, you can grab the zip file that’s available on the right hand side of the home page “vslivedemos.zip”.

One of the really interesting features in 2008 is the cool javascript help: from intellisense to enhanced debugging, the entire javascript experience has had an overhaul, and with as much AJAX and general scripting folks do in web applications, this will be a great help.  Heck, even for the simple stuff, it’s nice to have javascript intellisense in the IDE. 

Another little known feature of VS 2008 is XSLT debugging.  Hopefully you don’t do too much custom XSLT, but I remember doing it and trying to figure out what what missing when it just wouldn’t do what I wanted.  Now we can set breakpoints both in the XSLT file as well as the Xml data file and examine what is going on while the transformation is happening.

Downsides of VS 2008.  Same boring Refactoring menu.  There was a bunch of buzz around VS  2005 and refactoring, but they pretty much ignored it for 2008.  Shame.   Resharper continues to be a staple in my toolbox.

MSTest has now been brought to the developer sku, not just for Team edition for this release.  How much does that matter?  Not much given that it still has major shortcomings that make NUnit still come out on top.

 . . .presenting a session on Visual Studio 2008.  There have been numerous hints around the Internet of VS2008’s arrival in the next coming week, and this session will demonstrate new capabilities in the new IDE.  While I will continue to advocate the use of Resharper along with VS2008, the new IDE brings tool support for WPF and help with other new additions to the .Net framework.

If you are at VSLive in Austin, come by at 2pm on Tuesday for a deep look at the new features without the marketing slant.  I’ll cover which ones I find useful and give you tips on which features you can safely ignore. 

Also, Monday night the Austin .Net User Group will hold its November meeting at the VSLive location with a LINQ presentation given by Richard Hale Shaw.

On November 7, 2007, I gave a presentation to the North Dallas .Net User Group entitled “Introduction to NHibernate 1.2”.

As promised, I have made all the code samples/demos available for download at the following link:
http://code.google.com/p/palermo/

At the above website, you will find a SVN trunk you can check out at the following URL:

http://palermo.googlecode.com/svn/nhibernatedemo/trunk 

NHibernate is one of the demos I have available and to make it easier, I have zipped it up and made it a stand-alone download on the right column; however, if you want to run these samples, I recommend  you doing  a checkout of the trunk.  You will then have the libraries needed to run the code.

Workstation dependencies include:

• VS 2008 Beta 2 (solution file is in that format, although code works on CLR 2.0)
• SQL Server running at (local) with the Northwind database loaded.
• Run “ClickToBuild.bat”, and the other demo database will be created, and all the test scenarios will run to verify everything is hooked up.  Then you can open VS, browse and play.