How to stop a new form from using namespace System::Collections

Question

If I create a new form called myForm, the top of myForm.h looks like this:

#pragma once

using namespace System;
using namespace System::ComponentModel;
using namespace System::Collections;     //<<<< THIS ONE
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;
using namespace System::Data;
using namespace System::Drawing;

None of these are even needed, because the wonderful forms designer always fully-qualifies its objects.

The one marked with THIS ONE is particularly annoying because it breaks my build. This is because I use the generic form of IList all over the place - I love it so much that I put it in stdafx.h, like this:

using System::Collections::Generic::IList;

So then if I want to use myForm from any other file where I happen to use IList, like this:

#include "StdAfx.h"
#include "ABC.h"
#include "myForm.h"

ABC::ABC()
{
    IList<int>^ myList;
    ...
}

then it fails to compile:

1>.\ABC.cpp(7) : error C2872: 'IList' : ambiguous symbol
1>        could be 'c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : System::Collections::Generic::IList'
1>        or       'c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : System::Collections::IList'
1>.\ABC.cpp(7) : error C2872: 'IList' : ambiguous symbol
1>        could be 'c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : System::Collections::Generic::IList'
1>        or       'c:\windows\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\mscorlib.dll : System::Collections::IList'

So, how can I stop a new form from adding all these useless and destructive usings?

Answer 1

You can modify Form Template of Visual Studio. For further reading, take a look at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185319(VS.80).aspx

Answer 2

You can change the default templates that Visual Studio uses by editing the zip files in the ItemTemplates directory for the specific language that you use.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Code\1033

is where the C# templates are. I'm assuming the C++ templates would be in a similar directory but I don't have a VS instance installed with C++ handy.