views:

699

answers:

38

One thing Delphi does that is very useful is retaining multiple historical versions of modified files. This way I can easily make wholesale changes without checking code into repository every 10 minutes without fear that I can easily go back a step.

+4  A: 

I would love to see better support for Silverlight design support...

and it would be great if the Database version could support Oracle instead of just SQL Server and DB2.

Elijah Manor
A: 

Nothing, I'm actually pretty happy with Visual Studio 2008. And, I'd like to go a little longer without purchasing a whole new version of Visual Studio this time around.

And, if you want better Silverlight support, it should be release as a new version of the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio.

Chris Pietschmann
+2  A: 

Visual Basic 6.0

Lance Roberts
Knew I should have wiki'd this one, some people have no sense of humor.
Lance Roberts
VB6: first language I ever tried, last language I ever want to revisit
TM
+2  A: 

Dynamic language support... code completion in Iron Python and Iron Ruby, to the extent allowed by those languages, would be so cool!

Pablo Marambio
Yes! In fact lovely IDE code completion is the only reason I still like Java and C# more than Python.
TM
+5  A: 

Would have to say not that much, overall, 2008 is the best one yet. Some little things that would help:

  • native svn integration
  • better ftp management
seanb
Native SVN support would be nice, but having proper documentation for building a SCCI plugin would be even better...and being able to build one in managed code better still. That would allow someone to write an SVN plugin that acts just like the TFS integration.
Scott Dorman
+3  A: 

I'd like it if I could highlight a set of private variables, right click and refactor and all of the selected variables get encapsulated into properties. Right now only the first variable gets refactored.

Giovanni Galbo
A: 

Personally, I'd like to see the re-inclusion of the old VC6 C++ ClassWizard which was so much more productive than the grotty tools that replaced it. Can't see it happening though.

Shane MacLaughlin
+2  A: 

I haven't tried VS2008 (we still use 2005) but personally I don't really need any new IDE features, what I really need is a compiler that runs faster (esp C++ code).

Working on a big solution set with many interdependent projects and lacking the time to recode the structure of it, building the project wastes alot of my day.

As it were a faster compiler would save me more time then any neat features of the IDE currently do anyway.

To Clarify we use MSBUILD for a full rebuild, only really compile from the IDE to check for compile errors (many of the projects share headers so we need to rebuild the lot quite often).

DrHazzard
+2  A: 

Good designers for WPF and Silverlight, more functionality that currently must be provided by (quite costly) third party tools like Resharper.

Borek
+1  A: 

FixBugs button?

Hehe. I guess svn/trac integration. Like that will happen.

moogs
+7  A: 

Better unit testing support.

kitsune
+5  A: 

I would like to have Intellisense work for C# in the same way as it does for VB - ie. filtering the list down so that you only get everything beginning with the letters you have typed - makes it easier to find the property/method/event etc.. you are looking for.

Ebircsa
0_o It already does that!
Pablo Marambio
@Pablo Marambio - actually it just moves the pointer to the best match. it doesn't actually remove things from the list as you type.
The.Anti.9
Agreed...in fact, I would like to see more consistency in the way the different languages are treated in general (e.g. bringing C#'s LINQ-related Intellisense support up to par with VB.NET's).
Matt Peterson
+3  A: 

CommonLisp.net support

Varun Mahajan
Upmoded for humor.
Upmodded for agree. Although I wouldn't mind leppie being hired by the DLR team to work on IronScheme either.
Jimmy
+3  A: 

I'd like to be able to filter Intellisense by properties, events, methods etc (rather than all together).

I'm not sure if this is feasible, but it would be a time saver especially when I'm looking only at events (for example).

RobS
A: 

Silverlight design support.

(And I don't need better historical file support the way I use Perforce / source control).

Mark Ingram
+9  A: 

Some love for good old C++. Better intellisense, refactoring etc.

Yea, the C++ refactoring support sucks compared to C#.
driAn
better intellisense?
SnOrfus
Well, they have a LOT of new things for the C++ person in 2010. Including a major update to MFC, Parallel optimizations, new runtimes for 32/64 bit, etc. Look at the site for information.
Jason Short
+1  A: 

At least all the features of resharper included. It is a shame that Visual Studio, a great tool, doesn't do much for developer productivity when coding. C# is becoming even more a language that considers these factors, but the environment is too much incomplete, miles away from the language potential to ease the job of programmers, let us focus on what is important.

Victor Rodrigues
Really? What's a more productive IDE? Not to say VS does it all perfectly, but doesn't do much for dev productivity?? I disagree.
billb
Eclipse does much more in refactoring than VS, for instance. If you think VS is perfect, you are very limited.
Victor Rodrigues
Ah, they do - but you have to pay a lot more. Visual Studio Team Suite does a lot of what resharper does... But it is quite expensive.
Jason Short
A: 
  • Intellisense for SQL built-in
  • More refactorings (e.g., create similar member)
endian
A: 

Better integration with javascript ...

+1  A: 

API/command line/scripting support for version numbers so that we can manipulate those a lot easier during a build. Ability to use multiple sources to build the number.

For example, in a scheme of A.B.C.D, I want to have A and B fixed a.b until I manually change that, then get c somehow - but MSDev should provide one of a few auto increments for that, and d can possibly be obtained from a revision in source control.

EDIT: to make it easier to read:

Version = A.B.C.D where:

  • A is fixed in source file somewhere (manual editing)
  • B is fixed in source file somewhere (manual editing)
  • C can be auto incremented according to one of a few rule sets - and the developers can add schemes
  • D same as C but also able to get form another source - like the revision of SVN or some other place.

In general I want more flexibility and I don;t want to have to build all sorts of hacks to do manipulation of version numbering.

Tim
+1  A: 

Integration (or bundling) of Expression Blend. Let's face it: If you do WPF, you almost need Blend for a proper UI.

Michael Stum
+1  A: 

I would like better support for comparing code, both from source control and two files which you specify. The tools are out there in many SVN clients but a inbuilt comparison and management right inside VS would rock

Damien
+1  A: 

I would like to see a super-fast "Find Type/Symbol/File" feature similar to ReSharper.

Matt Peterson
+14  A: 

I love the "Add References" dialog to come up near-instantly instead of the the eternity it seems to take.

danswain
and not expand the References tree node every time i add a reference
cottsak
+2  A: 

Intellisense for C++ that works at least 95% of the time (as opposed to the 60% or so at present).

Compiler that runs faster than continental drift.

General performance and stability improvements. 2008 is better than 2005, but still needs work.

Ability to quickly swap between different window layouts. I tend to pop many of the windows out, but it likes to forget this sometimes, and it'd be nice to be able to snap them back in again easily.

Peter
+2  A: 

smarter indentation of pasted code

DShook
A: 

Better JavaScript intellisense, particularly in separate JS files. Has anyone else noticed that when you're coding up a client script control that there is no intellisense for that control other than the methods above the current line of code?

I'd like to have the private memebers shown, would make getters and setters a lot easier to code up

Slace
A: 

Higlight macthing parenthesis, brackets etc in red

foreach (var item in collection)
{
}

It does this already... When you place the cursor by one of the brackets/parens, it will hilight the matching one...
Orion Edwards
A: 

Templates available via the "find templates online" icon when creating a project. Maybe it's just me using 2008 express, but for kicks I've tried to see what other templates exist, and always get nada (had to create a windows service template myself).

SnOrfus
VS2010 is meant to add this. Is this a real request?
Orion Edwards
Possibly because Express does not support the development of Windows Services. It's one of the limitations. However since SP1 there is no hard coded limitation on it.
Diago
A: 

Cross platform support. (You know... Something other than Windows). (And before this gets modded down... Remember that Microsoft claims that .NET is language and platform independant).

Arafangion
The platform independence is provided through Mono. From previous discussions with the Team the Visual Studio suite will never support it unless MS takes over the development, however they have been known to change their minds :)
Diago
That would be .Net is - not Visual Studio. Visual Studio is a desktop application for Windows.
Jason Short
Diago: While it is possible to do mono development with Visual Studio, Jason is correct, I was referring to Visual Studio itself.I don't think Visual Studio even works under WINE.
Arafangion
A: 

The feature I would most like to see is PERFORMANCE.

VS2008 takes upwards of 30 seconds to load on my core2-quad with 4gigs of ram. It then takes a minute or so to open a medium-sized project (15 or so csproj files) and isn't usable until the disk has finished thrashing about a minute later. It routinely uses upwards of 500 megs of RAM.

This is ridiculous!

Orion Edwards
A: 

Remove unused usings PROJECTWIDE.

User
+1  A: 

I would love to see easier ways to version your database. It might not be a function of VS2010 but it would be lovely to version your database as with the ruby on rails + rake commands (db:migrate). Now it is hard to effectivily share your database via SVN, had to take a look at diffent questions on this site to get the answer how to do it.

bastijn
+1  A: 

Get rid of the dataset designer.

kay.herzam
A: 

I havn't tried the VS2010 beta yet but at the top of my wishlist

Responsiveness

  • Fast startup
  • Fast exit
  • Fast designer startup
  • Fast add refs dialog
Scott Weinstein
A: 

In classic stack overflow fashion, my answer is combination of all the answers I think are best here so far, plus a little bit of extra input of my own (at the end):

  • Some love for good old C++. Better intellisense, refactoring etc. [unknown (yahoo)]
  • I would like to have Intellisense work for C# in the same way as it does for VB - ie. filtering the list down so that you only get everything beginning with the letters you have typed - makes it easier to find the property/method/event etc.. you are looking for. [Ebircsa]
  • I love the "Add References" dialog to come up near-instantly instead of the the eternity it seems to take. [danswain]
  • I'd like it if I could highlight a set of private variables, right click and refactor and all of the selected variables get encapsulated into properties. Right now only the first variable gets refactored. [Giovanni Galbo]
  • I'd like to be able to filter Intellisense by properties, events, methods etc (rather than all together). [Rob Sanders]
  • Intellisense for C++ that works at least 95% of the time (as opposed to the 60% or so at present). [Peter]
  • At least all the features of resharper included. [Victor Rodrigues]
  • I would like better support for comparing code, both from source control and two files which you specify. [Damien]
  • Smarter indentation of pasted code. [Hazar]
  • The ability to compile against more than one c-runtime library version (ie, support compiling against old runtime libraries much in the same way that you can now compile against different .NET versions in VS2008).
  • Remember my window layouts when I resize my VS screen. I have 2 monitors, and I often stretch the outer VS window to fill both monitors. I then size the VS components inside that window in a certain way so that they are partitioned to one monitor or the other. However, if you lock then unlock your screen, visual studio will slightly alter the size of some of these components. Not a lot, just enough to make the components bleed over onto the other screen by 100 pixels or so.
Zach
A: 

I'd like to see first class support for dynamic languages like IronRuby and IronPython out of the box.

Bayard Randel
A: 

Given an interface or parent class, I'd like to be able to see all other classes that implement/extend it - if I remember correctly, Eclipse can do this. "Find All References" kind of does this, but it often brings in other noise as well.

jean