Microsoft Visual Studio.NET is an IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironment for Windows.
It is the successor to VisualStudio.  Despite the appearance of ".NET" in the name and throughout the documentation, it can also be used to build native Win32 applications.

''v1.0 is also pretty mediocre.  No refactoring support, defective MSI generator, defective ASPX designer (that can't be turned off), defective code editor.'' --JimLittle

Some people think VS.Net is a build tool.  DontBuildWithAnIde

''I seem to spend a lot of time fighting with VisualStudioDotNet rather than developing products.  Grr''

For example, try and load a visual studio.net web solution with a web.config file containing forms authentication module. You can't.  You have to edit the web.config to remove forms authentication, load the solution, then put the web.config file back.  Every time you load the solution, which is frequent because VS.NEt frequently locks itself out of using the dlls its building.
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My most sorely missing feature would be hiding all comments and collapsing the code to fit in the hidden space. It should be transparent (otherwise you'd have to check out the file from VSS). Many programmers view 90-100% of all comments as bloat anyway.
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Problems I cannot lick with VS 2012 (VS & MS wasn't my choice, but our shop is stuck with it):

* Can't turn off JavaScript debugging. I managed to do it before, but installing a different MS product switched it back on. There are a lot of suggestions on the web to fix it, but most seem hit and miss because replies keep saying, "this didn't work for me".

* Sometimes you cannot edit an open page's code. It's stuck to read only, even if you stop execution. One has to close and then re-open it. I haven't figured out a pattern to when it locks and when it doesn't; although classes seem more likely to lock than pages.

* If you add or remove an IF statement, it often reformats and re-indents all related IF statements before one's had a chance to finish the full statement set. You can really mess up your nesting this way. I've developed a set of tricks that are not easy to describe to avoid such. If somebody finds any easy way to avoid such, please let us know.
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See DotNet for comments on IDE-centric codeing.
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CategoryDotNet
CategorySoftwareTool