• Reorganizing the Visual Studio 2010 Solution Explorer Context Menu

    May 18 2011 11:45 PM

    If you work extensively with Visual Studio, it's entirely possible that you've ended up with a solution explorer context menu that is strikingly similar to the one you see at the right. In fact, I have seen many substantially worse context menus in real-world scenarios. Options just tend to pile up as you approach different projects, each with different tooling requirements that can eventually culminate in a menu that is extremely difficult to browse. Continue reading...

  • Caps Lock Me Up

    May 8 2011 8:38 PM

    When is the last time you voluntarily pressed Caps Lock for its intended purpose? When was the last time that last time wasn’t meant as an ironic mocking of the key’s intended function? And yet, the key is so easy to reach, nestled in the loving embrace of the fan favorites Shift and Tab. It seems quite unfortunate that such a useless key has such a prime piece of keyboard real-estate. Continue reading...

  • Code Coverage Analysis with PartCover

    May 18 2011 11:41 PM

    In this article, I give a brief tutorial on how to use PartCover, a free, open-source code coverage analysis tool for .NET developers. Code coverage can help you to determine whether or not your software has been adequately unit tested, and is particularly useful in highlighting edge cases that may have been overlooked. Continue reading...

  • Some Simple Nitriqular Tasks

    May 18 2011 11:42 PM

    Since Nitriq is a new tool, I thought that it might be useful to share a few simple, real-world-style queries that demonstrate what you can expect Nitriq queries to look like. Continue reading...

  • Nitriq Does More Than Just LINQ

    May 18 2011 11:43 PM

    Here at NimblePros, we’ve recently begun working to release a new code analysis tool called Nitriq. Because I wasn’t personally involved in its development, my goal was to attempt to break it, as I am wont to do with any new tool. I was pleased to find that it was actually very difficult to throw an impossible query at it -- at the risk of sounding clichéd, “simple queries were easy, and difficult queries were possible.” There are many different code analysis tools, but what we believe differentiates Nitriq is how customizable it is. You aren’t limited to customizing existing rules, and you don’t need to learn any kind of “special” language to create new rules – they’re all written in C#, just like your project. Continue reading...