What's New in Development Edition

Development Edition includes many new and enhanced features, which are summarized in this topic.

Topic Contents

  • Code Analysis

    • Rules Extension and Enhancement

    • Spell Checking with Custom Dictionary Support

    • Better Control over Suppression from the Error List

    • Auto-Suppress Generated Code Option

    • Code Analysis Policy Improvements

  • Code Metrics

  • Profiling Tools

    • 64-Bit Support

    • Full Allocation Stacks

    • Line-level Sampling Data

    • Report Noise Reduction

    • Runtime Control

    • Filtered Analysis

    • Compare Reports

    • Improved Chip Counter Support

    • Windows Counter Support

    • Compressed Report Files

    • Hot Path

    • Copy Report View Data to HTML

    • Windows Communications Foundation Support

    • Load and Web Test Integration in Visual Studio Team Suite

  • Team Explorer

Code Analysis

Code analysis tools perform extensive checks for code defects, which are presented as warnings in the error window.

For more information, see Writing Quality Code, Code Analysis for Managed Code Warnings and Code Analysis for C/C++ Warnings.

Code Analysis has been enhanced with the following features:

Rules Extension and Enhancement

Code analysis has more than 20 new rules. Several rules have been enhanced by providing better accuracy, especially around naming rules.

For more information, see Code Analysis for Managed Code Warnings, Code Analysis for C/C++ Warnings and How to: Enable and Disable Code Analysis for Managed Code.

Spelling Checker with Custom Dictionary Support

You can use the spelling checker for resource strings as well as class, method, and property names. You can use a custom dictionary to check non-standard words.

Better Control over Suppression from the Error List

You can suppress code analysis issues from the error window at either the project level or in-source.

Auto-Suppress Generated Code Option

You can automatically suppress error messages from generated code. This is especially useful for designer-generated code.

Code Analysis Policy Improvements

When you copy the settings from the server to your project, you now have the option to replace your local selection, or merge the policy rules with your local project rules. Also, you now have more information about policy violations. This enables you to determine the source of the violation.

Code Metrics

Code metrics are a set of software measures that give developers better insight into the code they are developing. By taking advantage of code metrics, developers understand which types and/or methods should be reworked or more thoroughly tested. In addition, development teams identify potential risks, understand the current state of a project, and track progress during software development.

For more information about Code Metrics, see Measuring Complexity and Maintainability of Managed Code.

Profiling Tools

Profiling tools in Visual Studio Team System Development Edition enable developers to measure, evaluate, and target performance-related issues in their code.

For more information about profiling tools, see Analyzing Application Performance using Profiling Tools.

The following features have been added to the Profiling Tools:

64-Bit Support

The Profiler now includes support for both the 64-bit applications that run on 64-bit operating System and hardware and the 32-bit applications executed on 64-bit operating system and hardware.

Full Allocation Stacks

The Profiler has full call stacks for allocation. This is useful for allocation that occurs in non-user code, but is indirectly caused by user actions. By using the full stack, you can see exactly which parts of your code are indirectly causing the allocation.

You can collect allocation data by configuring settings in the performance session property page. Use the allocation view in the performance report to see your results.

For more information, see How to: Collect .NET Memory Allocation and Lifetime Data and Profiler .NET Memory Allocations View.

Line-level Sampling Data

Profiling tools now includes an instruction pointer and line views in performance reports. Also, the modules view now includes line information.

For more information, see Instruction Pointer (IP) View, Lines View and Modules View.

Report Noise Reduction

You can configure performance reports for noise reduction. This limits the amount of data in the Call Tree view and the Allocation view. By using noise reduction, performance problems are more prominent. This is helpful when you analyze performance reports

For more information, see How to: Configure Noise Reduction in Performance Reports, Call Tree View and Profiler .NET Memory Allocations View.

Runtime Control

Profiling tools includes a runtime control. The runtime control starts automatically with the profiler. It can be paused and resumed for performance data logging. In addition, you can use the runtime control to start the application with logging paused. This enables you to skip data collection on application startup. When you use the runtime control, you can manually insert annotations in the performance data when events of interest occur in the application lifetime. You can filter the data on your annotations later.

Filtered Analysis

You can now filter performance reports on timestamp, process, thread, and marks. You can use the show query button to get the filtered analysis. Also, you can use the /summaryfile option from the VSPerfReport command.

For more information, see VSPerfReport.

Compare Reports

The Profiler now supports the comparison of reports. You can compare a report either by using the Performance Explorer or the /diff on options from the VSPerfReport command.

For more information, see Comparing Profiling Tools Data Files, How to: Compare Profiler Data Files and VSPerfReport

Improved Chip Counter Support

Profiling tools provide new friendlier chip-counter names (For example: "L2 Misses", "ITLB Misses", "Mispredicted Branches"). You can modify xml files to further configure counters for a specific architecture.

Windows Counter Support

The Profiler now collects Windows counters (for example, "% Processor Time", "% Disk Time", "Disk Bytes/sec", "Page Faults/sec"). You can use either the windows counters node in the performance sessions properties page or the /wincounter option from the VSPerfCmd command. The marks view displays the counters. You can use counters as filtering endpoints.

For more information, see Marks View, How to: Collect Windows Counter Data and VSPerfCmd.

Compressed Report Files

Profiling tools enable you to generate small compressed report files that open up quickly. This is because these files, which are created from full reports, are analyzed already. You can either right-click the report in the Performance Explorer and choose Save Analyzed or use the /summaryfile option from the VSPerfReport command.

For more information, see How to: Save Analyzed Profiling Tools Report Files and VSPerfReport.

Hot Path

Profiler now can automatically expand the most expensive code path in the call tree and allocation view of the performance report.

For more information, see Call Tree View and Profiler .NET Memory Allocations View.

Copy Report View Data to HTML

The Profiler includes support for rich reports in the clipboard. You can copy and paste rich data (tables with headers and values) from the performance reports.

Windows Communications Foundation Support

Profiling tools now support Windows Communications Foundation (WCF).

Load and Web Test Integration in Visual Studio Team Suite

You can create performance sessions for Web and Load tests from Test View and Test Results.

Note

This feature applies only to Visual Studio Team System.

Team Explorer

You can now install Team Explorer directly from the same media you used to install Team System 2008 Development Edition. Team Explorer is a client of Team Foundation and provides access to the functionality available with Visual Studio Team System Team Foundation Server:

  • Work Items

  • Team Projects

  • Team Documents

  • Reports

  • Team Builds

  • Source Control

Team System 2008 Development Edition includes a client access license (CAL) for installing and using Team Explorer. Team System 2008 Architecture Edition includes a client access license (CAL) for installing and using Team Explorer. For information about how to install Team Explorer, including information about its prerequisites, insert the installation media for Team System 2008 Development Edition, open the root directory, open the TFC folder, double-click the file TFSInstall.chm, and read the topics in the nodeĀ "Installing Team Explorer." For more information about Team Explorer, see Using Team Explorer.

See Also

Reference

What's New in the Visual Studio Debugger

Other Resources

Visual Studio Team System

Development Edition