CodeSMART Feature Brief Description Visual Studio Built-in Equivalent?

Advanced Code Builders - Set of wizards that create complex code constructs and insert them into No equivalent.
code.
- Details: generate/insert serialization code, C# event definition code,
object construction and destruction, member overrides code, object
equality code, etc.

AutoText - Automatically inserts code chunks into code when the user types an alias
i.e. 2-3 character text (the code chunk is displayed in a tooltip window,
offering the user the opportunity to immediately insert it into code).
- The code chunk supports dynamic expansion through standard and
custom parameters.
- Maybe Code Snippets (in VS 2005). However, AutoText is
significantly simpler to use, more intuitive and adequate to the
scope of fast typing.

Bookmarks - Special comments used to pinpoint important locations in methods which - VS built-in bookmarks and “Todo” tasks are displayed globally
later can be easily navigated to since bookmarks are scanned for and and not per-document.
mounted in the Code Explorer tree.
- Can be inserted manually or automatically (before block statements, for
example: if, else, switch, while, etc).
- Can also be retrieved with the 'Find Bookmarks' tool, which also reports
VS built-in “Todo” constructs.

Code Analyzer - Analyzes code for possible optimizations, potential problems, private dead Only the Team System Editions of Visual Studio have a code
code, code complexity and standard enforcements. analyzer with compile-time results. Another alternative is
FxCop, but with analysis on IL code and results outside the IDE.
- Displays results in a special toolwindow with access to various layout
configurations, printing etc.
- Code areas corresponding to code analysis matches are highlighted in the
code window.

Code Commenting Analyzer - Reports code elements with missing or improper XML comments (as No equivalent.
defined by the XML comment templates, another CodeSMART feature).
- Reports code blocks that exceed a certain number of lines and contain no
comments whatsoever.

Code Explorer - Code navigation tool that shows the solution hierarchy through projects, Visual Studio has the Solution Explorer and Class View tools,
documents, types, methods and even method code flow. but the CodeSMART Code Explorer somehow unifies both while
tremendously extending the navigational paradigm.
- It also displays other useful nodes, like: region directives, CodeSMART
bookmarks, derived types, etc.
- Features node access history both though a history list and through node
highlighting, and also a concept of favorites (the Workbench).

Code Flow - Parses the method code and displays its flow using an hierarchical view. No equivalent.
- Customizable output, i.e. certain statement types can be skipped.

Code Formatter - Can manage blank lines between statements, wrap/compact long code Visual Studio has a code formatter; CodeSMART’s aim is to
lines, format member definition code, etc. complement this one with additional features.

Code Window Enhancements - Highlights CodeSMART subsystem matches (Find and Replace, Find No equivalent.
References, Code Analyzer, etc) in code windows.
- Highlights namespace, type and member names.
- Displays end-of-line details at code block end points.

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CodeSMART Feature Brief Description Visual Studio Built-in Equivalent?

Code Library Explorer - Team enabled code repository with separate local/shared libraries and a Visual Studio (starting with version 2005) has its concept of
special manager. code snippets, but less flexible and with no team-sharing.

Designer Analyzer - User interface analyzer for Windows Forms components. No equivalent.
- Checks for standards enforcement, potential designer problems, tab
ordering issues, control misalignments etc.

Designer Explorer - Displays Windows Forms designer control hierarchy. Visual Studio has a Document Outline, more general and less
powerful in the case of Windows Forms designers.
- Features advanced sorting and view options, quick access to several
CodeSMART designer tools and to other common designer operations.

Designer Tools - Tab Order Designer: manually/automatically set the control tab order. Visual Studio has a Tab Order Designer, but it is less efficient
on complex designers.
- Hotkey Designer: automatically set control hotkeys.
- Change Name and Text: easily change the Name and Text properties.
Can generate one property value from the other.

Exception Handling - Helps in defining and enforcing exception handling strategies. No equivalent.

Extended Clipboard - Enhances clipboard operations by defining 10 additional copy/paste Visual Studio maintains clipboard history within the Toolbox but
buffers. there is no quick access through keyboard shortcuts.
- The additional copy/paste buffers are persistent between VS sessions and
are easily accessible through keyboard shortcuts.

Extended Find and Replace - Performs search and replace operations at any scope, with complex Visual Studio has a built-in search and replace tool but with less
search filters (including file filtering), single or multi-line searches, options, weak output system, no matches highlighting in code
wildcards and regular expressions, exclusions, etc. etc.
- Results are displayed in customizable lists and are highlighted in code.
- Has a ‘Find locally’ feature that can be used to quickly find the selected
text and highlight its matches in the active code window.
- A persistent search history mechanism is implemented.

Find References - Searches and reports references of code elements and control variable
references.
- Results are displayed in a customizable list and are highlighted in code.
- A persistent search history mechanism is implemented.
Visual Studio has a references search tool, with problems in
functionality (for example, C# method and type references are
searched for only in the containing project) and output system,
no matches highlighting etc.

Iterative Code - Inserts code chunks at predefined locations inside method bodies at any No equivalent.
scope; inserted code can be later removed.
- Code chunks support dynamic expansion through standard and custom
parameters.

Regular Comments - Comment standardization tool that helps in defining and managing No equivalent.
dynamic comment templates.
- Eases the process of inserting comment templates at specific code
positions.

Strings Review - Searches for all string constants at a specified scope. No equivalent.
- Results are displayed in a customizable list and are highlighted in code.

Sort Procedures - Sorts code elements depending on their scope, type and/or signature. No equivalent.

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CodeSMART Feature Brief Description Visual Studio Built-in Equivalent?

Spelling Checker - Checks for spelling errors in strings (including control property values in No equivalent.
Windows Forms designer generated code) and comments.
- Results are displayed in a customizable list and are highlighted in code.
- Features multi-language support and an extended set of options.

XML Comment Tools - Set of tools used for advanced XML comments management. Visual Studio only offers the possibility to insert XML comments
- Features a manager which can help in defining and managing complex based on a non-customizable template. For the other features
XML comment templates for each code element type. (analyzer, preview) there are no equivalents.
- Replaces VS’s built-in XML comment insertion mechanism to insert XML
comments based on defined templates.
- In conjunction with the Code Commenting Analyzer feature, searches for
and reports XML comments that do not conform to existing templates.
- The XML Comment Preview toolwindow shows the active code element’s
formatted XML comment.

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