Ivan Mitev In The Software Trenches

Technology weblog on .NET development and other things that make the world go round

June 11, 2006

VS.NET too clever

VS.NET 2003 has a bit confusing feature in the Solution Explorer. It groups three files as one : the asp.net page, the code-behind file and the .resx file. I have not found a way to turn off that clever option (UPDATE: actually there is an option "Show All Files", which I will be definitely using, see a picture here).

So I got burnt today by this feature when I was editing a code-behind file. I was not sure what I had checked in, so I wanted to see if the local version was different from the VSS version by clicking "Compare versions". I was informed that there are no changes and I did an undo checkout operation. Then I realized that I have been comparing thes .aspx file and not the .cs file. Argh! I spent another 30 minutes or so redoing the edits. On the good side: the edits turned out even better than the first time. It is a good practice to throw away some code after it is initially written and start it all over.

P.S. I wonder why I can't find a tool that backups all the pending checkins in VS.NET. This is definitely something my colleagues and I would like to use, since a little mistake with VSS can lead to loss of code. I have the feeling that a simple macro might do the job, but I am not sure if this functionality is covered in the extensibility. Also, the Pending Checkins window could become a lot more useful, if the context menu on its files, included all the options that are available in the Solution Explorer (VS.NET 2005 seems to solve at least partially this problem).

2 Comments:

Hi Ivan
Im having the same problem you, in that the checkins window only shows 1 file, rubbish.
I was wondering where the option is that you found called "show all files"?
Thanks
Damian

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 13 March, 2007 23:56  

Damian, I have added a link to a ScottGu post that has a picture...

By Blogger Ivan Mitev, at 15 March, 2007 12:27  

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