Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Unleashed

Starter Kits Versus Templates

In other chapters, we demonstrate how to create snippets, macros, and add-ins (see Table 7.1 for chapter references). What we have not covered is creating starter kits and templates (both project and item templates). These items are very useful for large teams that want to disseminate standards and provide guidance. They are also useful for providing content to the community.

A project template and a starter kit are fundamentally the same thing. They are only discussed differently to set expectations of those consuming these items. People who use a starter kit expect to use it as a learning tool and therefore you are expected to provide a high-degree of documentation and step-by-step instruction when creating something ...