Visual Studio Hacks

174

Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Speed Hacks

Hacks 44–58

Developers are constantly looking for ways to more efficiently write code.

We don’t want to toil for three hours to write code when we can spend an

hour writing something that will create this code for us. Being able to write

code faster is not about moving your fingers faster; rather it is about finding

more efficient ways to get the same code.

The hacks in this chapter describe a number of different ways to help you

more quickly write code and work with Visual Studio. You will learn how to

create and run macros that can save you time during the development pro-

cess. These hacks include macros that will create connection strings, auto-

matically sign assemblies, and update project references. You will also learn

how to create and run custom tools that can generate code based on an

input file.

Learning how to develop applications faster is also about optimizing your

tools. You’ll learn how to optimize Visual Studio to start up faster as well,

how to load files into the current instance of Visual Studio instead of wait-

ing for a new instance to start up, and how to use the command window.

HACK

#44

Speed Up Visual Studio Hack #44

Visual Studio does a lot—perhaps too much—at startup. Cut out a lot of the

less important bits to get into your code that much faster.

No one has ever accused Visual Studio of being the fastest application in the

world. One particular ...