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Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional review

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional

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Verdict

An excellent update that crams in a new code editor, enhanced debugging and even a new programming language

Review Date: 15 Apr 2010

Reviewed By: Huw Collingbourne

Price when reviewed: £710 (£834 inc VAT)

Overall Rating

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
6 stars out of 6

Ease of Use
6 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

The release of Visual Studio 2010 has been much anticipated in developer circles, but you might struggle to see what the fuss has been all about at first. Little appears to have changed since Visual Studio 2008. Dig a little deeper, however, and you'll discover the changes are substantial.

For an experienced Visual Studio user the dockable tool-windows are likely to be the most eye-catching new feature. No longer do the toolbars and panels have to be nested inside the main window of the application. They can now be set free-floating and positioned anywhere you like, which is particularly useful if you have a multimonitor setup.

But there's more. The IDE has been given a complete makeover, which extends from its new colour scheme to visual effects such as shaded highlights on the "code folding" bars in the editor. Visual Studio 2010 has, in fact, been extensively rewritten using managed code and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to bring it up to date with the latest Microsoft technologies.

Given this fact, it's odd that the integrated WPF design environment hasn't changed much, although it does finally support Silverlight projects. Silverlight is a subset of WPF aimed at the creation of browser-based applications similar to those created using Adobe Flash. In Visual Studio 2008, support for Silverlight was provided only by an optional add-in with no visual designer tool.

Microsoft claims Silverlight can be programmed using many different language,s whereas Flash is more or less restricted to ActionScript. Even so, Visual Studio doesn't provide a huge choice. Currently, Silverlight applications can be programmed using C# or Visual Basic but not C++.

The heart of any programming IDE is its code editor and this has always been a Visual Studio strength. The new version is nothing short of remarkable. In addition to the existing syntax colouring and code folding capabilities, it can zoom code to different levels of magnification in selected windows. It has also gained an intelligent text selection feature that makes it possible to insert text onto every line of code in a selection. Want to add "this." in front of 20 consecutive method calls? All you need to do is select your lines and type "this." to have it instantly entered 20 times.

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Comments

User comments

Any pricing on the Ultimate version?

By TimoGunt on 16 Apr 2010

Sluggish

I was using it yesterday and last night and I have to say that compared to 2008 the intellisense does seem very sluggish - enough so to be irritating. If I start typing a new line in VS2008 the intellisense list appears instantly whereas in 2010 there's a slight delay. The tooltips also hang around for slightly longer - all this 'slightly' stuff adds up.

More annoying are the 'invalid code' squiggles that appear when you've only partially typed something and vanish when you complete it - their sluggishness makes them feel much more intrusive in 2010.

I'm not sure whether it's the fact that intellisense has more to do, what with all the new features, or that WCF is just plain slower than the old method.

They may seem like minor gripes but this is the kind of stuff that's in your face 100% of the time you're using it. It's a pity; for features, 2010 wins hands-down but for user experience it's a poor second.

By nelviticus on 16 Apr 2010

re Ultimate Pricing

If you have to ask, you can't afford it!

Seriously, it's v v expensive

By DaveLal on 16 Apr 2010

Re: Ultimate

It's about £11,000 new or £3,500 as an upgrade. Well, you did ask!

By Bassey1976 on 16 Apr 2010

BBC

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By vikojhons on 17 Apr 2010

As nelviticus says, there is a 'sluggish' feeling to it.
This was mentioned during the beta and the answer was that it was due to being beta code and would disappear on the RTM version. Needless to say, it hasn't!

By Ex_Sailor on 17 Apr 2010

hmm maybe it comes with the MSDN subscription. Me thinks not.
11k! maybe I missed what was on the features list because it didn't seem like there was a great deal more

By TimoGunt on 19 Apr 2010

Well at least the professional edition is free..

Unfortunately only for students, https://www.dreamspark.com/ but I've been playing around with VS 2010 Pro for a bit now - it certainly FEELS more efficient, like tabbed browsing - not sure whether I prefer it though

By all4nothing on 21 Apr 2010

"Want to add "this." in front of 20 consecutive method calls? All you need to do is select your lines and type "this." to have it instantly entered 20 times."

How do I do this? As I'm not fully sure...

By mjb3000 on 28 Apr 2010

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