Lab 01

Find Ten Important IDE Things

About This Lab

Visual Studio is a stupendously huge program. The objective of this lab is to find ten features of Visual Studio that are useful to known when developing. Knowing these ten things will help save you time going forward.

The first two tasks have to do with naming things. Open Visual Studio and create a new project. While you are doing this task, note the textbox allows you to enter a name (see the screenprint below, YMMV).

The trick here is to create a name for your projects that has semantic meaning, so that when you look at the project folder in a year, you'll be able to have a good idea of what the project is without having to open it.
Once the project is opened in Visual Studio, it is time to name the Form.

Find the Solution Explorer and change the name from the hideous, grade-reducing, supplies-no-information-whatsoever "Form1.vb" name.

Again, balance your poetic side and your succinct side; select a name that is meaningful, such that one look at the name and you'll know what the form does.
Having just found the Solution Explorer, it is good to find other Visual studio panes and window that will be often used.

Start by finding a "Label" control in the Toolbox. Locate a "Label" control in the toolbox and drag-and-drop it onto the Form that is in the middle of the screen.
Having found the Toolbox, which is chock-full of controls, you might as well find the Properties pane.

Once you find the Properties pane, locate the "(name)" property and change the hideous, grade-reducing, supplies-little-to-zero-information "Label1" name.

The naming convention dictates that your name should begin with the three letters "lbl". More on the naming convention later.
The final window to find is the most important and the one where all the fun is. Your task is to find the Code Editor. There are several ways to open the Code Editor. Your task is to find one of these ways.

Hint 1: the Solution Explorer pane.
Hint 2: that Label you placed on the form.
Hint 3: the "View" menu on the Standard toolbar.
Find the Help menu on the Standard toolbar. I usually select the "Search". The documentation found by using the Search function can be handy and often quicker than that popular search engine.
The lecture probably mentioned compilation, and it is a safe bet to say that there will be a great deal of compiling throughout the semester. Might as well take a moment and get fast at it.

Sure, the "Build >> Build" selection on the Standard toolbar is easy. (But, not fast enough).

Remember, this is rapid application development. The trick is to find the quick and easy F5 function key; this key does the exact same thing and it is within easy reach. See if you can compile your application with F5.
Well, the MIS majors probably pine for the code. "Enough of this IDE stuff... Show me the Visual Basic!"

OK. Find this following feature of Visual Basic. It might not be too useful during Week One. However, it might just demonstrate that Visual Studio has plenty of time-saving features. And, it will show some of the coding syntax that we are going to cover this semester.

Follow these steps:
- Double-click on the Label control, so that the Code Editor opens up.
- Right-click and select "Insert Snippet...".
- From the pop-up list, select "Code Patterns: If, For Each, Try Catch, Property"
- Keep clicking until some code appears in the Code Editor.
Step 1

Step 2
It is time to save and exit our project. This one concept might be the most important of all, in that it can help you avoid wasting lots of time.

Save your project by going to the Standard toolbar and selecting File >> Save All.
The final task is to find the location of the application that you were developing. Where I come from, it is always a good idea to know where the files that you were manipulating reside on the hard drive.

To find your application treasure, navigate the hard drive: My Documents >> Visual Studio 2008 >> Projects

That's it. When you have some time, explore Visual Studio and see what other features you can find.

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Fall 2009