20 August 2010

Frustrations with Visual Studio 2010 Extensions

I have become frustrated with the two most popular extensions for Visual Studio 2010.  These are great tools, but also have their issues.  If you, too, are frustrated by these or other issues, please post a comment.

Oh, great creators of VS extensions, hear my rants and fix your code!


PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2010
Ctrl + Shift + Z
This extension adds all of the context menu items one would expect to see (Close all; Close all but this; etc.).  However, PowerCommands hijacks the Ctrl + Shift + Z redo command!  I have no idea what it is doing, but it sure isn't Redo!  The extension does not change the VS keyboard settings, but is intercepting the gesture.  The site provides no gesture documentation, nor does it mention anything about intercepting this Redo gesture.  Ctrl + Y still works, but is a hateful, awkward gesture.

Productivity Power Tools
Ctrl + Mouse Drag (Drag & Drop Copy)
Whenever Productivity Power Tools is enabled, the ability to copy selected text by pressing Ctrl and dragging the selection with the mouse pointer has vanished.  Disabling all Power Productivity Tools features in the options dialog has no effect.  This is a major disadvantage, that comes close to nullifying the benefits of the extensions altogether.

Guidelines
I hoestly love the guidelines feature.  I know this is a feature built in to VS 2010, but has no options to enable (unless you consider digging through the registry editor an "option").  My complaint is that in order to create a guide at a spicific column, one must position the cursor at the desired location.  I find laying on the spacebar, to get to the proper location quite annoying.  I understand why this must be, but annoying, nonetheless.

Ctrl + Left Mouse (Go to definition)
Why does this even exist?  Due to the delay introduced, to prevent selection drag & drop issues, it is just as fast or faster to press the F12 key.  Thank you for including something that ensures I visit the options dialog, before using the extension.

EDIT: I have since discovered that a highlighted block of code may be dragged to another location and copied instead of moved.  Simply press the CTRL key AFTER the drag cursor appears.

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