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Visual Studio condensed : for Visual Studio 2013 Express, Professional, Premium and Ultimate editions
Desjardins P., Apress, New York, NY, 2014. 260 pp. Type: Book (978-1-430268-24-6)
Date Reviewed: Jan 28 2015

The cover describes this book as a “quick-reference guide to the features [of Visual Studio 2013] that matter most.” I found the material to be a useful introduction and reference guide for Visual Studio 2013; however, working through the text was not a “quick” process, as Visual Studio is a complex, sophisticated integrated development environment.

The guide assumes little familiarity with or experience using Visual Studio (VS). Chapter 1 begins with an overview of the five editions and a description of the targeted users for each. The primary common user interface screens of the five editions are discussed informally using screen shots from the VS Ultimate Edition.

Chapter 2 explores the many configuration options available in VS, from menus and toolbars to environmental settings such as synchronization of settings through Microsoft cloud logins. Advanced configuration options for topics such as code performance analysis, database interfaces, webpage design, and project management are discussed in the context of the applicable VS editions.

For software developers migrating to VS, chapter 3 contains the most immediately useful information. The chapter discusses, in detail, the editor window and how it is used for software development. The IntelliSense, CodeLens, and Peek capabilities of VS are discussed and illustrated. The VS support for creating documentation in C#, Visual Basic, Razor, Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), and Visual C++ is discussed for each language, as well as techniques for application deployment.

Experienced programmers will be very interested in the VS debugging tools discussed in chapter 4 and the code improvement tools discussed in chapter 5. The debugging tools include basic breakpoint capabilities as well as conditional and filtered breakpoints. The presentation continues by introducing advanced debugging tools including techniques for monitoring threads, inspecting the call stack, and memory analysis with profiling. The VS code improvement tools include the ability to create static code maps as well as sequence diagrams of method calls. In some VS editions, code metrics and static code analysis can also be performed. These software development and management tools are introduced and discussed.

Chapter 6 introduces the VS tools for testing applications during and after development. These include tools for unit testing, analyzing code coverage, and performance testing. Other advanced topics included in this chapter introduce remote debugging and use of the Windows phone emulator.

Chapters 7, 8, and 9 will appeal to readers with specialized needs. They explain advanced VS features that support teamwork and source control within VS, framework-specific features, and techniques for extending VS. The frameworks discussed include the Web framework, the SharePoint framework, the Windows 8 framework, and others.

I recommend this reference guide to developers looking for a well-organized introduction to the effective use of Visual Studio 2013. Purchasers of the print edition can also obtain either the PDF or MOBI format editions for a small additional charge. The ability to search the guide electronically would be very useful.

Reviewer:  S. Thomas Review #: CR143124 (1505-0334)
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