Killer .NET Ninja Skills

The right knowledge and the right tools differentiate the .NET ninjas from the .NET laborers, and the ninja’s choice of Visual Studio productivity tools bestows to those who wield it more power than ever before. The Telerik JustCode Q2 2012 release is leading the way with features such as cloud synchronization and WinRT / Metro support.

Last week, I hinted at three powers of the .NET Ninja you will obtain in this release. I will now reveal them, but there is much more. Be sure to attend next week’s webinar to see everything in action!

1. The Cleaner – Prototype Cleaning
2. The Sorcerer – Getting Started Wizard
3. The Chiller – Settings in the Cloud

Prototype Cleaning

After consuming several serving sizes of your favorite caffeine product, you have an awesome idea! You type it all up in the same file; you don’t want to lose your train of thought. You run the code and find everything works as expected, and you decide to move forward in fleshing out your prototype. Before you can move forward, you need to move everything into separate files to adhere to your coding standards.

Or do you?

Here’s a set of example classes I typed without taking my hands from the keyboard.

When you’re ready, simply run the Clean Code command with the full cleaning profile. Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C or navigate to the command in the menu.

If it fits the conventions of your project, go to the Code Cleaning options in the JustCode User Options dialog and include Move types to separate files in your default cleaning profile. Here’s the result of running this cleaning on the prototyped code.

This is great for the consummate experimenter who wants to write a series of classes without being bothered by the minutiae of creating new files, but it’s likely to see the most use in enforcing code standards.

Getting Started Wizard

When you first open Visual Studio with the new version of JustCode installed, you will be presented with the Getting Started Wizard. If you’ve never used JustCode before, this is the perfect opportunity to become acquainted the vast number of ways in which JustCode will help you code faster and smarter. Even veteran JustCode ninjas may find secrets they were unaware of due to the increased visibility the wizard provides.

Here’s what you will see:

Individual features of JustCode are indicated with a feature marker signified by a magnifying glass symbol. Hover over the symbol to see the feature name.

Clicking the name of the feature will bring up more details on the feature, including a video demonstrating how the feature is used.

JustCode’s unobtrusiveness sets it apart, so we hid the wizard after the first run. You may wish to return to the wizard for a quick refresher or to demonstrate JustCode to another coder, so we’ve added a shortcut to it in the JustCode menu.

Settings in the Cloud

Maintaining multiple copies of Visual Studio can at times be frustrating. You set up your work PC to perfectly represent your work style. You then have to make all of these changes at home as well. After returning to work from the weekend, something feels not quite right; because you changed a setting that you forgot about.

JustCode makes this one less thing you need to worry about; you can now save and sync your Settings in the Cloud. There are two places to set this up. Remember the Getting Started Wizard? Open it back up and click the three in the lower right-hand corner.

Simply type in the email and password associated with your Telerik account and click the Login button. If you wish, you can check Enable automatic sync to synchronize your settings between multiple computers without intervention.

These settings are also accessible from the JustCode User Options dialog, which is accessible from Options… in the JustCode menu. Select the JustCode Cloud item in the left panel.

You will need to visit this menu to sync your settings if you have not enabled the automatic sync feature.

There’s More Coming

This release reduces a lot of friction in the programming process: Move types to separate files eliminates the need to cut a class and paste it into a new file, Settings in the Cloud keeps your different Visual Studio environments synced, and the Getting Started Wizard will help you identify those cool features you may not have realized existed in JustCode.

We are continuing to break new ground with JustCode while maintaining the performance and unobtrusiveness you expect. While these three killer features are very exciting, there’s much more contained in this release. My next JustCode post will cover even more enhancements to the tools ninjas prefer: Telerik JustCode Q2 2012!

Stay tuned…

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