SlickEdit Tools v1.1
Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Visual C# (CSharp, C Sharp, C-Sharp) Developer Training, Visual Studio
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C# Online.NET Software Review
SlickEdit Tools is a collection of Visual Studio add-ins which provide features and benefits beyond the standard Visual Studio .NET installation. SlickEdit Tools is installed in its own Visual Studio menu. Of course, the individual commands can, also, be accessed via keyboard shortcuts.
My favorite SlickEdit Tools are:
- Auto Code Doc Viewer hyperlinked doc generator
- Comment wrapping and reflow commands
- DiffZilla file and directory comparison tool
- Quick Profiling tool with its fine control and flexibility
SlickEdit—the company—has a great reputation among programmers for developing useful and intuitive programming tools. SlickEdit—the product—is a great source code editor with many IDE features. And, several features of SlickEdit Tools are designed to work or work better in conjuction with the SlickEdit editor. For example, the current VS solution can be opened in SlickEdit—assuming the SlickEdit editor has been installed.
So, SlickEdit Tools include features only for the users of the SlickEdit editor. Also, there are features which are available only to C++ programmers, e.g. C++ Code Navigation.
The product arrives with a Getting Started booklet—also comes as a .pdf file—which is little more than a brief description of each major feature (see Publisher's description). However, The SlickEdit Help system is installed and can be used to find detailed help information. The help feature includes context sensitive help.
A useful feature for a future edition of the installer would be an ability to load only the desired SlickEdit Tools instead of loading the entire collection at once.
There is a free trial version of SlickEdit Tools available for download from the publisher's Web site.
New SlickEdit Tools features
The new features of version 1.1 include:
- Aliases and Acronyms - including acronym expansion and directory aliases to supplement IntelliSense
- Auto Code Doc Viewer - generates MSDN style documentation from all your program comments
- Comment Wrapping - including conversion, wrapping, and reflowing
- Icon Extractor - search executables for icons
- Load Command - directly open multiple files
- Quick Profiling - sophisticated code timing
Primary SlickEdit Tools features
Primary SlickEdit Tools features include the following:
- Backup History - view, compare, and restore file versions outside source control
- C++ Refactoring - refactor certain C++ constructs
- Code Navigation - jump from a symbol to its definition or list all references of current symbol
- DIFFzilla - compare differences in files or directories
- Quick Compare - compare any modified text document to original file
- Quick Launch - launch files or solutions into SlickEdit (if available)
- Regex Evaluator - create and test regular expressions
- Word Completion - search for and insert additional text upon string match
Bottom line
SlickEdit Tools 1.1 offers practical, valuable enhancements to Visual Studio for serious programmers.
Publisher's description
Discover faster and more accurate development with SlickEdit Tools. SlickEdit Tools v1.1 for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 is a collection of utilities for Visual Studio that provides a developer with greater capabilities directly in the IDE. SlickEdit Tools delivers powerful and time saving features within Microsoft’s latest development environment.
With SlickEdit Tools you can review historical changes to code, display and edit differences in files and directories, navigate code, and develop applications more efficiently. SlickEdit Tools integrates directly into Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
SlickEdit® Tools v1.1 for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 seamlessly integrates the following features into your preferred development environment. SlickEdit Tools only integrates with Visual Studio 2005, and will not run with previous versions or Express editions of Visual Studio.
Comment Wrapping
Comment Wrapping enhances the code editor by formatting comments as you type. Wrapping works with any type of multi-line comment: line comments, block comments, and XMLdoc and Javadoc comments. Additionally, existing comments can be "reflowed" to reformat them.
Backup History
Backup History creates local versions of files each time a file is saved, providing a convenient way to access previous versions of a file even if it has not been checked into source control. Backup History does not replace source control; it bridges the gap between check-ins, providing a greater safety net for your coding.
Auto Code Doc Viewer The Auto Code Doc Viewer automatically turns your comments into MSDN-like documentation. The tool creates fully linked HTML help that can be browsed in a Visual Studio tool window. All help pages provide a link to jump directly to the referenced source code, so it's easy to get from a help page to the actual source code.
Aliases and Acronyms
SlickEdit Tools now provides directory aliases and has enhanced the Microsoft® Intellisense® feature with acronym expansion. Directory aliases are short identifiers for long directory names, which save a lot of typing and mouse use when opening files. Acronyms work similarly but represent class, namespace, and function names in your code.
Regex Evaluator
Regex Evaluator provides the ability to interactively create, save, and re-use tests of regular expressions. Regular expressions may be run in the test window or may be applied directly against the active document.
Icon Extractor The Icon Extractor has the ability to search Windows executables and DLLs (both managed and unmanaged) for embedded icons and images. These icons and images are presented in a list and can be applied to WinForm designer components with simple drag-and-drop operations.
DIFFzilla®
DIFFzilla enables you to compare files or directories and view the differences. Documents in the Diff window can be easily edited in place, updating the comparison as you type. DIFFzilla offers customizable options related to file comparison, integration with Backup History, and Source Control integration for Source Safe 2005 and CVS.
Quick Profiling
Quick Profiling provides an extremely precise way to profile your code without profiling the whole thing. It provides a way to time many cases that are extremely difficult to analyze with standard profilers. Additionally, the results of several runs may be graphed and compared to view the results of code changes and determine the effect of those changes.
Word Completions
Word Completions enhances existing visual studio completions by completing words elsewhere in the current document, even in comments.
Code Navigation
Code navigation provides rapid navigation from a symbol to a definition or from a symbol to a reference allowing you to navigate your code the way you think about it.
Quick Launch
Quick Launch* provides the capability to open the active document or Visual Studio solution in the SlickEdit application. This provides a quick convenient way to start the standalone SlickEdit editor from Visual Studio to work with the current file or solution. * Requires SlickEdit v10.0.2 or higher
