Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 [Paperback]

Craig Skibo (Author), Marc Young (Author), Brian Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2005

This is not a book about how to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, but rather a book that shows how to adapt it to work best for you. Visual Studio 2005 includes a range of tools that allow customization of the development environment. This book shows how to use editors and macros, the add-in architecture, the programmable user interface, and other extensibility features to make repetitive development tasks easier and give programming teams common tools.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Craig Skibo has worked at Microsoft for more than six years on the design and implementation of the programmability features of Visual Studio and Visual Basic®. He often travels to large industry gatherings such as the Professional Developers Conference to give speeches about the Visual Studio automation model, and he consults with smaller, more focused groups of developers to help them learn how to use the latest technologies.

Marc Young works as a technical editor at Microsoft. A former Microsoft Press® employee, Marc has worked with some of the publisher's best authors, including Charles Petzold, Jeff Prosise, and Bruce McKinney.

Brian Johnson currently works as a technical editor at Microsoft. Previously, Brian was a columnist for Microsoft Visual J++® Informant magazine, covering Microsoft Internet technologies. He served as the technical editor for Microsoft Office and VBA Developer magazine from 1998 until 2000.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 1 edition (April 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735623155
• ISBN-13: 978-0735623156
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #949,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good to have if you are developing under Visual Studio 2005, August 5, 2006

By 

Douglas W. Goodall (Central Coast, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Paperback)

As a long term developer, I have used many different compilers and development environments. They are all different and somewhat confusing when you bring them up and are confronted with a multitude of icons and menu items. This book is the only printed material I could find about this version of the development environment from Microsoft Press. I was dissapointed by the length of the manual and it's focus. It is not so much a how to about the Visual Studio, as a technical reference about how to extend the environment. I am glad I bought it and I wouldn't return it. It is not enough information though for a new developer confronted with this powerful and complex development tool. In time there will be other books on Visual Studio 2005, and I will buy them to answer questions that linger. As always, a subscription to MSDN Library is the most valuable reference. MSDN Library however is a huge collection of data, some of which is obsolete, that has been thrown together over the years, like Microsoft's SDKs. In conclusion, the book is a valuable asset when using Visual Studio 2005 and I am glad I bought it. I recommend that developer's buy it, with the caveat that it is not enough by itself. I hope Visual Studio 2005 lasts long enough to become documented to a helpful extent.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful book for what it covers, July 3, 2006

By 

Phone Owner - See all my reviews

This review is from: Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Paperback)

The previous reviewer hates this book for the very reason I love this book. This book covers everything about customizing Visual Studio, and does so in a crisp, understandable way. Visual Studio may not be as customizable as Eclipse, but it's close, and this book shows you how to do it. I agree that it could use a better title.

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Of almost no use, May 3, 2006

By 

C. Morris (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Paperback)

It's hard to write a completely useless book about a product as complex as Visual Studio 2005, but the authors have managed to do it. The only things readers will learn are the definitions of solutions and projects (which a complete novice could figure out after playing with the IDE for 10 minutes), shortcuts for entering basic programming constructs, and ways to extend Visual Studio by creating macros and snap-ins. That's it. That's all the "work" that is on display. All the details of writing code, debugging, designing classes, performing static code analysis, profiling, and building projects that aren't ridiculously simple are missing (I guess they don't constitute work). I hate books that are purposely mislabled. If the book was called "Writing Macros with Visual Studio 2005" or "Extending Visual Studio" it might rate two stars (and would no doubt sell far fewer copies). Avoid paying money for this title.