Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET [Paperback]

Les Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 2002 | Series: Expert's Voice

Visual Studio .NET is the most extensible development environment Microsoft has released to date. Organizations create add-ins for many purposes: to speed common tasks, to ease code reuse within an organization, and to enforce rules and consistency among developers. Effective use of add-ins can dramatically improve developer efficiency and reduce costs.

Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET is designed to get add-in developers up to speed in developing ad-ins in Visual Studio .NET and to teach add-in development to developers who want to learn to write add-ins. Author Les Smith also provides enough real code examples to challenge even experienced add-in developers.

Smiths book begins by teaching readers how to use the Add-In Wizard to create the basic add-in framework. From there, he covers the manipulation of code in windows and controls, and the manipulation of projects. Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET explores in detail, how to create an add-in user interface, including toolbars, toolbar buttons, and multiple-level menus, as well as how to create a user interface in the system tray. Smith also addresses the migration of add-ins from VB 6.0 to VB .NET for those developers who have previous experience in writing add-ins.

One of the great challenges that add-in developers will encounter is finding the right classes from among the 3,400 classes in the .NET Framework. Smith teaches and demonstrates use of the Visual Studio add-in object model to show readers how to use the methods and properties and respond to events in order to enhance the power of the integrated development environment (IDE).

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Les Smith is an independent consultant specializing in the development of Visual Basic .NET and ASP.NET applications. He is the president of HHI Software, Inc., and develops tools for developers using Visual Studio. He has been developing add-ins since the release of Visual Basic 4.0 and has been developing applications in Visual Basic for over 12 years. Prior to his PC development experience, which included the use of C and Clipper, he had 20 years of experience in the development of mainframe operating systems for a major mainframe manufacturer. Smith also managed several large development projects, both on mainframes and PCs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 523 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (July 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590590260
• ISBN-13: 978-1590590263
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,310,695 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Limited depth, sloppy coding styles in examples., September 6, 2003

By 

AndyN (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET (Paperback)

I found that it is largely full of code listings, and short on background information. The coding style seems very much stuck in the VB6 world, and the author needs to acquaint himself with the guidelines for coding in .NET (e.g., naming, etc.).

At the time I bought this book, it was the only book around for VS.NET add-in development. I did get some value out of it, but now that I've done more development of add-ins and VSIP packages for Visual Studio .NET, I find this book very thin on information, and full of sloppy errors.

It might be useful if you are writing VS.NET add ins (but take it with a grain of salt). If you want to develop add-ins, and learn about Visual Studio .NET in general, "Inside Microsoft Visual Studio .NET" is a far better choice.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Only for beginners, April 2, 2003

By 

Marcel Meyer (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET (Paperback)

Not recommended for programmers who already developed addins for VB6!
The book mostly consists of listings which are not commented (no CD-ROM is included). The source code is partially adopted from VB6 and does not use the new programming features of VB.net. A lot of pages describe the AddIn wizard which you can also read in the MSDN. This applies also to the described objects and classes. Where I expected additional info to the MSDN the book stops.
Summary: The book only contains information copied from the MSDN but does not explain the objects more precise. Sorry but I have to say: an expensive piece of waste paper.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cut development time in half, August 15, 2002

By 

Richard Dent (Augusta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio .NET (Paperback)

There are very few books on the market that discuss Add-Ins. Les Smith's Writing Add-Ins for Visual Studio.Net is one of a kind. Smith does a very good job of discussing the advantages that Add-Ins provide for developers. Add-Ins allow developers to develop products faster and get those products to market faster. Even though the book is not for beginners in Visual Basic.Net or Visual Studio.Net, the book is an easy read. Any developer who is looking cut down on the time to develop an application, Les Smith's book is the way to go.