Build Announcements

Visual Assist build 2223 is available

This post is a 2-for-1 build announcement: 2219 and 2223. Build 2219 made some nice improvements to Visual Assist but a day after release of the build, several bugs were discovered in it. Build 2223 is the bug-fix build. This announcement for build 2223 includes the improvements of build 2219.

Source Links, previously a standalone extension available only in the Visual Studio gallery, is now integrated into Visual Assist. If your code comments refer to external applications or websites, Source Links will connect those references to the external systems. You will be able to hover over references to see tooltips, and double-click to jump directly into external systems. Source Links are ideal for connecting code comments to bug trackers, case managers, documentation, and source code control systems.

A popular and long-time staple of Visual Assist, Open File in Solution (Shift+Alt+O), received a few improvements. The dialog now allows inclusion of files not explicitly part of a solution but are in solution directories, and inclusion of files otherwise hidden by extension.

On a related note, symbols in solution files that reside in a “\Program Files” directory are now considered stable, and therefore can appear in italics. (Previously, no solution file was ever considered stable.) The change was driven primarily to accommodate binary distributions of Unreal Engine 4 whose stable engine files are part of every game solution. If you develop with a binary distribution of UE4 installed to “\Program Files”, enable italics on the Coloring-and-Attributes page of the options dialog for Visual Assist.

Also primarily for UE4 users, the priority of the parsing threads of Visual Assist can be lowered.

Code Inspection continues to suggest more improvements. The feature now inspects for:

  • Check emptiness with empty() instead of size()
  • Redundant get() on smart pointer
  • Redundant ‘return’ or ‘continue’ statement
  • Reset unique_ptr with ‘= nullptr’ instead of ‘delete p.release()’

Build 2223 requires software maintenance through 2017.06.22.

Learn about Source Links, check out the complete list of what’s new in build 2223, or download the installer.

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