Microsoft Drops The Ball!

[Patrick Cannon]

I have been using VB.NET since its beta release a few
years ago. I was blown away by its debugging
capabilities. The ability to drill down into the member
variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6. It
was a great way to browse an object without having to
know all the private member variables of an entity. This
was one of the features that allowed me to accelerate my
namespace knowledge, allowing development to be
productive.

With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely
from VB.NET. Instead of giving the user an option to
enable this feature, Microsoft decided all VB.NET
developers did not need it. I find this attitude
presumptuous. The other languages available in VS 2003
retained this feature, while VB developers, who got used
to debugging in this fashion, were left high and dry.
They didn't even remove it cleanly. The plus sign still
appears in the watch windows making the developer believe
that variable browsing is available, but when you click
the plus sign to expand the object to view the member
variables, the plus sign just disappears.

I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling. It seems
that Microsoft has regressed with their latest release of
Visual Studio. Currently, we have thirteen corporate
developers with Universal subscriptions designing and
deploying distributed applications primarily using
VB.NET. And now we have found the task of debugging
cumbersome and unproductive. I hope Microsoft can find a
way to reintroduce this functionality before our
subscriptions are up. I would hate to have to spend the
next year switching our development platform, because
Microsoft feels the need to spurn the devoted developers
that utilize the tools offered by Microsoft.

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Patrick,

The ability to drill down into the member
variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6.
... <snip> ...
With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely
from VB.NET. I still have the feature in VS.NET 2003 and use it every day in VB.NET!
I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling. I find VS.NET 2003 to a more stable platform than VS.NET 2002 was.

Unless of course I am missing something in what you are trying to state.

Hope this helps
Jay

"Patrick Cannon" <pc*****@bandag.com> wrote in message
news:04****************************@phx.gbl... I have been using VB.NET since its beta release a few
years ago. I was blown away by its debugging
capabilities. The ability to drill down into the member
variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6. It
was a great way to browse an object without having to
know all the private member variables of an entity. This
was one of the features that allowed me to accelerate my
namespace knowledge, allowing development to be
productive.

With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely
from VB.NET. Instead of giving the user an option to
enable this feature, Microsoft decided all VB.NET
developers did not need it. I find this attitude
presumptuous. The other languages available in VS 2003
retained this feature, while VB developers, who got used
to debugging in this fashion, were left high and dry.
They didn't even remove it cleanly. The plus sign still
appears in the watch windows making the developer believe
that variable browsing is available, but when you click
the plus sign to expand the object to view the member
variables, the plus sign just disappears.

I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling. It seems
that Microsoft has regressed with their latest release of
Visual Studio. Currently, we have thirteen corporate
developers with Universal subscriptions designing and
deploying distributed applications primarily using
VB.NET. And now we have found the task of debugging
cumbersome and unproductive. I hope Microsoft can find a
way to reintroduce this functionality before our
subscriptions are up. I would hate to have to spend the
next year switching our development platform, because
Microsoft feels the need to spurn the devoted developers
that utilize the tools offered by Microsoft.

[Patrick Cannon]

I've called Microsoft and they state that this
functionality was left out "by design" to reduce clutter
(?).

-----Original Message-----
Patrick,

The ability to drill down into the member
variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6.
... <snip> ...
With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely from VB.NET.I still have the feature in VS.NET 2003 and use it every

day in VB.NET!

I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling.I find VS.NET 2003 to a more stable platform than VS.NET

2002 was.
Unless of course I am missing something in what you are trying to state.
Hope this helps
Jay

"Patrick Cannon" <pc*****@bandag.com> wrote in message
news:04****************************@phx.gbl...

I have been using VB.NET since its beta release a few
years ago. I was blown away by its debugging
capabilities. The ability to drill down into the member variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6. It
was a great way to browse an object without having to
know all the private member variables of an entity. This was one of the features that allowed me to accelerate my namespace knowledge, allowing development to be
productive.

With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely from VB.NET. Instead of giving the user an option to
enable this feature, Microsoft decided all VB.NET
developers did not need it. I find this attitude
presumptuous. The other languages available in VS 2003
retained this feature, while VB developers, who got used to debugging in this fashion, were left high and dry.
They didn't even remove it cleanly. The plus sign still appears in the watch windows making the developer believe that variable browsing is available, but when you click
the plus sign to expand the object to view the member
variables, the plus sign just disappears.

I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling. It seems that Microsoft has regressed with their latest release of Visual Studio. Currently, we have thirteen corporate
developers with Universal subscriptions designing and
deploying distributed applications primarily using
VB.NET. And now we have found the task of debugging
cumbersome and unproductive. I hope Microsoft can find a way to reintroduce this functionality before our
subscriptions are up. I would hate to have to spend the next year switching our development platform, because
Microsoft feels the need to spurn the devoted developers that utilize the tools offered by Microsoft.

.

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Patrick,
Like I said I may be missing something in what you are attempting to state.

When I define a class, and have a variable of that class, I am able to see
all the details of that class in the Watch window.

However for framework classes I cannot see the details, nor should, nor do I
want to!

Are you saying you cannot see the private details of classes that are not
yours?

Or are you saying you cannot see the private details of any class?

Or are you saying something totally different?

Hope this helps
Jay

"Patrick Cannon" <pc*****@bandag.com> wrote in message
news:0e****************************@phx.gbl...

I've called Microsoft and they state that this
functionality was left out "by design" to reduce clutter
(?).

-----Original Message-----
Patrick,

The ability to drill down into the member
variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6.
... <snip> ...
With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely from VB.NET.

I still have the feature in VS.NET 2003 and use it every

day in VB.NET!

I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling.

I find VS.NET 2003 to a more stable platform than VS.NET

2002 was.

Unless of course I am missing something in what you are

trying to state.

Hope this helps
Jay

"Patrick Cannon" <pc*****@bandag.com> wrote in message
news:04****************************@phx.gbl...

I have been using VB.NET since its beta release a few
years ago. I was blown away by its debugging
capabilities. The ability to drill down into the member variables of an object in the watch window was
priceless. This feature was not available in VB6. It
was a great way to browse an object without having to
know all the private member variables of an entity. This was one of the features that allowed me to accelerate my namespace knowledge, allowing development to be
productive.

With the release of Visual Studio .NET 2003, Microsoft
decided "by design" to remove this capability completely from VB.NET. Instead of giving the user an option to
enable this feature, Microsoft decided all VB.NET
developers did not need it. I find this attitude
presumptuous. The other languages available in VS 2003
retained this feature, while VB developers, who got used to debugging in this fashion, were left high and dry.
They didn't even remove it cleanly. The plus sign still appears in the watch windows making the developer believe that variable browsing is available, but when you click
the plus sign to expand the object to view the member
variables, the plus sign just disappears.

I find the exclusion of valuable debugging features and
the lack of quality of VS 2003 very troubling. It seems that Microsoft has regressed with their latest release of Visual Studio. Currently, we have thirteen corporate
developers with Universal subscriptions designing and
deploying distributed applications primarily using
VB.NET. And now we have found the task of debugging
cumbersome and unproductive. I hope Microsoft can find a way to reintroduce this functionality before our
subscriptions are up. I would hate to have to spend the next year switching our development platform, because
Microsoft feels the need to spurn the devoted developers that utilize the tools offered by Microsoft.

.