You can actually build dependency graphs incrementally, by creating a directed graph file and adding it to your project. Then, you simply drag objects (for example, source for class definitions) from either the solution explorer or the architecture explorer and drop them into the graph file's editor window. Visual Studio will parse the source code, index it, and incorporate it into the existing graph.
Working with Visual Studio 2012
When you install Visual Studio 2012, you're presented with numerous optional components. These include Blend for Visual Studio, MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) for C++, Office Developer Tools, SharePoint Developer Tools, Visual Studio LightSwitch, and Web Developer Tools.
In addition to tuning the environment to your particular sort of development (LightSwitch, SQL Server, Web development, or any of the .Net languages), you can also select the quantity of help documentation installed. A management console lets you pick which content will be recorded locally and which will be accessed from the Web. All help text is available online, and the IDE will access its online repository as needed, but fine-tuning the cached content can help if you know you're going to be working either offline or in an area with spotty connectivity.
The breadth of the development targets that Visual Studio 2012 now supports becomes apparent when you create a new project. The IDE presents more project templates than you can shake a stick at, in all of the supported languages -- which now include JavaScript. You can also select templates from Microsoft's online source; do that and the choices multiply even more. Also online are uncountable lists of code samples through which you can wander for hours.
I chose to build a Windows 8 application using HTML5 and JavaScript. To do this, I first had to acquire a Window's 8 Developer license -- a bit disconcerting, as I had no desire to actually try to sell the application or even execute it anywhere other than my system. Happily, the license is free; unhappily, it's only good for 30 days, at which time you have to renew it -- again, happily, for free. Had I wanted to make the application available on the Windows Store, I would have had to acquire a Windows Store license, which would not have been free.
The experience of building a Windows 8 application with HTML and JavaScript is reminiscent of creating a Web application, particularly in the way the project compartmentalizes the application's individual files. CSS files go in one folder, images in another folder, and JavaScript code in still another. A top-level folder is home to the HTML as well as the manifest file (which carries the application's name, description, splash screen, and so on) and security certificates file.
Of course, building a Windows 8 app is not precisely like building a Web application. You have to learn the event model -- as well as the events themselves -- imposed on Windows 8 applications. Microsoft has defined events that unify the handling of touch, mouse, and pointer input, so you don't have to concern yourself with whether a finger or a mouse triggered an event.
You also have to learn a Windows 8 application's lifecycle and how that is expressed in the JavaScript that executes the "business logic" of your application. Microsoft has defined JavaScript namespaces via whose methods and members you interact with the Windows API from JavaScript. The WinJS namespace, for example, includes objects that handle onscreen controls (like ListViews, DatePickers, and so on) as well as JavaScript promise asynchronous handler objects. The Windows namespace includes objects for dealing with an application's lifecycle (objects for handling search operations) and system operations (a class for controlling whether a device's display remains on during an inactive period).
Luckily, there are plenty of resources -- everything from style sheets to libraries of controls -- to draw on. Possibly the greatest hurdle that developers of Windows Store applications will face is simply wading through the mountains of choices to select from.
Big rock candy IDE
If you've used any of the previous versions of Visual Studio, you'll be right at home in Visual Studio 2012. You'll find plenty of documentation, guides, and tutorials online to help you navigate the new features. On the other hand, if you're new to Visual Studio, you'll quickly discover how vast it is. The only practical advice I can offer is to explore it one tributary at a time.
If you want a hint of just how big Visual Studio has become, consider its new Quick Launch capability. The idea behind Quick Launch: There's some operation in the IDE you want to perform, but you can't quite remember in which submenu or toolbar selection or pop-up window the control for that operation is hiding. Wouldn't it be nice if you could search the IDE, in the same way you, say, search for a variable's definition in your project's source?
That's exactly what Quick Launch lets you do. Enter a search string, and the IDE groups the results of your search. You can see matches in the most recent controls you've used, the documents you've opened, or menus or options you've selected. Click on one of the choices and -- hopefully -- you'll be taken to the spot in the IDE you're looking for.
As I warned at the beginning, Visual Studio 2012 is a big product. There's a whole lot more I didn't touch on: testing features, project lifecycle management, version control features, Visual Studio's integration with other Microsoft products, and so on.
If you want to do Windows development -- particularly Windows 8 and RT development -- then Visual Studio is really the only game in town. This is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, Visual Studio 2012 does an admirable job as the platform for building applications for a dizzying variety of targets. On the other hand, if you don't like it, you're pretty much stuck with it. Nevertheless, countless successful applications, small and large, were born, raised, and graduated from the Visual Studio IDE. And countless more are still to come.
This story, "Microsoft's Visual Studio 2012 shines on Windows 8" was originally published by InfoWorld.