Visual Assist X

Product Information

Visual Assist X reduces application development time with key new features and improvements to existing features in Visual Studio, allowing you to:

• Power through code with the robust yet nearly invisible add-in.
• Develop new code faster with fewer errors.
• Quickly understand existing code.
• Refactor existing code making it easier to read and cheaper to maintain.
• Eliminate time spent searching by allowing instant navigation to any file, symbol or reference.

Visual Assist works seamlessly across C++, C# and Visual Basic, and works in current and legacy versions of Visual Studio, including Visual Studio 2010, 2008 and 2005, along with Visual C/C++ 6.0.

Features

Refactor

Visual Assist X simplifies large tasks by offering a number of code refactorings. Overhaul huge code bases with a few simple commands, maintain legacy projects, and make your code easier to read and understand.

• Rename
• Extract Method
• Encapsulate Field
• Change Signature
• Move Implementation to Source File
• Create from Usage
• Add Member
• Add Similar Member
• Document Method
• Create Declaration
• Create Implementation

Write code faster

Long, descriptive names for symbols makes reading and understanding code easier. Typing long names frequently, however, is cumbersome. Don't waste time! Type a few letters or an acronym for a symbol, and Visual Assist X will display a list of suggestions. Type a shortcut to expand frequently used snippets of code. Visual Assist X has many features to help you code efficiently.

• Suggestion Lists
• Acronyms & Shorthand
• Surround Selection
• Insert of },),]
• VA Snippets
• Smart Suggestions
• Format after Paste
• Multiple Clipboards
• Insert _ after m and Shift
• Auto Using and Add Include Directives

Read code faster

Read code clearly with Enhanced Syntax Coloring, easily find your place in code when switching between views, never miss a closing brace and always know at-a-glance whether symbols are local or stable – all with Visual Assist X!

• Enhanced Syntax Coloring
• Local Symbols in Bold
• Stable Symbols in Italics
• Highlight Matching {} and ()
• Column Indicator
• Highlight Current Line
• Highlight Find Results

Improve navigation

Visual Assist X presents components of your code several ways, making it easy to find what you need and make changes. View and navigate huge files at a glance with VA Outline, easily find all references to a method, and much more. Search and Navigation features in Visual Assist X make tackling large projects a manageable task.

• VA Outline
• VA Navigation Bar
• Find References
• Find by Context
• Goto
• List Methods in File
• Open File in Solution
• Find Symbol in Solution
• Open Corresponding File
• Most Recently Used List
• Navigate Backward and Forward
• Move Scope

Identify and correct mistakes

The familiarity of spell check, running in your IDE. Instantly spot mispelled words in comments as well as mistyped symbols. You can even check spelling against a custom dictionary. Visual Assist X will repair case errors automatically, and even convert dot to -> when necessary. Most importantly, correct your mistakes before you build.

• Underline Spelling Errors
• Underline Mistyped Symbols
• Highlight Mismatching {} and ()
• Repair Case
• Convert Dot to ->

Enhance intellisense

Visual Assist X improves on default IntelliSense with Enhanced Listboxes, parameter information that is frequent and helpful, and hovering tooltips for virtually all symbols. Instantly view the context and definition of a symbol just by clicking on it. Hover over symbols while browsing code to see overrides, other members of its class, related enums, etc. Get the information you need without hunting for it.

• Enhanced Listboxes
• Parameter Info
• Hovering Tooltips
• Hovering Class Browser
• Context Field
• Definition Field

Highly configurable

Use Visual Assist X the way that works best for you, through an extensive options dialog, context menu, or keyboard shortcuts.

• Options Dialog
• Context Menu
• Assign Shortcuts

Works with VC6

For VC 6 users, Visual Assist X provides several additional time-saving features.

• Save Unnamed Bookmarks
• Print in Color
• RTF in the Clipboard
• Sort Lines
• Auto recovry
• Bypass lists after F1

System Req.

Development Environments

Visual Assist X is compatible with the following Microsoft IDEs. Reinstall Visual Assist X if you change or add an IDE to your system.

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002
• Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0

Note: Visual Studio Express editions are not supported.

Operating Systems

Generally speaking, Visual Assist X works with any operating system that runs your IDE with the exception of Microsoft Windows 98 and NT 4.0.

• Windows 7 (x86 and x64, all versions)
• Windows Vista (x86 and x64, all versions)
• Windows XP Professional (x86 and x641)
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Windows XP Home
• Windows 2000 Professional
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 20031
• Windows 2000 Server

Performance

Visual Assist X requires little more than a system fast enough for software development. Impact on the performance is negligible after a project is opened for the first time. (Extra parsing is done the first time each project is opened.)

Disk Space

Disk space requirements vary depending on the size of your projects. Only 20 MB is required for initial installation of Visual Assist X but symbol databases and file caches increase the requirement quickly. A reasonable minimum is 50 MB. Large projects can consume 100+ MB over time.

Visual Assist X maintains a cache of parsed source files that speed opening of files. The cache is cleared periodically.