Add more intuitive support for stored procedures throughout the UI. Permit management of all results including multiple resultsets, errors, warnings, return values, and output parameters. Automatically code-generate the Parameters collection based on an existing stored procedure. (We had this in Visual Basic —VB—6.0 and VS 2003.)
Add the ability to insert SQL directly into a text string in the code editor. I’ve been asking for this for years. A developer could right-click in the code editor and choose “Insert SQL" and the Query Builder would open and help generate the SQL code. It would be nice if the Query Builder would provide an option to build a stored procedure on request.
Show options in IntelliSense that actually map to the class’ functionality. I would like to see a “smarter” IntelliSense that doesn't show such things as properties, options, and events for objects where the class doesn't support them. Case in point: SqlCe namespace doesn't support stored procedures, but it appears in the list of available options in the CommandType Intellisense.
Fix the project references pick list. This list hasn't been fixed since the first launch despite being mentioned as an issue many times due to the, shall we say, “challenged” design (the UI looks like a throwback to VB 2.0) and the fact that many component names are so long, you can’t tell one from another. This is UI 101 and the list should have been fixed long ago by adding a filter setting to help locate references as you do with the Toolbox customization dialog box (which is slow, but nicely done).
Don't Tell Us What We Need
This VS wish list isn't an exhaustive list, and while some of requested changes are tougher to implement, none of them are new. Developers have been asking for these features for over 15 years. I think it’s about time Microsoft refocuses on what developers ask for instead of on what Microsoft thinks they need.
William Vaughn (billva@betav.com) is an industry-recognized author, mentor, and subject-matter expert on Visual Studio, SQL Server, Reporting Services, and data access interfaces. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series.
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