Is [Edit and Continue] a worthwhile feature?

I've lived just fine without it for years... don't see much value in using
it. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

Why not?

While debugging your code, you might see a line you want to change before
executing it. You can make the change and restart the program, or just edit
and continue. Which would you prefer?

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

"Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is [Edit and Continue] a worthwhile feature?
>
> I've lived just fine without it for years... don't see much value in using
> it. Am I missing something?
>
> Thanks!
>

My prior experience with Edit and Continue (vb6, vba, etc) is that it's a
feature that, IF it were to function as advertised, might prove useful. But
things would periodically go wrong - thereby wasting much more time than the
feature was intended to save. Furthermore, assuming that it now "works as
advertised" it seems that changing a line of code while the application is
running might cause unknown (even unpredictable) conseqeunces.

You can see that I'm reluctant to try it again based on the considerations
given above. But rather than simply dismissing it, I'm wondering if there is
some aspect of [Edit and Continue] that you more experienced developers
conclude makes it a must-have feature. Do any of you use it "all the time"
or as a matter of course? Or do most of you prefer to not use it?

Thanks.


"Jonathan Wood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:eyW$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Why not?
>
> While debugging your code, you might see a line you want to change before
> executing it. You can make the change and restart the program, or just
> edit and continue. Which would you prefer?
>
> --
> Jonathan Wood
> SoftCircuits Programming
> http://www.softcircuits.com
>
> "Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Is [Edit and Continue] a worthwhile feature?
>>
>> I've lived just fine without it for years... don't see much value in
>> using it. Am I missing something?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>
>

"Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Is [Edit and Continue] a worthwhile feature?
>
> I've lived just fine without it for years... don't see much value in using
> it. Am I missing something?

It's just a time saving feature in my opinion, if you notice a mistake in
your code then you can change it without having to restart your app. This is
especially useful if it took a long time to get to the point your code is
at, eg at the end of a long import.

You're going to get replies from people who never need this feature because
they never make mistakes and always check their code before running it and
it works perfectly first time every time. But for those not living in
newsgroup fantasy land it is a very useful feature (not that I've got vs2005
but I'm using visual basic 6 on 1 project).

>
> Thanks!
>

"Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:u$(E-Mail Removed)...
> My prior experience with Edit and Continue (vb6, vba, etc) is that it's a
> feature that, IF it were to function as advertised, might prove useful.
> But things would periodically go wrong - thereby wasting much more time
> than the feature was intended to save.

The feature works pretty much perfectly in vb6, I don't know where you're
getting the idea that it doesn't work as advertised. It does require some
understanding of what is going on.

> Furthermore, assuming that it now "works as advertised" it seems that
> changing a line of code while the application is running might cause
> unknown (even unpredictable) conseqeunces.

The usual situation is that you get an error, fix a simple mistake and
continue, but getting the error might cause some side effects. You just need
to take this into account but it's rarely a problem.

Michael

I very rarely use it. But on those rare occasions, it can be nice. But,
frankly, I just don't see any downside to it.

--
Jonathan Wood
SoftCircuits Programming
http://www.softcircuits.com

"Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:u$(E-Mail Removed)...
> My prior experience with Edit and Continue (vb6, vba, etc) is that it's a
> feature that, IF it were to function as advertised, might prove useful.
> But things would periodically go wrong - thereby wasting much more time
> than the feature was intended to save. Furthermore, assuming that it now
> "works as advertised" it seems that changing a line of code while the
> application is running might cause unknown (even unpredictable)
> conseqeunces.
>
> You can see that I'm reluctant to try it again based on the considerations
> given above. But rather than simply dismissing it, I'm wondering if there
> is some aspect of [Edit and Continue] that you more experienced developers
> conclude makes it a must-have feature. Do any of you use it "all the time"
> or as a matter of course? Or do most of you prefer to not use it?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> "Jonathan Wood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:eyW$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Why not?
>>
>> While debugging your code, you might see a line you want to change before
>> executing it. You can make the change and restart the program, or just
>> edit and continue. Which would you prefer?
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Wood
>> SoftCircuits Programming
>> http://www.softcircuits.com
>>
>> "Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Is [Edit and Continue] a worthwhile feature?
>>>
>>> I've lived just fine without it for years... don't see much value in
>>> using it. Am I missing something?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:08:49 -0700, "Jeremy" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>But things would periodically go wrong - thereby wasting much more time than
>the feature was intended to save. Furthermore, assuming that it now "works as
>advertised" it seems that changing a line of code while the application is
>running might cause unknown (even unpredictable) conseqeunces.

I'm curious as to what types of problems you ran into.

Jonathan Wood <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Why not?
>
> While debugging your code, you might see a line you want to change before
> executing it. You can make the change and restart the program, or just edit
> and continue. Which would you prefer?

Restart the program - otherwise I can't be sure that my change won't
have affected anything I've already done.

Of course, with a good battery of unit tests, "restart the program"
actually means "rerun the test" which I'd be doing anyway.

--
Jon Skeet - <(E-Mail Removed)>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

Jonathan Wood <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I very rarely use it. But on those rare occasions, it can be nice. But,
> frankly, I just don't see any downside to it.

The potential downside I see is that it encourages "development by
tinkering" - fix this particular problem, but don't bother checking
that nothing else is broken. I believe there are developers who write
more code in the debugger than not.

Now, this could be a myth, and it can certainly be avoided just by
being disciplined about when you use it. I *can* see E&C being useful
when trying different ways of presenting a UI - but I wouldn't want to
use it for fixing bugs.

--
Jon Skeet - <(E-Mail Removed)>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

I agree. I think there is a possibility that it can breed complacency.
I think it can be used in moderation, but as Jon said, only for small
UI or similar situations. You don't want to rely on E&C. Its good that
its been absent for a few years, and I personally don't use it at all.

Jon, got any really good resources on unit testing in .NET ?
They're going to push Nunit on us at work and I want to be completely
prepared.
I have never before developed from a test-driven approach. I understand
the basic concepts of writing testable methods, but only the basics
mind you.
I'm sure there are lots of resources available that a Google would
find, but I want to know what YOU recommend.

Cheers,
Steven


Jon wrote:
> Jonathan Wood <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > Why not?
> >
> > While debugging your code, you might see a line you want to change before
> > executing it. You can make the change and restart the program, or just edit
> > and continue. Which would you prefer?
>
> Restart the program - otherwise I can't be sure that my change won't
> have affected anything I've already done.
>
> Of course, with a good battery of unit tests, "restart the program"
> actually means "rerun the test" which I'd be doing anyway.
>
> --
> Jon Skeet - <(E-Mail Removed)>
> http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
> If replying to the group, please do not mail me too