debugging big projects in vb

[Guest]

We are considering to convert a vb6 project to vb.net.
This project has over 300 windows forms. One of our concern is that in
vs.net whenever we make any change in a form of the project, and hit F5 to
run it, the debugger compiles everything in the project before executing the
project. This is a nightmare for development. It takes very long. Is there
a way to make vs.net not compile everything and only compile the forms that
we visit, like in vb6.

 

[Brian Henry]

why is that a nightmare?all professional development in C++ and such compile
this way and they have very large applications generally. that is how real
software development works, you do a full compile. However, .NET does
incremental compiles. You do a full build once, but then if you make a
change to one form, incremental compile will look for what has changed and
compile the changes. It's not as bad as you may think it to be.

 

[Scott M.]

The incremental build only occurs if you choose "Build" from the "Build"
menu. If you don't, a "Re-Build" will occur.

 

[Brian Henry]

the point is that you still can do an incremental build

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

We are considering to convert a vb6 project to vb.net.
This project has over 300 windows forms. One of our concern is that in
vs.net whenever we make any change in a form of the project, and hit F5 to
run it, the debugger compiles everything in the project before executing
the
project.

Notice that incremental build was not supported for VB.NET 2002.

In addition to the other comments, make sure that "Project" -> "Properties
of <project name>..." -> "Configuration settings" -> "Optimizations" -> [X]
"Use incremental build" is checked.

 

[Scott M.]

But not when hitting F5, which was the point of the question.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

But not when hitting F5, which was the point of the question.

I doubt that this is true. Hitting F5, for example, doesn't recreate the
executable if there were no changes made to the code in the meantime. I
didn't extensively play around with the "incremental build" project setting,
but I assume that if the setting is checked an incremental build will be
done when pressing F5.

 

[Scott M.]

Yes, you are right Herfried. I did not know this feature had been added
automatically to 2003.

We are considering to convert a vb6 project to vb.net.
This project has over 300 windows forms. One of our concern is that in
vs.net whenever we make any change in a form of the project, and hit F5
to
run it, the debugger compiles everything in the project before executing
the
project.

Notice that incremental build was not supported for VB.NET 2002.

In addition to the other comments, make sure that "Project" -> "Properties
of <project name>..." -> "Configuration settings" -> "Optimizations" ->
[X] "Use incremental build" is checked.

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Windtunnel,

Did you know that you can with right clicking on a project file temporaly
exclude it from your project.

And than divide your project in folders, and than exclude a folder.

Maybe this helps

Cor

 

[Guest]

Herfried, what does the "Enable Optimizations" mean (it's the line just above
the "incremental Compile" radio button?

We are considering to convert a vb6 project to vb.net.
This project has over 300 windows forms. One of our concern is that in
vs.net whenever we make any change in a form of the project, and hit F5 to
run it, the debugger compiles everything in the project before executing
the
project.

Notice that incremental build was not supported for VB.NET 2002.

In addition to the other comments, make sure that "Project" -> "Properties
of <project name>..." -> "Configuration settings" -> "Optimizations" -> [X]
"Use incremental build" is checked.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Herfried, what does the "Enable Optimizations" mean (it's the line just
above
the "incremental Compile" radio button?

Visual Basic Compiler Options -- '/optimize'
<URL:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/vblr7/html/valrfOptimizeEnabledisableOptimizations.asp>