Visual Studio 11 UI changes

[bkinkel]

Has anyone used the new Visual Studio 11 betas that were released alongside Windows 8 CP last week?

Microsoft has done a lot of work on the UI to allow developers to "focus on their work". Some thoughts on the design decisions can be found on the official Visual Studio Blog. There are also lots of screen shots.

http://blogs.msdn.co...experience.aspx

But Microsoft decided to remove the colors from toolbars and other chrome elements in Visual Studio. And not everybody is happy about it.

http://codebetter.co...k-colors-in-vs/

And here is the thread on Visual Studio feedback forum:

http://visualstudio....-studio-11-beta

I have not yet installed it. So I don't have an opinion one way or the other.

Anyone else use it yet?

[+LogicalApex MVC]

So far I like them, but I haven't yet used it as a primary development environment either.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Yes, I love the dark theme. It's much better than any of the dark themes I could find for VS2010 on the web, and I'm too lazy to make one. Some fonts are not legible in certain circumstances, but hopefully they'll tweak that before release.

I'm a bit put off by the lack of borders around anything, sometimes it's hard to tell where content ends, but it's a minor gripe. Overall the package feels very responsive, the C++ experience is much better with semantic syntax coloring, and the async feature in C# should be immensely useful. I hope they release it this year so I get the Ultimate edition through Dreamspark for free. :)

[Guest glyfz]

The theme is OK, but not an improvement over VS2010. However the icons are absolutely terrible, especially the white versions which like like they were created in MSPaint.

[Dermot]

I installed it with win 8 when i had it installed for about 3 days before i decided to go back to win 7 pro.

The visual studio colour palette is now all grey with new icons, flat and bland like metro.

While it does look clean, it is very boring to look at and can be hard to see icons , specially the small tollbar ones that are all grey also.

I'll stick with visual studio 2010.

[lalalawawawa]

Yes, I love the dark theme. It's much better than any of the dark themes I could find for VS2010 on the web, and I'm too lazy to make one. Some fonts are not legible in certain circumstances, but hopefully they'll tweak that before release.

I'm a bit put off by the lack of borders around anything, sometimes it's hard to tell where content ends, but it's a minor gripe. Overall the package feels very responsive, the C++ experience is much better with semantic syntax coloring, and the async feature in C# should be immensely useful. I hope they release it this year so I get the Ultimate edition through Dreamspark for free. :)

Dreamspark comes with the Professional edition. (VS2010, dunno how it will be for VS11)

Anyways, I love the new look. It certainly makes you focus more on your code.

[Andre S. Veteran]

While it does look clean, it is very boring to look at

I like it boring. I coded for maybe 5 hours with it and I found it easier to focus on the code and more relaxing on the eyes. If I'm going to stare at something 8 hours a day I definitely want it to look bland and dark.

As for the icons, I always found them hard to see even in previous editions of VS, and so I never use them. I use keyboard shortcuts for all the most common operations, and the rest are in menus.

Dreamspark comes with the Professional edition. (VS2010, dunno how it will be for VS11)

I think it's Dreamspark Premium, anyway it's the replacement of MSDNAA, the program for students. I always got the Ultimate editions of VS with it.

[+virtorio MVC]

I use the icon colors to distinguish them apart as I have various vision issues. I can't tell the icons apart with them being back/white unless the use the OS's zoom feature (which I always use to some degree as it is).

Would someone explain how a bland toolbar makes people "focus on their code".

[neufuse Veteran]

The black and white icons are absolutly horrible, they make using VS a lot harder, a lot of use used colors to *QUICKLY* distinquish things, a lot of these new icons you can tell they where really trying to fit detail to makeup for color and it just doesn't work... flat black icons are harder to distinquish over icons that are easily distinquishable in color... black doesn't make things "simplier" hiding commands you don't need for what you are working with like you do with the oh say the RIBBON makes things simplier

[remixedcat]

I like the changes and the dark theme is nice. I though the other style was overwhelming looking and this makes it streamlined.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Would someone explain how a bland toolbar makes people "focus on their code".

It's very simple. In VS11, the only thing that has color is my code, it is therefore the thing that most catches my attention. The bland toolbar is invisible to me unless I purposefully look at it.

Personally I very rarely use any icons; I have all toolbars hidden by default.

[+virtorio MVC]

It's very simple. In VS11, the only thing that has color is my code, it is therefore the thing that most catches my attention. The bland toolbar is invisible to me unless I purposefully look at it.

So, does that mean you have ADD or something? How does a color icon distract you from the rectangle that is the text-editor or form designer?

[Andre S. Veteran]

So, does that mean you have ADD or something? How does a color icon distract you from the rectangle that is the text-editor or form designer?

Color catches the eye more than not color. I don't know how more plainly I can put it for you.

[neufuse Veteran]

Color catches the eye more than not color. I don't know how more plainly I can put it for you.

lack of detail in glyphs makes finding buttons and tasks harder... they gave up a lot of detail for the sake of monotone feel for the IDE... and I have a feeling its not because it's "easier" but because its "metro like" and to fit in with the Win8 UI more just because... I've never had a problem with colors in the text editor... VS2010 was one of the more colorful text editors syntax wise.. and all colors where customizable in VS2010... so if you wanted it darker you could make it and with plug-ins you could change everything else... This seriously feels like they are changing it just to feel like they fit in not helping, because of a lot of very large developers are saying how much they hate the new feel, heck a lot of them also hated the VS2010 blue feel... but its only goten worse with monochrome style glyphs

and dont get me started on dependency graphs and a lot of the architect level tools (the highest end VS products) they went from easy to read colorful diagrams to almost impossible to use charts that are basically black and white and shades of gray that are way to hard to distinguish one type of object from another in

[Dapen]

It does seem like Microsoft are changing some things for the sake of it. I usually like changes and updates but this is terrible. I hope they improve this... ALOT before release, since I spend near 7 hours a day using VS.

[neufuse Veteran]

It does seem like Microsoft are changing some things for the sake of it. I usually like changes and updates but this is terrible. I hope they improve this... ALOT before release, since I spend near 7 hours a day using VS.

I've been working 10+ hr days almost 300 days a year for the past 15 yrs (a massive project that pays very well incase you are wondering why so much) in Visual Studio and this is probably the worst and hardest to use version on my eyes

[firey]

Took me a little bit to transition from 2005 to 2010, but I am really liking how VS2010 pops, I don't like the light on dark look of VS11.

[mbowman]

looks good, will be interesting to have a play with. I get free MS software from my uni so i hope i get this as well!

[ShiZZa]

I've been working 10+ hr days almost 300 days a year for the past 15 yrs (a massive project that pays very well incase you are wondering why so much) in Visual Studio and this is probably the worst and hardest to use version on my eyes

Then I would hope you can run without click on the buttons and use the shortcuts.

[spudtrooper]

Visual studio 2011 looks great to me.. its actually softer on the eyes, instead of blasting white at me all the time. I'm already used to dark theme from expression suite anyway..

[neufuse Veteran]

Then I would hope you can run without click on the buttons and use the shortcuts.

there is a lot more to using a computer then memorizing every shortcut key... most things are done with macros, and when I say buttons and other glyphs I don't mean just things you interact with, there are a ton of images that you use for visual reference that are just horrible looking now in flat black... and shortcut keys don't help with graphs that are 100% visual representations that you need to quickly distinguish items by look only

[Vykranth]

The first extension I installed in Visual Studio 2010 after my recent RRR of my workstation was the theme editor so that I could load the Windows Aero theme as I find the black text on middle grey background difficult on the eyes at the end of the day. I like themes with a good contrast but too aggresive.

I cannot say that I am a big fan of VS 2011 UI from the screenshots around.

That said, there are enough changes under the hood that are of prime interest to me so I am going to try it soon along Windows 8 CP.

If I have to make a theme for VS 2011, I will do one.

If I can modify the icon, that will be also great for me.

[sopharine]

Color catches the eye more than not color. I don't know how more plainly I can put it for you.

That to me explain why Metro is a design failure.