NewTech has created a free essential add-in for VS.NET. This new VS.NET productivity tool from NewTech has improved upon the VB Add Procedure dialog just as we did before for Visual Basic 5 and 6.

Overview

In the past developers were always annoyed by the lack of features in the Add Procedure dialog, such as the inability to specify arguments or even data types for the return value of a function. This is no longer a problem when using the NewTech Enhanced Add Procedure Dialog as users now have far more features available than they had before. At procedure creation time, you are well aware of the datatype you desire for the procedure, as well as the number, name, and datatype of all arguments into the procedure. The time to define these items is when you define the procedure!!

Below is a screen shot of the first version of the NewTech Enhanced Add Procedure Dialog for VS.NET. Notice the new features available such as the ability to specify arguments, data types for properties and the new access modifiers for VB.NET.

Download this free addin, and leverage advanced productivity features—saving time.

At procedure definition, AUTOMATICALLY get these facilities:

• Specify Function and Sub return value datatype
• Specify number of parameters, parameter names, and datatypes
• For Property Procedures, specify Get() and Let() datatypes
• For Property Procedures, specify Read or Write-only
• Generates code to support Read-only and Write-only Property Procs
• Optionally inserts mouse-handling code (waitcursor)

Compare the Enhanced Add Procedure Dialog for VB.NET to this screen shot of the old version of the Add Procedure dialog. The differences are dramatic to say the least. The current VB.NET Add Procedure Dialog has minimal functionality. (We are being polite.)

Code generated with the current VB.NET Add-Procedure facility must be edited by hand. That means you are not done when you click ‘OK’ and you have more work to do—very tedious, annoying, and unnecessary!!

One last item to compare, below is a listing for code generated by the Enhanced Add Procedure Dialog for VS.NET versus the old Add Procedure dialog from VB6.

This is a small, trivial example that shows how the NewTech version literally completes your coding job. Productivity gains are much more dramatic when coding Property Procedures, which require coding for read-only and write-only properties. This tool handles that for you—automatically. Once again, the differences are quite dramatic—in this case, the generated code from the Enhanced Dialog is complete and needs no further editing.

Below is a link to download the Microsoft installer (MSI) file to intall the NewTech Enhanced Add Procedure Dialog Add-In on your machine. If you have questions, concerns or comments about the product please contact us here.

Download the NewTech Enhanced Add Procedure Dialog (20MB Zip)