Well, live and learn. This was an interesting day. I am working on a little project right now, can’t really discuss details, and quite frankly it is nothing that I am going to be too proud of once it is done. But this is not the point. I had to do some minor IO work with this and this is when I found that instead of doing stuff like:

try
{
if ((sLineIn = _srCfMCCSV.ReadLine()) == null)
//do stuff here
}catch(){}

I can simply do

File.ReadAllLines();


I guess I was stuck on .Net 1.3 for so long, I completely skipped 2.x and now 3.5 is full of surprises. I know I am behind times, need to catch up soon. Gone to do some reading.

When it comes to development, IDE is an important part of the process. Some people still use some sort of a text editor to do all their coding, and I applaud them for it. I on the other hand am not a big proponent of typing out all your namespaces / commands / functions, nor am I capable of memorizing all the functions that are available in a language, so I use IDE. Since I am coding C# mostly, I am using Visual Studio. I have to admit – I love Visual Studio, especially with ReSharper (I don’t work for JetBrains, I just simply love this tool) added to the mix. I also have to say for the last 5 years I have not been using desktop to do my coding. I am addicted to laptops, and my boss have been kind enough to always providing me the newest and most powerful laptop budget can allow. This is why I love the idea of not using your mouse, after all, Visual Studio does come with a great deal of keyboard shortcuts, so why not use it?Below is a list of the keyboard shortcuts I use:

Building

• Ctrl + Shift + B or simply F6 – compiles your solution.
• Shift + F6 – compiles current project

Debugging:

• Ctrl + D, C – Display Call Stack window
• Ctrl + D, I – Display Immediate window
• Ctrl + F5 – Start without debugging
• F9 – Set or remove breakpoint
• Ctrl + D, W – display Watch window

Editing:

• Ctrl + M, O – Collapse regions
• Ctrl + K, F – Format selection

For a quick reminder of the keyboard shortcuts see:

C# keyboard shortcuts
Vb.Net keyboard shortcuts