Announcement: VSXtra Shifts to a New Implementation Phase

After five month of preparation I have decided that I move VSXtra project from its experimental state to a new implementation state. You may wonder what it really means. This blog is about to explain you the details.

Till this time I communicated VSXtra is an experimental project, because the main focus was about creating patterns helping Developer Experience related to Visual Studio Extensibility, first of all VSPackage development. During this period I neglected the standard elements of a real production project: I did not use unit tests, I did not create developers’ documents about the project internals or getting started documents, etc. However, I took care about the implementation of the DX patterns in VSXtra; I did not take care about checking if the code is robust enough, I put all types in a single namespace.

Moving to a new implementation state does mean that VSXtra leaves this experimental phase, from this point I will put emphasize on the important implementation elements neglected during the experimental phase.

This shift will change the project in the following ways:

—  The names and structure of types used will be redesigned

—  I start adding unit tests to the project

—  Robustness of the implementation will get focus

—  More samples will be added

—  Developers’ documentation will be established

—  Getting started documentation is to be created

—  VSXtra features will be documented in a more detailed way

—  Task, bugs and issues will be kept on-line

—  A kit will be created for contributors, as I look for new contributors in the project

Of course, these changes will have some drawbacks:

—  If you used VSXtra in your code, you may need to change your code due to the name and structure changes.

—  The price of more tested and robust code is that I will go on a bit slower with new features than in the experimental phase of the project

I hope, you will find the advantages of this shift more important:

—  I’ll be able to contribute with others (even with you) developing VSXtra

—  The quality of the code will be better, and thoroughly tested

—  There will be documentation to help you start with VSXtra

I hope in a few weeks you can see the first results.