Edited by jwezorek, 01 December 2012 - 11:25 AM.
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Does anyone *not* hate VS 2012's UI?
Started by jwezorek, Dec 01 2012 11:23 AM
18 replies to this topic
#1 Crossbones+ - Reputation: 1375
Posted 01 December 2012 - 11:23 AM
Just installed Visual Studio 2012 at work on Friday, and I'd just like to say -- and I'm not someone who is big on complaining about this kind of stuff i.e. I generally like shiny new UIs with pretty graphics etc. -- that I don't think I've ever hated a user interface to anything more. I mean I just don't get it. Anyway, after googling "visual studio 2012 ugly" it seems that this is a pretty common reaction. Was wondering if anyone actually likes it?
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#3 Members - Reputation: 2059
Posted 01 December 2012 - 12:08 PM
I don't hate the VS2012 UI, but I'm not a fan either. I can get everything done just as fast as I could with VS2010, and that's good enough for me.
I did change the colour scheme to the dark variant though, the light theme really started to be a strain on the eyes after a while.
I did change the colour scheme to the dark variant though, the light theme really started to be a strain on the eyes after a while.
#6 Members - Reputation: 1301
Posted 01 December 2012 - 05:27 PM
VS2012 with the dark theme and the all-caps menu disabled actually looks better than VS2010, in my opinion. In fact, VS actually looks to me like it was designed to run like that. Maybe I just like dark colour schemes.
Edited by Oberon_Command, 01 December 2012 - 05:28 PM.
#7 Members - Reputation: 625
Posted 01 December 2012 - 07:24 PM
I love VS2012 UI. By the way, here's how you disable all-caps.
An invisible text.
#9 Members - Reputation: 3515
Posted 01 December 2012 - 11:51 PM
I think there is as much to love as there is to hate. Why would you have to edit the registry to fix the all caps menu?
IMO, you shouldn't be touching the registry manually to begin with, MS of all people should know better. Especially for a setting that everyone will want to change the second they open the app up.
IMO, you shouldn't be touching the registry manually to begin with, MS of all people should know better. Especially for a setting that everyone will want to change the second they open the app up.
#10 Members - Reputation: 1942
Posted 02 December 2012 - 12:09 AM
At first, I hated it. Then I realized that 99% of the time, I'm looking at the code and can't even see the menus and solution explorer. The code looks identical. So I don't really care anymore. That said, first impressions are very important, and hopefully the VS team spends some time making it look nicer in the next release.
On the plus side, 2012 Express finally includes the built-in unit testing system, AND lets me mix C# and C++ like the previous paid versions. Woot!
On the plus side, 2012 Express finally includes the built-in unit testing system, AND lets me mix C# and C++ like the previous paid versions. Woot!
Edited by Nypyren, 02 December 2012 - 12:18 AM.
#11 Members - Reputation: 2908
Posted 02 December 2012 - 01:19 AM
Try the dark theme, the majority of people that dislike the stock theme much prefer dark, and some of them even like it better than VS2010's default. I don't find it much of a distraction myself, but I've had awhile to get used to it.
And if the caps menus bother you, you can do the registry tweak, just be careful about it.
And if the caps menus bother you, you can do the registry tweak, just be careful about it.
#13 Members - Reputation: 4028
Posted 02 December 2012 - 10:58 AM
The UI is bad but it's not a deal-breaker. For me the toolbar buttons are nowhere near as important as the Solution Explorer icons, and the inability to visually distinguish between different types of item there without a second, more careful, look is a major minus point but something I expect I'd eventually get used to.
Far worse is a general feeling of sluggishness in the code editor window. That's something that also affected 2010, with 2008 being the last version that was quite nippy.
All-caps menus are something that actually look OK on many products - Office 2013 doesn't suffer on account of using them, and it's easy to see the benefit there. That seems to indicate that they're not a good choice for traditional menu/toolbar oriented apps.
Personally I fail to see the need to update the UI of a tool like VS in this manner. Feature discovery and being able to quickly get at the commands you need to use are more important than visual consistency and any notions of "energy".
Far worse is a general feeling of sluggishness in the code editor window. That's something that also affected 2010, with 2008 being the last version that was quite nippy.
All-caps menus are something that actually look OK on many products - Office 2013 doesn't suffer on account of using them, and it's easy to see the benefit there. That seems to indicate that they're not a good choice for traditional menu/toolbar oriented apps.
Personally I fail to see the need to update the UI of a tool like VS in this manner. Feature discovery and being able to quickly get at the commands you need to use are more important than visual consistency and any notions of "energy".
It appears that the gentleman thought C++ was extremely difficult and he was overjoyed that the machine was absorbing it; he understood that good C++ is difficult but the best C++ is well-nigh unintelligible.
#14 Members - Reputation: 110
Posted 05 December 2012 - 12:18 AM
Just installed Visual Studio 2012 at work on Friday, and I'd just like to say -- and I'm not someone who is big on complaining about this kind of stuff i.e. I generally like shiny new UIs with pretty graphics etc. -- that I don't think I've ever hated a user interface to anything more. I mean I just don't get it. Anyway, after googling "visual studio 2012 ugly" it seems that this is a pretty common reaction. Was wondering if anyone actually likes it?
Afer VS 2008, it all went to crap. Latest versions of Visual Studio are too slow and ugly for me.
Opening property sheets just to configure something are too slow. And those Intellisense files get
bigger and bigger every release. They create huge, bloated files.
#15 Members - Reputation: 658
Posted 05 December 2012 - 09:20 AM
Intellisense got overhauled for 2012.Afer VS 2008, it all went to crap. Latest versions of Visual Studio are too slow and ugly for me.
Opening property sheets just to configure something are too slow. And those Intellisense files get
bigger and bigger every release. They create huge, bloated files.
#16 Members - Reputation: 1012
Posted 05 December 2012 - 09:53 AM
My only wish is that I could make the intellisense files go to a customizable path. It stinks when you have to find it and delete it every time you want to share your source code and project files, or copy it all a file at a time by hand.
Also, while it was an eye-shock at first, I kind of like the UI - once you get into programming it really stays out of your way, and when I do need to use it, I've actually found most features easier to locate than before. Maybe it is because I am working on a laptop with a pixel resolution height of 768? I don't know. But it's nice to me
Also, while it was an eye-shock at first, I kind of like the UI - once you get into programming it really stays out of your way, and when I do need to use it, I've actually found most features easier to locate than before. Maybe it is because I am working on a laptop with a pixel resolution height of 768? I don't know. But it's nice to me
#17 Members - Reputation: 456
Posted 05 December 2012 - 10:43 AM
I agree. To automate the deletion you can install cygwin and then execute this:My only wish is that I could make the intellisense files go to a customizable path. It stinks when you have to find it and delete it every time you want to share your source code and project files, or copy it all a file at a time by hand.
find . -name "*.sdf" -exec rm {} \;
Another (actually nicer) way is to use a version control system and not to check in those files. All you have to do to get a clean version is to check out your repo and zip that.
*raises hand* I actually like the new UI (in the dark theme). The only thing I found very annoying is the all-caps menu bar (but it's fixed now, thanks to regedit).Does anyone *not* hate VS 2012's UI?
Edited by brx, 05 December 2012 - 10:47 AM.
#18 Crossbones+ - Reputation: 996
Posted 05 December 2012 - 11:12 AM
I don't hate it, I kind off like it actually. I hid the main menu and am using the blue theme though. What I do in all versions: hide the horizontal scroll- and status bar, display line numbers and put solution explorer on auto hide. This increases amount of code visible on screen significantly.
I also like how single clicking in the solution window opens a temporary tab, same goes for when you jump to function definitions and searching through a solution. Double clicking opens the file and now leaves the solution explorer shown, I like this change as well.
My only dislike is the stupid intellisense, I'm used to Visual Assist X, which is better at picking stuff that makes sense. Auto completion behaviour seems weird as well, I'm used to pressing the return key for completion, but Visual Studio sometimes doesn't have an item selected from the list which results in a newline -.-'.
I also like how single clicking in the solution window opens a temporary tab, same goes for when you jump to function definitions and searching through a solution. Double clicking opens the file and now leaves the solution explorer shown, I like this change as well.
My only dislike is the stupid intellisense, I'm used to Visual Assist X, which is better at picking stuff that makes sense. Auto completion behaviour seems weird as well, I'm used to pressing the return key for completion, but Visual Studio sometimes doesn't have an item selected from the list which results in a newline -.-'.
Edited by Mussi, 05 December 2012 - 11:12 AM.
#19 Members - Reputation: 101
Posted 13 December 2012 - 12:10 AM
I just want Ctlf+F to pop up the old style search dialog.
If I missed someone providing this information already I apologize, but you can do a CTRL+SHIFT+F to search the entire solution and it uses the familiar dialog you are looking for. At least, it does for me.
