2.4. Customization of IDE

VS2010 allows you to create much more advanced customizations than changing the start page or creating snippets. VS2010 has been written from the ground up for extensibility and customization.

  • Screens have been rewritten in WPF and managed code.

  • The IDE API has been refactored for easier use.

  • The IDE API is fully documented.

  • New immutable text snapshots make it easier to obtain accurate snapshots of the text editor.

Many areas of the IDE can be overridden by creating a MEF component (I will talk about MEF shortly).

So, what can you customize? VS2010 allows you to customize the following areas, among other things:

  • Margins and scrollbars

  • Tags

  • Adornments (items painted on the editor surface)

  • Mouse processors

  • Drop handlers

  • Options ...

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