Chapter 2. The Visual Studio IDE and MEF

This release of Visual Studio sees the IDE overhauled and much of it rewritten using WPF and managed code. The move to WPF allows Microsoft to make some stunning aesthetic additions to the IDE, and also opens up customization possibilities when combined with the new Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF).

Microsoft's use of WPF for a flagship product such as Visual Studio is important, as this demonstrates its commitment to the framework and confidence in its maturity.

In this chapter I will begin by looking at some of the new productivity enhancements in VS2010. I will then create a code snippet and customize the start page. Finally I will introduce MEF and take a look at some of the advanced customizations ...

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