The article describes some observations concerning changes in the infrastructure of tools used by programmers in everyday work. First of all, these changes are related to the release of Visual Studio 2010.

1. Changes in programmer tools'
infrastructure
Author: Andrey Karpov
Date: 26.04.2010
Abstract
The article describes some observations concerning changes in the infrastructure of tools used by
programmers in everyday work. First of all, these changes are related to the release of Visual Studio
2010.
Introduction
A set of tools used by developers is regularly updated. Some absolutely new tools appear, others
become obsolete and some others stop being developed and are displaced with more perfect
analogues. It is rather interesting to watch this process and I decided to share some of my latest
observations in this sphere with you.
I would like to notice right away that I stick to the viewpoint that the fewer diverse tools one uses, the
better. I am ready to be criticized for minimalism in functionality. My viewpoint is disputable but still has
the right to exist.
Automated testing
Some functionality, that has been earlier available only in third-party tools, is gradually moving into
development environments, in particular Visual Studio. But in the mind of developers, this functionality
is still associated only with third-party tools. For example, consider the system of automated testing of
user application interface that appeared in Visual Studio 2010 Premium/Ultimate which lets you avoid
such tools as AutomatedQA TestComplete or Borland SilkTest in many cases.
Please do not get me wrong. I in no way persuade you to refuse using an existing test base and hurry to
move to the testing system integrated into Visual Studio 2010. And I by no means want to persuade you
to use it. TestComplete is one of the most powerful commercial products intended for automation of
software testing. But if you use Visual Studio 2010 and have to decide what automated testing system to
choose for the new project, I think you should not go very far. If you do not need specific features during
testing, you will not have to buy and employ additional systems besides Visual Studio 2010.
We use the user interface testing system of Visual Studio to test the PVS-Studio interface. We were
concentrated more on testing internal units before, but as the interface component was developing, we
faced the task of moving from manual testing to automated testing. However, our demands are rather
modest and we are content that we have chosen the testing system of Visual Studio. Figures 1 and 2
show some windows of the Visual Studio testing system while working.

3. Figure 1 - Writing of user's actions in Visual Studio

5. Figure 2 - The tree of controls in Visual Studio
The conclusion is it is useful to study the innovations in the toolkit you are already using. If your
demands to testing lie within the standards, perhaps you will find the functionality of Visual Studio quite
enough when developing new projects. Therefore, the number of entities (tools) you have to deal with
will not rise - and this is always good.
Code editor
Like with testing, it is the same with the assistant - Visual Assist. I remember how good it was to work
with it when we used Visual Studio 6.0. But many people say that this tool is useful without knowing or
noticing the contemporary capabilities of the latest Visual Studio versions. Most of the features I
appreciated in Visual Assist have been gradually implemented in Visual Studio. Beginning with Visual
Studio 2008, I understood that I could well do without Visual Assist and stopped using it. As Visual
Studio 2010 was released, Visual Assist became absolutely irrelevant for me.
I agree that Visual Assist has some functions that will never be included into Visual Studio. And I am sure
that somebody might find these functions very important or simply convenient and useful. There are a
lot of people for whom Visual Assist does not become less important at all but grows even more

6. indispensable. But personally I used very few features and did not need more. Now these needs are
quite satisfied with Visual Studio environment. Let me show you some examples arming myself with
Visual Studio 2010.
There is the function of syntax paint. Though it is not so colorful as in Visual Assist, it is still rather
pleasant and sufficient for me. If take into account the underlining of syntactical errors, it is just quite
good (see Figure 3).
Figure 3 - Highlighting of code in Visual Studio 2010 and underlining of incorrect constructs
The help system of function parameter prompting and name prompting by the first characters of name
works quite well (see Figures 4 and 5):
Figure 4 - Function parameter prompting in Visual Studio 2010

7. Figure 5 - Function name prompting in Visual Studio 2010
There is also a feature I actually lacked for without Visual Assist. It is file name prompting. Visual Studio
2010 now has this feature (see Figure 6).

8. Figure 6 - Integrated file name prompting in Visual Studio 2010
Visual Assist helped me find my way even in a very badly edited code when it was necessary to
understand where brackets open and close. Visual Studio 2010 now also provides this function
highlighting matching parentheses as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 - Highlighting of matching parentheses in Visual Studio 2010

9. I find the Visual Studio 2010 code editor quite satisfying. Perhaps you will also look at this editor of
Visual Studio in a new way.
Static analysis
When speaking of static analysis of C++ code, programmers often have an association like this: "These
are some tools like lint that have command-line interface and are obsolete nowadays". Let us make it
out how this idea has appeared. I will not speak about companies and mature development processes
where static analysis was used before, is being used now and will be used in future. But most developers
use immature processes. One should not be ashamed of it - it is the drawback of organizations not
programmers. For them, a static analyzer is rather an exotic thing than an everyday tool integrated into
the development process.
C is a language that requires much accuracy and attention from the programmer because its own
control over actions performed in the code is very weak. A more dangerous language is rather only
assembler. Because of this, static code analysis tools appeared of which lint is the most famous
representative. This tool and all the other similar ones have been used rather widely due to the absence
of alternative means to detect errors at the stage of coding. They were relevant for the cycles of
development of programs with any maturity level.
The new language C++ has become much safer due to a stricter level of control over types and other
innovations. Compilers for C and C++ started to generate warnings on many potentially dangerous
constructs. They have actually undertaken the functions of existing static analyzers, and the latter
became less popular. Many refused to use the additional analysis level provided by third-party tools at
that moment.
However, static analyzers have not become obsolete at all. They have learned to detect many kinds of
errors referring to object-oriented programming, warn the programmer about incorrect use of libraries
(for example, Qt) and even find errors in parallel programs. The conclusion is static analyzers, as before,
let the programmer greatly reduce costs at the stage of testing and maintenance. What is good,
nowadays these are usually not separate tools but units integrating into the development environment.
I would like to point out that it is the opinion itself that static analyzers are command-line solutions
which is obsolete. Static analyzers are contemporary tools that greatly supplement standard capabilities
of the compiler and other tools of improving software quality.
For an example, let us again look at Visual Studio. Beginning with Visual Studio 2005, the Team System
version includes a generally-purpose subsystem of static analysis Code Analysis. Although this system is
an extension, it is tightly integrated into the environment and working with its diagnostic warnings is the
same as with messages generated by the compiler (see Figure 8).

11. Figure 8 - Settings tab in Code Analysis in Visual Studio 2010
There is another type of static analyzers - specialized analyzers. For example, it is PVS-Studio analyzer
we are developing which also tightly integrates into Visual Studio (see Figure 9) and allows you to detect
many errors in 64-bit and OpenMP programs.
bit

13. Figure 9 - Integration of PVS-Studio into Visual Studio 2010
Contemporary static analyzers are user friendly programs that may be operated both by professionals
and beginners.

14. Dynamic analysis
When speaking of a dynamic analyzer to search for errors of memory operation, first of all, everybody
remembers about the tool DevPartner BoundsChecker Suite. But I would like to restrain the ardor of its
supporters and those who recommend it in forums. Surely, it has been a great and indispensable tool
during a long time. Unfortunately, this project is not being developed now and is quickly becoming
obsolete. For example, BoundsChecker does not support Win64 applications. It can be launched in the
64-bit environment and check 32-bit applications but it cannot work with 64-bit applications. Here is a
quotation from the booklet: "DevPartner Studio supports 32-bit application development on 64-bit
Windows (WOW 64)".
A lag like this is not permitted for testing tools. Fortunately, BoundsChecker and other dynamic analysis
tools have been replaced with a new titan it is best to focus on. We speak about the tool Intel Parallel
Inspector included into Intel Parallel Studio.
Intel Parallel Studio integrates into Visual Studio (see Figure 10) and adds the function of checking
memory and thread operations. Checking memory in Intel Parallel Inspector includes check of memory
leak, detection of pointers referring to a remote object, detection of operations with uninitialized
variables. Intel Parallel Inspector allows you to detect use of incorrect references to memory chunks,
controls the stack and so on. Thread testing includes check of race conditions, mutexes, call stack
analysis with adjustable depth.

15. Figure 10 - Setting the diagnosis level in Intel Parallel Inspector
What is the most pleasant, you can analyze programs built both with Intel C++ and Visual C++. There is
also support for Win32 and Win64 software analysis. Intel Parallel Studio is being stably developed, it is
not very expensive and you may safely use it for long terms.
Summary
The infrastructure of programmer tools is constantly changing. You may both find new, more
convenient, solutions and stop using some obsolete ones (if they are not developed anymore). By the
way, there are special workers (and even departments) in large companies whose only work is to watch
the development of the tools being used in the development process.