Visual Studio Plug In Idea

October 21st, 2008

Here’s something that we need to improve Visual Studio – a plugin that disables “copy and paste.”  So, instead of violating the DRY principle, you’ll be forced to have to re-type all those methods and classes.  And maybe, while retyping code, you’ll think “man, this sucks.  I wonder if there is a better way?” Perhaps you might think about some of those SOLID principles you read about…anything to save yourself some typing, right?

This wouldn’t apply to cut and paste operations, for obvious reasons.  And actually, copy and paste is a handy refactoring tool, maybe we shouldn’t completely throw it out…  So instead, a copy operation opens a dialog box where you must type in the following: “I solemnly swear that I understand the ramifications of the act that I am about to commit.”  And to make sure that you don’t get too comfortable, you’d have to do some sort of captcha like “orangutan” or “verisimilitude.”

I think this idea is going to be exceedingly popular, and that a company like JetBrains should start working on it as soon as possible.  Yes, it’ll take some getting used to, but just think of how much better our code will be!

Tony Rasa

  • http://www.henkvandijken.nl Henk van Dijken

    Maybe cut and paste should be enhanced with “copy and refactor/paste”. When you want to copy and paste Visual Studio gives the option to refactor it. Probably this will be a feature in Visual Studio 25 or something.

  • Steve

    Don’t forget to disable Ctrl Drag then also :P

  • http://www.tobinharris.com Tobin Harris

    This is a noble cause :)

    What about this option…

    Resharper->Code->Find Duplicate Code and Refactor…

    Or it could be part of the “Clean up code…” command.

  • http://www.elegantcode.com Chris Brandsma

    OK, no problem, just let me know when you plan on implementing that “feature”, and I’ll take a month long vacation.

  • Jason Walker

    You know if you implemented the out, I’d simply have to write a auto hotkey script to fill it in for me. ;)

  • http://www.alvinashcraft.com/2008/10/22/dew-drop-october-22-2008/ Dew Drop – October 22, 2008 | Alvin Ashcraft’s Morning Dew

    [...] Visual Studio Plug In Idea (Tony Rasa) [...]

  • http://elegantcode.com trasa

    @Steve & @Jason – yes a feature like this would trigger an arms-race of hacks and counterhacks ;)

  • http://roy-peled.blogspot.com/ Roy

    You can just remap CTRL-C keys to the REBOOT action.

  • StevePy

    Personally I’d like to build a development workstation that includes a coin slot for a quarter (or 20c piece here in Oz) so that you have to drop in a coin before you’re allowed to comment out code. A timer will start up & count down 30 minutes then you’ll have to insert another coin to keep the code commented out.

    Checking in commented out code may still be offered as an option, but you’ll have to enter a credit card # and you’ll be billed for the duration of the commented out code’s life.

  • http://www.seocompanyseomarketing.com/local-seo/ local seo

    Interesting! I wouldn’t apply to cut and paste operations, for obvious reasons. Thanks!

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