In addition to the extra code navigation features introduced in JustCode 2012 Q2 SP2 (as documented in this post), the development team has improved the support for Visual Studio Themes. In support of the new “Modern” user interface in VS2012, JustCode focused on four main areas:
- General User Interface (tool windows, popups, dialogs)
- Options Pages
- Visual Aid
- Code Colorization
General User Interface
The new Modern (formerly called “Metro”) interface in Visual Studio comes with two default themes – dark and light. Additionally, there is a new extension available for Visual Studio, called the “Visual Studio 2012 Color Theme Editor”, and JustCode has been updated to work with the additional themes available through the extension as well as the themes that you can make yourself. In short, if your theme looks good, the JustCode windows and VS integration points will look good! Images 1-5 show different screen shots of JustCode Visual Studio integration with the different default themes as well as themes available from the Theme extension.
Image 1 – JustCode tool windows with Blue Theme
Image 2 – JustCode tool windows with Light Theme
Image 3 – JustCode tool windows with Red Theme
Image 4 – JustCode tool windows with Dark Theme
Image 5 – JustCode tool windows with Green Theme
Options Pages
It always seems like Options and Settings pages get left behind when updating visual preferences. Not so with JustCode! We’ve made sure that all of JustCode’s screens follow the selected theme. Images 6-7 show examples with the Dark and Light themes selected.
Image 6 – JustCode options with Dark Theme
Image 7 – JustCode options with Light Theme
JustCode Visual Aid
The JustCode Visual Aid provides quick access to JustCode features like code generation, refactoring, navigation, and testing. When I am working with Visual Studio and editing or writing code, I constantly interact with the Visual Aid dialogs, and if these didn’t match the selected theme, it would be a bit of an eyesore. Fortunately, these dialogs look just as good as your selected theme! Images 8 - 10 show the Visual Aid dialogs with different themes.
Image 8 – JustCode Visual Aid dialog with Dark Theme
Image 9 – JustCode Visual Aid dialog with Light Theme
Image 10 – JustCode Visual Aid dialog with random colors
Code Colorization
JustCode colorizes identifiers for constants, events, fields, etc. These can all be customized from the Visual Studio Options pages as in Image 11. We’ve extended the colored identifiers with some new colors, designed especially for the dark theme. Images 12 and 13 show how the new colors look in the dark themes with Code Colorization.
Image 11 – JustCode Colorization Customization
Image 12 – Code Colorization with JustCode Dark Theme
Image 13 – Code Colorization with VS2012 Dark Theme
Summary
For those of us that spend a lot of time in Visual Studio editing or reading code, it’s vital for the editors and dialogs to be easy on the eyes. Some people prefer a dark theme, some people prefer a light theme, and some prefer to make up their own (maybe based on their favorite sports team colors ). Regardless of how you want Visual Studio 2012 to look, JustCode will look just as good!
Happy Coding!
About the author
Philip Japikse
| Philip Japikse an international speaker, a Microsoft MVP, INETA Community Champion, MCSD, CSM/ CSP, and a passionate member of the developer community, Phil Japikse has been working with .Net since the first betas, developing software for over 20 years, and heavily involved in the agile community since 2005. Phil works as a Developer Evangelist for Telerik's RadControls for Windows 8 as well as the Just family of products (JustCode, JustMock, JustTrace, and JustDecompile) and hosts the Zero To Agile podcast (www.telerik.com/zerotoagile). Phil is also the Lead Director for the Cincinnati .Net User’s Group (http://www.cinnug.org). You can follow Phil on twitter via www.twitter.com/skimedic and read his personal blog at www.skimedic.com/blog. |