Practical Code Generation in .NET: Covering Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010 (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series) Review

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Practical Code Generation in .NET: Covering Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010 (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series) ReviewWhen it comes to code generation I have seen the worst of the worst and some really cool implementations.
The worst was on a large government project. The consulting firm created a custom code generator that created every layer of the 5 layer application. In truth, the only reason the project was so large was because of the effort that went into the implementation and maintenance of the code generation application. As time went on the firm lost all control of the relationship between the generated code and the application that created it. Maintenance teams needed to be in place for both the production code and the generation tool. Needless to say a ton of money was wasted on the project.
The best was the use of the GAT and GAX tools to put code generation tools in place to support a Software Product Line Engineering project. The tools generated project shells, added different components based on wizard selection, built configuration files, and included item level recipes. The code generation tools didn't attempt to control the application implementation, it only enhanced it. It was used to increase productivity and help enforce consistency.
I was glad to find that the author does not attempt to implement a grandiose code generation monstrosity like the consulting firm did in my first example. He actually does a really great job of warning the reader to not go overboard with code generation.
The book covers Visual Studio Add-ins, generating code with the CodeModel, FileCodeModel, VsWebsite, and VSLangProj, generating solutions and projects, modifying text in the code editorT4 Templates, item templates, and attributes.
The book ends with 3 sizable case studies. They include Generating a Connection String Manager, Generating Validation Code, and Generating Data-Conversion Code. You can read Generating a Connection String Manager on the informIT web site.
The biggest let down I found with this book is the downloadable code. The author has 2 of the case studies available for download, but does not have sample per chapter available. You also need to install DSL Toolkit to get the Generating Data-Conversion Code project to load in Visual Studio 2008, but it didn't load in Visual Studio 2010.
One of the things I like the most about the book is that the author really shows you how to take advantage of existing tools and libraries that are intended to be used for code generation. In the large government project I mentioned above, they re-invented every size wheel you can think of. Everything was done from scratch and did not take advantage of any of the framework tools.
Over all I would recommend this book to anyone interested in code generation with the .NET framework and Visual Studio. It will definately get you moving in the right direction.Practical Code Generation in .NET: Covering Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010 (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series) Overview"Once this skill is within your everyday comfort zone, it will give your productivity a boost and increase your value to your team. I encourage you to add the techniques outlined in this book to your toolset and to use them to develop your own workbench of generative tools. In doing so, I'm confident you'll improve your capabilities, and what's more, have fun doing so."–From the Foreword by Gareth Jones, Developer Architect, Visual Studio®, MicrosoftEnlist Visual Studio's Built-in Code Generation Tools to Write Better Software Faster Automatic code generation can dramatically increase your productivity, improve code quality and maintainability, promote reuse, and help you extend best practices throughout your development organization. .NET and Visual Studio contain many powerful, code-generation tools--and this book shows you how to succeed with all of them. With Practical Code Generation in .NET, spend less time writing monotonous, repetitive code--leaving more time to address troublesome areas! Microsoft MVP Peter Vogel covers code generation with Visual Studio 2010, 2008, and 2005, as well as all recent versions of .NET, including .NET 4.0. You'll learn when enlisting code generation makes sense and how to design solutions that build on the skills and resources you already have. Writing for experienced programmers, Vogel shows how to generate reliable code using procedural code, Visual Studio add-ins, XML, configuration files, and more--including Microsoft's innovative CodeDOM technology for generating code in multiple languages. He brings everything together in three complete, chapter-length case studies.Coverage includes • Understanding the structure of .NET code-generation solutions and best practices for architecting them• Creating Visual Studio add-ins that quickly integrate code generation into day-to-day activities• Using objects and methods to add or remove project components• Using text insertion to generate code using any tool--even standard string handling functions• Working with the specific features of C#, Visual Basic .NET, and ASP.NET• Generating more concise code with .NET's new Text Template Transformation Toolkit (T4)• Building code-generation solutions with Visual Studio templates, attributes, and custom tools• Distributing code-generation solutions

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