This is originally from Sara's blog.
It also works with almost any version of Visual Studio, you just need to change the "8.0" in the registry key to the appropriate version number for your version of Visual Studio.
The guide line shows up in the Output window too. (Visual Studio 2010 corrects this, and the line only shows up in the code editor window.)
You can also have the guide in multiple columns by listing more than one number after the color specifier:
RGB(230,230,230), 4, 80
Puts a white line at column 4 and column 80. This should be the value of a string value Guides
in "Text Editor" key (see bellow).
Be sure to pick a line color that will be visisble on your background. This color won't show up on the default background color in VS. This is the value for a light grey: RGB(221, 221, 221).
Here are the registry keys that I know of:
Visual Studio 2010: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Text Editor
Visual Studio 2008: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Text Editor
Visual Studio 2005: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Text Editor
Visual Studio 2003: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\Text Editor
For those running Visual Studio 2010, you may want to install the following extensions rather than changing the registry yourself:
These are also part of the Productivity Power Tools, which includes many other very useful extensions.
C# language version history:
These are the versions of C# known about at the time of this writing:
- C# 1.0 released with .NET 1.0 and VS2002 (January 2002)
- C# 1.2 (bizarrely enough); released with .NET 1.1 and VS2003 (April 2003). First version to call
Dispose
on IEnumerator
s which implemented IDisposable
. A few other small features.
- C# 2.0 released with .NET 2.0 and VS2005 (November 2005). Major new features: generics, anonymous methods, nullable types, and iterator blocks
- C# 3.0 released with .NET 3.5 and VS2008 (November 2007). Major new features: lambda expressions, extension methods, expression trees, anonymous types, implicit typing (
var
), and query expressions
- C# 4.0 released with .NET 4 and VS2010 (April 2010). Major new features: late binding (
dynamic
), delegate and interface generic variance, more COM support, named arguments, tuple data type and optional parameters
- C# 5.0 released with .NET 4.5 and VS2012 (August 2012). Major features: async programming, and caller info attributes. Breaking change: loop variable closure.
- C# 6.0 released with .NET 4.6 and VS2015 (July 2015). Implemented by Roslyn. Features: initializers for automatically implemented properties, using directives to import static members, exception filters, element initializers,
await
in catch
and finally
, extension Add
methods in collection initializers.
- C# 7.0 released with .NET 4.7 and VS2017 (March 2017). Major new features: tuples, ref locals and ref return, pattern matching (including pattern-based switch statements), inline
out
parameter declarations, local functions, binary literals, digit separators, and arbitrary async returns.
- C# 7.1 released with VS2017 v15.3 (August 2017). New features: async main, tuple member name inference, default expression, and pattern matching with generics.
- C# 7.2 released with VS2017 v15.5 (November 2017). New features: private protected access modifier, Span<T>, aka interior pointer, aka stackonly struct, and everything else.
- C# 7.3 released with VS2017 v15.7 (May 2018). New features: enum, delegate and
unmanaged
generic type constraints. ref
reassignment. Unsafe improvements: stackalloc
initialization, unpinned indexed fixed
buffers, custom fixed
statements. Improved overloading resolution. Expression variables in initializers and queries. ==
and !=
defined for tuples. Auto-properties' backing fields can now be targeted by attributes.
- C# 8.0 released with .NET Core 3.0 and VS2019 v16.3 (September 2019). Major new features: nullable reference-types, asynchronous streams, indices and ranges, readonly members, using declarations, default interface methods, static local functions, and enhancement of interpolated verbatim strings.
- C# 9.0 released with .NET 5.0 and VS2019 v16.8 (November 2020). Major new features: init-only properties, records, with-expressions, data classes, positional records, top-level programs, improved pattern matching (simple type patterns, relational patterns, logical patterns), improved target typing (target-type
new
expressions, target typed ??
and ?
), and covariant returns. Minor features: relax ordering of ref
and partial
modifiers, parameter null checking, lambda discard parameters, native int
s, attributes on local functions, function pointers, static lambdas, extension GetEnumerator
, module initializers, and extending partial.
In response to the OP's question:
What are the correct version numbers for C#? What came out when? Why can't I find any answers about C# 3.5?
There is no such thing as C# 3.5 - the cause of confusion here is that the C# 3.0 is present in .NET 3.5. The language and framework are versioned independently, however - as is the CLR, which is at version 2.0 for .NET 2.0 through 3.5, .NET 4 introducing CLR 4.0, service packs notwithstanding. The CLR in .NET 4.5 has various improvements, but the versioning is unclear: in some places it may be referred to as CLR 4.5 (this MSDN page used to refer to it that way, for example), but the Environment.Version
property still reports 4.0.xxx.
As of May 3, 2017, the C# Language Team created a history of C# versions and features on their GitHub repository: Features Added in C# Language Versions. There is also a page that tracks upcoming and recently implemented language features.
Best Answer
Visual Studio unit testing intro and TDD: Test-Driven Development with Visual Studio 2008 Unit Tests may be more to what you are wanting to find perhaps.
nUnit's adoption before Microsoft put built-in unit test support is my guess for why the built-in testing abilities are shunned to some extent. nAnt/nUnit and CI tools may be used outside of the Team System that has a substantial cost in some cases I'd think. Though for those open to 3rd party ideas, here are a couple of other examples:
Using NUnit in Visual Studio 2010 may be a blog example that shows you nUnit + VS2010 as it is possible to do that.
Easy Debugging of NUnit Tests from Visual Studio 2008 Professional would be an example for 2008.
By advanced do you mean things like Rhino Mocks?