VS2008 silently dies A LOT when working with WPF - wpf

When working in VS2008 (C#) does VS2008 silently crash for anybody when working with WPF? If I touch the XAML it is most likely to crash. I can come back in, clean, then build, then run and it work until I have to touch the XAML again. Then start over again.
It is a solution with about 12 projects in it.
Thanks,
jeff

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=375594
Workaround:
Found real workaround at http://www.dotnet6.com/blogs/wesley_walraeve/archive/2008/10/22/visual-studio-2008-sp1-crashes-toolbox-gt-choose-items.aspx, which was removing TFS Power Commands 2008. Other people have had to remove other things.

SP1 solves a bit of the crashes, but indeed it crashes a lot. Especially when you mix and match winforms + WPF. The crashes alone were a reason to stick with winforms for a while for us ...

I found the problem to be with the AnkhSvn plug-in. I went to a nightlybuild and it is working good now. Anything above 2.0.6110.379.

I and some other people at my company have had a lot of problems when editing a resource dictionary and while a XAML window that uses that resource dictionary is open. Moral of the story, close all XAML windows if you're going to edit a resource dictionary.

We suffer the same problems... I noticed that resharper makes things worse for the WPF editor from time to time...
Ah well.. a daily VS crash keeps the doctor away ?

VS crashes at my computer very often: several times per day when I work with WPF. But usually it stops responding and I don't remember it to crash silently.

I know, it's not nice, but simply cleaning the solution works for me. At least until the next restart of VS, but until then you shouldn't get any crashes.

Related

Visual Studio freezes on breakpoints

Since a week back I'm seeing a very annoying behavior from VS2010:
As I'm debugging a project and the debugger stops on a breakpoint Windows freezes for almost ten seconds. I say "Windows freezes" because the mouse and keyboard are useless during this time period.
The problem only happens as I debug a specific project and I've tried it on two diffrent machines with the same result. The project is WPF and I do hook the keyboard at one point (not the mouse though) but that code hasn't been touched for months while the problem is just a week old.
I did install Telerik's big suite of everything (trial) just before this started to show so my first suspicion was Telerik's VS integration was the culprit. I uninstalled all Telerik VS integrations (the "JustXXX" products) but the problem remain.
I would be very greatful to anyone being abe to give a hint as to what might be going on here.
Thanks
EDIT 1:
I have now tried building a new solution, moving all projects into it but the problem remains.
I then uninstalled everything Telerik, just to make sure, but this also was to no effect.
The next test was to load the exact same solution on a different machine and that did help. That machine has no 3rd party integrations with VS2010 except for reSHarper 6.1.
I have also analyzed the issue bit more and the typical scenario is that the first few times a breakpoint is hit the UI freezes for apeoximately ten seconds. Mouse/keyboard stops responding but the cursor keeps blinking in the code editor. The next few breakpoints does the same and often stepping from one line to another will cause a very long delay (no UI freeze though).
Also, if the first breakpoint is set very early in my application startup code I might not experience the problem. But as I continue to step through the code the debugger becomes more sluggish as the application initializes itself (in separate threads).
As I've said before this happens for a single application so the code is clearly related somehow.
Does anyone have good knowledge of how the debugger operates? Apart from the obvious steps needed whenever a breakpoint is set or the user steps from one line to another (refresh stack trace and watch windows) what is going on in the background that might freeze up everything and how is it possible?
My last hope is a complete reinstall of VS2010 but I hope I can solve this before that option is required.
I have finally found the cause for this weird behavior. As I mentioned in the original post I do hook the keyboard (AND mouse, I had forgotten I did that) during the application's initialization in order to be able to detect user inactivity.
The monitoring takes place in a background thread that simply waits for an AutoResetEvent to discover user activity or inactivity. For some odd reason the AutoResetEvent.WaitOne(...) somehow affects the debugger. My current fix is to just avoid the wait if the debugger is attached.
I still cannot explain why this happens now. It has been working for a year but the cause for the problem is finally found and dealt with.
I have submitted my question to Microsoft, hoping to get a good explanation. If I do I will post it here.
If you really have the problem with one Project / Solution you could try to create a new empty solution and add the project there, maybe this helps.
I don't really know much about the inner workings of Visual Studio (after all it must be one of the most complex pieces of software out there). But what I've learned is, that a reinstall often is the best and fastest solution (even if it takes an hour or two). Just make sure you backup any settings you don't want to lose.
Update:
I found this one here, maybe you've already found it too: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/260864/visual-studio-debugger-occasionally-locks-up-the-entire-windows-gui
You could give it a try and disable the language bar.

Silverlight databinding, perplexing issue

I've been doing Silverlight development for awhile now, and I was pretty sure that I had pretty good handle on figuring thing out. This one has me completely baffled however...
As you can see, the very property that Silverlight is reporting an error on, is directly where it should be! Any ideas? I've also found my Visual Studio being really slow, and I'm thinking a resinstall is in order. I just got a new laptop Lenovo W520, with a graphics accelerator. Not sure what is going on... any ideas would be appreciated!
Regards,
Richard
Let me guess: FinancialContracts is not actually a public property? It must be both public and a property.

Visual Studio 2010 messes up visually

Not sure what is going on here, if it's just my computer, or a VS bug. It is annoying.
When scrolling, text in VS sometimes gets really messed up. it also happens to other window elements on occasion.
I've noticed something similar in Dreamweaver CS4 & CS5, so I don't know if it's my computer or something with WPF.
Any way to fix this problem?
Windows 7 Pro
This is most likely a general WPF issue, and could be related to your graphics drivers.
I would recommend looking for updated graphics drivers for your graphics card. If this doesn't work, try reducing the amount of hardware acceleration, as this tends to clean up many WPF rendering issues.
I would suspect this is a WPF issue that may be resolved by updating your graphics drivers if your card can handle it as Reed Copsey suggested.
If you don't have any luck with that, you can try turning off some of the hardware-accelerated rendering by going to the Tools menu, selecting Options then disabling the Automatically adjust visual experience based on client performance option and the following two options under the Environment > General section.
MSDN put up an article not too long ago that can help troubleshoot the problem.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ff716700
The first two things I would try would be to update your video drivers. Then maybe turn down hardware acceleration.
This KB article touches upon how to do it about half way down the resolution section.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263039
I have similar problems with my VS2010. It isn't a graphic driver issue but an issue with WPF/VS2010. I was hoping the SP1 would solve this problem, but it didn't.

WPF Boing demo needs life support

Remember the Amiga boing demo? I was reading a 25th anniversary of the Amiga article and they mentioned it. Brought back some memories. I remember a WPF (called Avalon at the time) demo put together to mimic it. I did some googling and found it here. However, it seems to be extremely out-of-date as the XAML markup and the code-behind is rife with errors when I attempt to build in VS 2010 (re-targeted to CLR 4.0 Client Profile). Are there any WPF gurus out there who are able and willing to bring it into this decade? This would go a long way to understanding the WPF/XAML stack for me. Thanks!
Edit: I'm using the slightly updated version I just found here.
Edit the 2nd: I've gotten it to compile and show the nice gradient blue background, but not the bouncing checkered ball. The problem is that I cannot find the modern equivalent of:
<x:Include x:Content="{ball}" />
I have recreated this stuff for .NET 4.0. Solution is available by Boing link. Thanks for your suggestion. It was interesting!
Added
I have added solution code to codepaste.net. You can view it here.

How do I implement an address location bar (bread crumb control) similar to that in Windows Vista's File Explorer?

The explorer control in Windows Vista is very handy and I would like to be able to incorporate it in an application written in WPF. I've been unable to find a stock control that is part of the Framework. This application is being specifically developed for Windows Vista and therefore, having the same look and feel as the OS is desirable.
One could use the Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog, but the problem with that is that it looks nothing like Vista's so it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Any thoughts on a good implementation would be most helpful. I would like to stay away from Third Party components if possible, but am definitely open to all suggestions.
Actipro makes a really good WPF breadcrumb control. There's also an open source WPF breadcrumb control that I might actually give a try.
I haven't yet tried it but look at VistaBridge... It gives you all the Vista look dialog boxes!
There is a replacement for the Microsoft.Win32 file dialogs on my blog that gives you the Vista look without the complexity of VistaBridge and is also backward compatible with XP.
http://www.nbdtech.com/blog/archive/2008/07/15/Vista-style-open-and-save-dialogs-with-WPF-without-using.aspx
At the risk of sounding self-serving, the best Breadcrumb control for WPF you can find is here:
http://www.teraque.com/Products/Explorer-Chrome-Suite
I've spent a year trying to reverse engineer the Window's Vista control because none of the off-the-shelf products provided the right look-and-feel. You will run into the limitations of all of the suggestions above sooner or later. And, having been through it myself, I can tell you that trying to embark on developing the controls yourself will take you months. The oddities surrounding the overflow logic alone will be enough to eat up two months just to get it right.
Good luck. If there's anything I can answer for you, please feel free to contact me.
Donald Roy Airey
Donald.Roy.Airey#teraque.com
If you are coding for the .net Framework 3.5, calling for the common dialog should display the correct Vista era dialog.
Sorry, appears I was mistaken. In previous projects, I was using this library to call the Vista dialogs.

Resources