Scott Hanselman

I didn't realize this when I did my generic IFormattableObject implementation last week, but this week finds me writing a chapter on Debugging for an ASP.NET 2.0 book.

I was checking out the DebuggerDisplayAttribute and realized that it uses a similar format string style as my stuff. (Of course, my stuff isn't new, languages like Ruby and others have done it for years).

Anyway, the point was that I had been wondering if my idea "fit" into the world of .NET, but the syntax of this DebuggerDisplay attribute left me feeling more justified for my work. It's interesting though, that they are offering this attribute, when I always used ToString to do the same basic thing in the debugger. So, in a Whidbey world of DebuggerDisplayAttribute, what's ToString() for? I guess just Console.WriteLine(myObject)?

UPDATE: The "TracePoint" syntax in the VS 2005 Debugger is the same.
For example: {i.FirstName} Function: $FUNCTION, Thread: $TID $TNAME
prints out the variable i's property FirstName as well as some psuedo-variables like the current function, the Thread ID and Thread Name

[DebuggerDisplay(
  "{_forename} {_surname}")]

[DebuggerDisplay(
  "Employee- {ToString()}")]

[DebuggerDisplay("Employee
  ( {Forename} {(_wizard) ?
  \"Is a Wizard\" : \"Is 
  \"Is not a Wizard\" } )")]

Now playing: Kevin Lyttle - Turn Me On

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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