Introducing the Visual C# Express Development Environment
The Visual C# Express Edition integrated development environment (IDE) is where you build, test and debug your C# application. The Visual C# Express Edition IDE provides a simplified user interface, including:
Code Editor
The window where you enter your C# source code.Windows Forms Designer
For creating your application's user interface.Data Explorer
For viewing information stored in databases.Debugger
A powerful tool for stepping through your application to find errors.
The IDE manages all your source code and resource files into projects. It provides tools for editing code, designing user interfaces, building and debugging.
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Most of the time you will alternate between the Windows Forms designer, where you create the user interface for your program, and the Code Editor where you enter the C# source code that makes up the bulk of your application. The Windows Forms designer enables you to quickly add simple controls to your form such as buttons, menus, and tab controls, as well as more advanced controls such as Web browsers, calendars, and grid view controls. The designer will automatically generate the source code that creates these controls, and include the C# methods that your program will use to interact with the controls.
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Features of the Visual C# Express IDE
The C# IDE contains a number of windows, toolbars, and menus that you can configure to suit your own personal preferences and style of working. Windows can be docked, tab-linked, or hidden to make more room for the windows you use most often.
The most important features to notice in the IDE are:
Code Editor window: Enter your C# code here. It uses color-coding to highlight keywords and comments and has many powerful features such as automatic code completion to make programming faster and reduce errors. The Code Editor's powerful refactoring tools allow you to intelligently manipulate your source code. For example, you can extract code and automatically use it to create a method. See How to: Extract a Method Using Refactoring.
Solution Explorer window: Displays a view of all the files that make up your project.
Note
You’ll occasionally see the term "solution". A solution can contain several projects, such as a Windows Application and a class library.
Project node: Contains the specific items in the project, such as files and folders.
Properties window: Displays the properties for selected items. Properties define characteristics of certain objects, such as the location of a button, the name of a form, the style of text, and so on. The appearance of the Properties window varies depending on the object currently selected.
Forms Designer window: Provides the design surface for the application’s user interface. A typical Windows application consists of a form, which contains the controls and displays text that make up the application. This window is initially hidden behind the Code Editor. You can view either the source code or this visual display of your application, switching between both views as you work.
Toolbox window: Contains controls such as buttons and timers. This window is opened when you click the Toolbox tab. It can be docked in the IDE so it's always available, or can be set to slide out of view when you’re not using it.
Toolbox item tabs: Each configurable tab contains a set of components that can be added to the project by simply dragging them to the form. For example, dropping a Timer component on the form will create the code that manages a background timer in your application.
Task List window: Lists the tasks required to complete solution development, such as errors in the Code Editor, compiler errors, and user-entered tasks.
Class View: A way to view your project as a set of classes and their methods. This is a logical view of your project, independent of the way you choose to organize your files in source files.
Output window: Displays information generated by the build process.
Errors List window: Displays compilation errors.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Create a C# Console Application
How to: Create a C# Windows Forms Application