I've noticed that the feedback on Sandcastle has been generally positive. Maybe I'm in a minority of one, but I felt I had to get this off my chest.

<rant>
Having initially dismissed the first Sandcastle release as immature, I've come back several months later to try out the December CTP.

My requirements are, I believe, simple and mainstream. I want to generate documentation for a product consisting of a few class libraries and integrate it with VS2005 help. The document should be generated automatically as part of the build process.

With .NET 1.1 and VS2003, this was easy to do with a batch file that calls NDocConsole, which in turn generates a configuration file for the easy-to-use H2Reg utility. I can then call H2Reg in a Custom Action of my product's Setup project.

Months after the first CTP, Sandcastle still seems to be just a bag of miscellaneous bits, despite the valiant efforts of various people in the community to create scripts and tools.

Some of the many problems that jumped out when I tried to use the December CTP for the first time:

1. It's as slow as molasses (compared with NDoc).

2. MrefBuilder failed because it was unable to find a dependent assembly System.Configuration.dll!!!!! Yes I can work around this by painstakingly adding every dependency to the command line, but surely it should be able to find:

a) All .NET 2.0 Framework assemblies (duh!)
b) All assemblies that are in the same folder as any of the target assemblies.
c) All assemblies in paths referenced by the AssemblyFolders/AssemblyFoldersEx registry keys used by VS2005.

3. In the above case, no types from System.Configuration were exposed publicly by my assemblies, so System.Configuration was not needed to generate the documentation. Given that performance is a problem, why is MRefBuilder wasting time looking at assemblies it doesn't need

4. The output HTML does not look right. Just one small example: the code in an <example> tag was rendered with line numbers - so that when I copy and paste the example, I have to manually remove the line numbers.

5. The documentation for the product is woeful. I need to wade through this forum, a Wiki that contains mostly outdated information, and various blogs to try to work out how to use it. There is no authoritative documentation that matches the latest release.

6. What crowned it all for me was when I found out that BuildAssembler is trying to contact a Web Service in order to generate links to documentation for standard framework types. In my corporate environment, this failed to get through the proxy. How can this be a sensible way to generate documentation Even in the best case, what QoS is guaranteed by the Web Service Will the web service choke when everyone's overnight build process tries to contact it at the same time

I have zero interest in messing about with the XSLT or CSS files supplied with Sandcastle and just want a product that generates standard VS2005-style documentation out of the box.

I understand from the Sandcastle blog that Sandcastle originates from the tools Microsoft use to build their own documentation. Given that the task of documenting the .NET Framework is hugely different from the simple documentation requirements of most developers, I wonder whether this was the right starting point.

I miss NDoc badly and think Microsoft needs to reassess what they are doing with Sandcastle. Microsoft used to be known for software that was easy to use - make the simple things simple and the hard things possible. They need to get back to this mindset .
</rant>
Thank you for listening.

Hi guys.

are there any good guidance on converting xaml to c# actually, what i wanted is to understand xaml from coding perspective.

thanks.

Ok I have a formula that populates a String Variable in my report Group Footer.

The main formula is like this.

If {cParty} = "S" and {cType}="I" and {fPrimary} = -1 then Seller := TrimRight({.FirstName})+' '+TrimRight({.middle})+' '+TrimRight({LastName});

My table looks like this, and my criteria is that IFolder =123456

IFolder cParty cType fPrimary FirstName Middle LastName

123456 S I -1 John A Roberts

123456 S I -1 Susan G Roberts

My StringValue for Seller will only display John A Robert, even though Susan G Roberts is also valid. How do I get it to dispaly the correct values if muliple rows are true statements.

Context:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Version 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0.50727

Installed Edition: Professional

Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 77617-168-7076001-41239
Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office 77617-168-7076001-41239
Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition 77617-168-7076001-41239

Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition - ENU (KB925674)

Problem:

This relates to the VS IDE itself, not my application. Previously, when developing a VSTO application for Excel, the Excel menu items would be integrated into the VS menubar.

Example: When the Excel workbook is the active window, a menu item "Microsoft Office Excel Tools" would appear under the VS "Tools" menu.

The problem is that the placeholder for the Excel Tools menu item is there, but it doesn't expand to anything when I mouse over it. Similary the "Edit" menu item is completely hosed and won't even open up at all.

Any ideas on how to fix, short of reinstalling

Hello,

I have installed everything I can find on .Net 3 including the extensions. I am currently having issues with the XAML Intellisense not working. Not only will it not pick up my own project references eg xmlns:custom="clr-namespace:SDKSample;assembly=SDKSampleLibrary"

<custom: does not work. But also when I try to tap into TextBox.Text for the <Binding> It does not recognise it.

Have I missed something to install

Thanks,

Brett.

Does Orcas currently support custom controls (user-built classes deriving from Control) If so, I'll try stripping my development project down to basics to see if I can get my custom controls working in orcas again. The custom controls I do have are fairly complicated right now. But it would be worth it for me if I can get them working.

Most of the xaml pages I'm using custom controls in don't seem to recognize the xmlns references I'm using.

Is there a way to specify xmlns references in a way that Orcas likes Will external/signed assemblies help

Hello,

I have installed everything I can find on .Net 3 including the extensions. I am currently having issues with the XAML Intellisense not working. Not only will it not pick up my own project references eg xmlns:custom="clr-namespace:SDKSample;assembly=SDKSampleLibrary"

<custom: does not work. But also when I try to tap into TextBox.Text for the <Binding> It does not recognise it.

Have I missed something to install

Thanks,

Brett.

Hi, I created an Excel 2007 add-in with VSTO 2005 to customize the ribbon ui (add a tab/button) on Vista. I'm able to build the add-in and setup project with no errors or warnings. I can also install the setup project. The add-in shows up in Excel Options | Add-Ins | COM Add-ins. However, when I click the add-in option, I get the error message "Not Loaded. A runtime error occurred during the loading of the COM add-in." I've signed the project with a strong name file and ran "caspol.exe" to make the assembly fully trusted. Any ideas on what's going on Thanks