VS2010 "Help" makes me sad.

[SunnyD]

No more Index.

 

[Markbnj]

Does this have anything to do with the changes to MSDN (which I'm not sure I like either)?

 

[SunnyD]

Does this have anything to do with the changes to MSDN (which I'm not sure I like either)?

Apparently yes.

Basically, what they did was replace the HTML help from previous versions of VS completely. Now, it appears that you have two choices... the familiar old standby of "Online" help through MSDN, or a "local" version of MSDN. When I say local version, what I mean is that it installs what's called the "Help Manager Component", which is essentially a localhost web server. You download help repositories (you choose which ones though), then once installed your local help consists of spawning your default browser and connecting to your localhost "help" web server. It behaves very similarly to MSDN. In fact, because you mentioned it I took a look, and yes - it is almost IDENTICAL to the online MSDN library now. No index, no filters, just a category-based TOC and search.

Simply put, it's very difficult to navigate this. If you want to know what local help with VS2010 is like, then yes, just hop on the MSDN Library online.

 

[Markbnj]

The new MSDN is really terrible. I don't know what the hell they were thinking. I had my issues with the old one, but at least all the information was there and you could switch between different implementations of the framework for a given page. Today I was looking up format strings for ToString() and found that the C# examples didn't work. I hope MS isn't screwing this up, because MSDN has always been one of their very strong points.

 

[degibson]

Oh my god they made MSDN worse? If I ever go back to Windows coding... well... lets hope I never do.

 

[SunnyD]

Oh... here's another interesting one. I can't wait to see this be abused... they now allow "community contributions" to the MSDN Library. Great, just what we need - badly coded examples (worse than MS's own).

 

[Rangoric]

Oh... here's another interesting one. I can't wait to see this be abused... they now allow "community contributions" to the MSDN Library. Great, just what we need - badly coded examples (worse than MS's own).

On the bright side, I know there is at least someone going through and fixing things in the article because of the contributions. If it gets to be anything like that eye burning PHP "contribution area" at the php docs I'll start to stab people.

 

[degibson]

Oh... here's another interesting one. I can't wait to see this be abused... they now allow "community contributions" to the MSDN Library. Great, just what we need - badly coded examples (worse than MS's own).

There have always been community contributions to MSDN. It's called 'Google'.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

As far as I'm concerned Sun is still the only language provider to really get documentation right so far. Javadoc may be ugly but it just freaking works.

 

[InfiniteLurker]

Just to bring this back on topic - here is an extension that gives you an index and search capability:

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/4af86641-a302-4edf-9853-007bcc670b30

 

[Markbnj]

Also, I discovered that if you click 'preferences' on the upper right of the MSDN site, and click the 'classic' radio button, you get back all the features of the classic site, including the treeview and ability to switch between versions of the framework.

 

[SunnyD]

Just to bring this back on topic - here is an extension that gives you an index and search capability:

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/4af86641-a302-4edf-9853-007bcc670b30

I could take you out back and rock your world for that. :hmm:

But instead, accept my "Thank you."

 

[JasonCoder]

Oh... here's another interesting one. I can't wait to see this be abused... they now allow "community contributions" to the MSDN Library. Great, just what we need - badly coded examples (worse than MS's own).

That's actually been present on MSDN for awhile. Maybe the new look has it more prominent? Anyways, the community contribs are usually more helpful then the MSDN samples. Or where there isn't a code sample, someone from the community usually has one.

My favorites are when the MSDN sample is way wrong and the contrib nails it.

 

[Markbnj]

That's actually been present on MSDN for awhile. Maybe the new look has it more prominent? Anyways, the community contribs are usually more helpful then the MSDN samples. Or where there isn't a code sample, someone from the community usually has one.

My favorites are when the MSDN sample is way wrong and the contrib nails it.

Previously it was dropping comments at the bottom, wasn't it? It will be interesting to see the results if they've actually made it wiki-like.

 

[Rangoric]

Ugg, the Community Contributions are Framework Version specific. So now if there was a good sample for 3.5 it goes poof when looking at 4.0

 

[Train]

Apparently they already knew Help Sucked, and either did something about it or maybe this just wasnt ready by the release date. This was just released today

Visual Studio 2010 - Help Viewer Power Tool BETA - Help Index and Standalone Help
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudio2010HelpViewerPowerToolBETAHelpIndexAndStandaloneHelp.aspx