Notating Windows Forms

jehugaleahsa · Joined: 19 Oct 2007 Posts: 12

Hello:

I have come to the realization that it would be very beneficial to be
able to put comments for controls in Windows Forms. I would like this
to only be visible to the form designer, not the user. This way, we
can put information such as what fields are bound to the control, what
values are expected and any other documentation we want.

I would like to be able to see these comments appear when I look at
the control, something like a tooltip or just a property. Right now we
would have to take a screen shot and edit the picture. However, this
isn't very dynamic and it means rummaging through tons of
documentation.

Is there something like this out there now? or is this just wishful
thinking?

Thanks,
Travis

Archived from group: microsoft>public>dotnet>languages>csharp

RobertK · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1

Would the control.tag work?

Marc Gravell · Joined: 08 Aug 2007 Posts: 20

Late reply... sorry...

Actually, it wouldn't be that tricky to put a "comment" compnent
together that acts by creating an extension property in the property-
grid (similar to how "tooltip" provides an extension property).

If you want to be pragmatic, a simpler option would be to add an
(additional?) tooltip to the form, called "comments" or similar, set
Active=False, and then use the "Tooltip on comments" extension
property to store the comments.

With some work, you could do something more elegant, but it probably
isn't worth it.

However!!! I think the idea here is a very good one, and perhaps with
some IDE support it could be done a lot better - i.e. why can't the
comments (via the designer) relate to the structured "///" comments
against the form / control? Presumably by a fly-out in the property-
grid (similar to "(Data Bindings)", "(Application Settings)", etc -
why not "(Documentation)" with Summary, Remarks, etc.

This is supported for the class designer - why not the forms designer?
Perhaps log it on "connect"? The only difficult one would be those
where GenerateMember=false, since there would be nowhere to put
the /// comments; perhaps simply not support it for such.

It might *even* be possible to do something like this via an IDE
plugin... I don't know enough to say...

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