Installation

Installation and upgrading has been designed to be quick and easy. Just quit all running instances of Visual Studio and run the installer executable included in your download. (There is usually no need to uninstall any version of AtomineerUtils prior to installing another version unless you wish to change the install location).

The default installation location will be to 'My Documents', the standard Visual Studio add-in location. (The installer allows you to choose a new location. Note that this location is used for storing preferences, so it can't be a protected location such as in 'Program Files').

Click Install to install the add-in.

For first-time installs, the Quick Setup Wizard will appear, allowing you to configure AtomineerUtils by clicking on example documentation comments that suit your requirements. (Note that these are just some of the most popular options. You can fine-tune these settings at any time in future from the AtomineerUtils Options)

The next time you run Visual Studio the Addin will auto load and place a new AtomineerUtils menu on the Tools menu.

Hot-keys
The add-in will automatically set up hot-keys for the primary commands (but only if they are not already in use for any other commands). However, if you wish to change the default hot-key assignments, follow these steps:

• In Visual Studio, go to Tools => Options
• Find the Environment\Keyboard section
• In "Show commands containing" type "Atomineer"
• The Atomineer commands will be listed. To add a hot-key binding, select a command, click in the "Press shortcut keys" field and press the key combination you wish to use to execute the command. When you are happy with the hotkey, click Assign.

Multi-user Installation
If you wish to deploy the AtomineerUtils addin to a number of developers and set them up with common settings (such as including a standard company header in the file header comments):

• Install the AtomineerUtils Addin on one PC as detailed above, and set up the options and/or rules as required.
• Copy the Prefs.xml files from your "My Documents" folder (in Visual Studio 2008\Addins\AtomineerUtils) and place them alongside the AtomineerUtils installer .exe
• Have your developers install AtomineerUtils by running the installer .exe

AtomineerUtils uses a 'search path' when loading preferences/rules, which allows you to place your customisations into source control. THis is highly recommended for use in a team environment. Please see below for details.

AtomineerUtils is fully compatible with AVR Studio, but after installing AtomineerUtils you may need to configure AVR Studio to load it: run AVR Studio and go to Tools > Options: Environment > Add-ins/Macros Security. Ensure that 'Allow add-in components to load' is ticked, and that the AtomineerUtils install location (which defaults to '...My Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Addins') is included in the list of search paths. After restarting AVR Studio, AtomineerUtils should appear as normal.

Disabling or Uninstalling AtomineerUtils
AtomineerUtils can be temporarily disabled in Visual Studio by choosing the Tools > Add-in Manager menu item, and un-ticking the checkbox to the left of the AtomineerUtils add-in.

To uninstall AtomineerUtils, run the AtomineerUtilsSetup.exe and choose the Uninstall option. This will give you the option of retaining user files (preferences and rules files), or completely uninstalling AtomineerUtils and all the configuration files permanently.

(Note that you do not need to uininstall AtomineerUtils to upgrade to a newer version, unless you intend to move the installation to a different location).

Command Reference

Command: Add Doc Comment

This command creates or updates a Documentation XML, Doxygen, Qt or Javadoc-compatible description comment block for C#, C++/CLI, C++, C, Java or Visual Basic code.

Usage
Place the cursor in an appropriate line:

• Anywhere in the first line of the file (for a file header)
• Anywhere in the whitespace at the end of the file (for a file footer)
• Anywhere in the first line of a "code element" (namespace, macro, typedef, struct, enum, class, interface, function, property or variable definition, etc) or in any blank lines or documentation comments immediately preceeding the element.
• Anywhere within a normal (non-doc comment) //-style comment block (to simply reformat the text with word wrapping)

...and execute the command.

Description
When you execute the command, the code around the cursor will be interpreted and an appropriate header comment will be inserted just above the current code element. As much useful information as possible will be extracted from your code, and where possible default comments will be inserted to save you unnecessary typing.

For example, the following function documentation headers were completely auto-generated. (Note that these examples are in the default AtomineerUtils style. The style is highly configurable (see some examples of different styles).

	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	/// <summary> Event handler. Called by the TaskListCtrl for KeyDown events. </summary>
	///
	/// <remarks> Jason Williams, 12/04/2009. </remarks>
	///
	/// <param name='sender'>  Source of the event. </param>
	/// <param name='e'>       Event information. </param>
	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	void TaskListCtrl_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
	{
	}

	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	/// <summary> Initialises the file buffer. </summary>
	///
	/// <remarks> Jason Williams, 12/04/2009. </remarks>
	///
	/// <exception cref="NotImplementedException"> Thrown when the requested operation is
	///                                            unimplemented. </exception>
	///
	/// <param name="fname">      Filename of the file. </param>
	/// <param name="buffSize">   Size of the buffer. </param>
	/// <param name="resetCache"> true to reset cache. </param>
	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	public void InitFileBuff(string fname, int buffSize, bool resetCache)
	{
		throw new NotImplementedException();
	}

	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	/// <summary> Gets or sets the foreground colour. </summary>
	///
	/// <value> The colour of the foreground. </value>
	////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	public Color FgColour { get {}; set {} }

For more examples of the auto-generated documentation text, see: Documentation XML format comments and Doxygen format comments.

Generating new documentation
AtomineerUtils uses thousands of special rules to generate meaningful documentation based on the types of code elements (e.g. constructors/destructors/operators, event handlers, indexers, etc), commonly used names (from .NET, MFC, stdlib, etc e.g. ToString, GetHashCode), common naming styles (e.g. GetXxx, SetXxx, XxxForm, XxxException), common abbreviations (ptr -> pointer, wnd -> window) and the context in which an element is used (e.g. 'sender' in an event handler, or the number of parameters to an Equals method, etc). 'Perfect' documentation can't always be achieved, but AtomineerUtils attempts to provide the best documentation it can so that even though you will need to finish the comments yourself, the typing involved is minimised.

For example, AtomineerUtils Pro provides:

• (For doxygen only) the declaration of the code element being documented.
• A brief summary of the code element, containing an auto-generated description.
• Author and current date.
• All parameters, generic type parameters and any return value are entered into the comment as required, with meaningful auto-generated descriptions where possible.
• AtomineerUtils will attempt to keep related blocks of entries tidy by grouping them together and formatting them with indentation and word-wrapping).
• The cursor is positioned in the <summary> section of the comment, ready for you to describe your code.

The add-in uses some very powerful systems for generating the documentation automatically:

• A user-editable "rules" system containing thousands of rules generates meaningful documentation for code elements based on common naming practices, naming conventions, and can even combine information on parameter and return types (etc) with the naming to deduce more useful documentation.
• If existing documentation is available on an overridden base class method/property or an implemented Interface method/property, it will be copied into your new documentation comment. [*]
• If existing documentation is available on other overloads of a method, the docs from the best-match overload will be copied. [*]
• If a parameter has been used and documented in other methods of a class, the documentation from the best match will be copied. [*]
• All exceptions thrown within a method will be documented automatically.

[*]   Please note: The three features marked above rely on the Visual Studio Intellisense system. If this is disabled, your documentation is not in Documentation XML format for use by Intellisense, or the intellisense information is not available (e.g. in C or Java code, and sometimes in C++) then AtomineerUtils will have no choice but to fall back to its regular auto-documentation generation algorithm.

All of the above is configurable - The style of blocks, the entries they contain and their ordering, indentation styles and word-wrap, and use of blank lines (both within the comment and between the comment and any surrounding code).

In addition, if 'Add Doc Comment' is executed in any other text-based file format, AtomineerUtils will add a file header, footer, or 'catch all' comment to the file. These are somewhat simpler than the documentation comments that are generated for the file formats listed above, but can still save considerable time and effort when documenting other source files (SQL, XML, HTML, python, ruby, etc). Note that these comments will not be updated by AtomineerUtils, only created.

Updating existing documentation comments
If a documentation comment already exists, it will be parsed and updated - for example if you add a new parameter to a method, remove an exception thrown in your method, or change a Property by adding a get/set accessor, the existing comment will be updated to reflect the new details, effortlessly keeping the comment in sync with the code. This feature can also serve to automatically convert most existing Documentation XML/Doxygen comments into the AtomineerUtils format (see below for more details).

In addition, the block will be (optionally) reformatted to keep it tidy:

• Documentation entries will be formatted into a consistent ordering, grouped together into related blocks, with optional blank lines between them. Within each block of entries (e.g. <param> lists), the text for the entries can all be indented to start at the same column to enhance readability.
• If enabled, the word-wrap option will automatically reformat each comment entry to keep it tidy. The indentation level of the first line of each entry will be used in all subsequent lines. The word wrap will preserve blank lines, any lines at a greater indent level than the first line of the entry, and lines starting with certain text (examples (e.g., c.f., i.e.), bullet lists (starting with -, *, +), etc). To deliberately force a new line, you can also end the previous line with two spaces.
• Word wrap is suppressed for blocks of text that lie between <pre>, <code>, @code...@endcode, and @verbatim...@endverbatim tags. Note that these start/end tags must be the first nonblank text on the line.
• Documentation comments can include a mixture of XML and/or HTML elements. However, you may also wish to use <, > or & characters in descriptions and code examples. AtomineerUtils will process the entry text, converting these special characters into the entities '&lt;', '&gt;', and '&amp;' if necessary. (This feature can be disabled in the preferences if you do not wish to use the text in external documentation generation applications, to keep the code comments more readable). In addition, < and > characters within XML 'cref' attributes will be converted to { }, following Microsoft's documentation XML guidelines.
• If enabled, the number of blank lines above and below the doc comment will be corrected to a user-specified standard to help keep code files tidy. The default is to enforce a single blank line above and below the comment. The number of blank lines to enforce after {, #region, #if, public:, private:, protected can also be configured.

'Deleted' entries
Any DocComment entries that are no longer required (e.g. deleted or renamed parameters) will be inserted at the end of the comment block in this form:

///### <param name='value'>  This parameter has just been deleted</param>

This preserves any text from these entries in case you wish to re-use it anywhere else (e.g. a renamed parameter). If you execute the Doc Comment command a second time, any such 'deleted' lines will be automatically removed to save you having to manually clean up the comment.

Additional tips:

• If the cursor is in a normal comment (a block of lines commented-out with single-line comments - //), the comment will be automatically reformatted using the word wrapping system, allowing you to easily update the text in your comments and leave AtomineerUtils to keep everything tidy.
• If you wish to re-generate the auto-doc text for any entry in your comment, or the entire comment, simply delete the entry/comment and execute Add Doc Comment again to update it.
• If you wish to document exceptions that pass through your method from a called method (i.e. uncaught exceptions), document them as 'Passed when' rather than 'Thrown when" and the comment will be preserved.
• By default, Documentation XML format will be generated, but adding a \file: doxygen comment at the top of the file (or forcing Doxygen format in the Options) will switch documentation into Doxygen format.
• Note that most documentation addins use the Intellisense system within Visual Studio to get information on the code element, so they can fail if your code is not in a compilable state (which can be much of the time if you document as you write the code). AtomineerUtils only uses Intellisense to augment its own built in parser, so it is usually able to correctly handle code even if it is currently not in a compiled/compilable state.

Changing the comment layout style and generated documentation text

The style of the comment blocks is extremely configurable. High-level settings can be changed using the Atomineer Utils Options (available from the Atomineer.Utils menu in Visual Studio), while lower level improvements to the automatic documentation can be made by editing the Atomineer Auto-Documentation Rules XML file. See the Preferences and Rules Guide sections for more details, and mail support if we can be of any assistance in achieving the format you require.

Converting documentation from an old format
If you have existing documentation comments in a format that AtomineerUtils can parse, you can configure AtomineerUtils to read it and convert it to your new AtomineerUtils style. For full details on the various conversion tools provided by AtomineerUtils, please see this page.

Helping AtomineerUtils parse your code better
Occasionally, AtomineerUtils hits something that confuses it, resulting in a lower quality of automatic documentation than expected. Typical examples are when a typedef or #define macro are used to represent special types in your code - AtomineerUtils only parses the code near the location you wish to document, so it has no way of understanding what these special code symbols represent.

In these cases, AtomineerUtils allows you to apply preprocessing regular-expression replacements to the code as it is parsed so you can aid AtomineerUtils. Full details are here.

Documentation Comment and Regular Comment editing enhancements

AtomineerUtils can optionally track changes within comments and doc comments as you edit them, and offers the following enhancements to the standard Visual Studio behaviour. These are enabled by default, but can be disabled if you wish - see the 'typing aids' box on the first tab of the AtomineerUtils Options.

For .NET projects, Visual Studio has a handy feature: If you type the start of a documentation comment block (/// in C#, or ''' in Visual Basic) above a code element, then it automatically creates a skeleton comment block. AtomineerUtils extends this behaviour in the following ways:

1. The AtomineerUtils feature works in all supported languages, not just the .NET languages.
2. The comment block is generated using the AtomineerUtils documentation engine, so the comment uses your configured comment style, and of course all the auto-generated documentation is filled in for you. It works equally well for Doxygen, Qt, JavaDoc, and XML documentation.
3. The comment block will be indented to the same level as the code element it documents, rather than being dumped at the place where you typed the /// or ''', and the other AtomienerUtils formatting helpers (such as controlling the number of blank lines between code elements) will all apply as normal.

In addition, AtomineerUtils offers enhanced editing within /// (or ''' in Visual Basic) Documentation Comment blocks and any regular comment blocks made up of single-line comments (// in C#, C++, C and Java, or ' in Visual Basic). These features help you edit the comment body text without having to continually insert and delete comment // or ' prefixes by hand to keep the comment block tidy. These typing aids include:

1. When you press Return/Enter to insert a new line in a comment, AtomineerUtils will automatically extend the comment onto the new line, duplicating the comment header and indentation from the previous line so that you can continue typing within the comment without having to manage the comment and text indentation. If you wish to exit this 'comment editing mode', press Return twice in a row (the first press will extend the comment, and the second will remove the comment header to leave you on a blank line).
2. If the current line of your comment seems to start with what looks like a bullet-point (-, *, +) or a numbered list entry (e.g. 1) 2) 3) or 1. 2. 3. or a. b. c. etc), AtomineerUtils will automatically extend the list by entering the next bullet/number on the new line.
3. When typing in comment block, if you press Delete to delete the newline at the end of a line, Visual Studio will append the following line. If the following line continues the comment block, AtomineerUtils will strip the indentation and single-line-comment prefix to concatenate the comment body text in a cleaner way.
4. When pasting text into a comment block, AtomineerUtils will automatically reformat it as appropriate to integrate it into the destination comment: Plain text will be converted into comment text; Comment text is converted if necessary between normal and doc-comment formats; code examples (that include a mixture of text and comments) are embedded into the destination comment as a code example, retaining the original prefixes on comment lines. (Note: This ony happens if you paste into a commented line - pasting on a blank line adjacent to a commented line will not apply the reformatting. If the paste-reformatting produces an undesireable result in any case, simply undo once to remove the AtomineerUtils reformatting and leave the text as it would normally have been pasted).

Notes:

• To use the standard Visual Studio behaviour to 'exit the comment' when pressing Enter, press it twice in a row, or type a Shift-Enter (add a newline at the current cursor position) or Ctrl-Enter (add a newline before the current line).
• If you enable/disable any of these features, you will need to execute 'Add Doc Comment' once (or restart Visual Studio) before the change to keypress handling will take effect.
• Due to the way Visual Studio handles keypresses, this feature may interfere with, or be affected by, other installed addins that also wish to process Enter keypresses within comments (such as ViEmu). If this occurs, you can disable this feature (or you may be able to reconfigure the other addin) and restart Visual Studio to avoid the clash. Where possible AtomineerUtils tries not to interfere with other addins (in particular, addins that provide auto-completion of type names within doc comment xml tags will not be affected, as AtomineerUtils disables its typing helpers while you are typing within special fields like 'crefs').

Command: Document All in this Scope

This command searches a file, namespace, class, interface, struct, or enum scope and applies the Add Doc Comment command to each major code element within it. (Note that it does not recurse into nested (child) scopes (so you may have to run it several times to document a whole file if it contains several classes), and it does not yet handle all possible code elements (constants/variables and header file declarations are yet to be supported)

Usage
To document all code elements at global scope in a file, place the cursor in the very first line of the file and execute the command.

To document all code elements within a specific scope, place the cursor in the declaration that introduces the scope (i.e. somewhere in the line with the 'namespace', 'class' (etc) text) and execute the command.

Description
When you execute the command, the code within the next scope (from the '{' following the cursor position) will be scanned for child code elements to document. The Add Doc Comment command will be executed on each, adding or updating the comment in the usual way. Each will generate a new undo step.

This can be used in the following ways:

• Quickly and easily build the documentation structure for all the entries in an enum definition,
• Convert existing comments (e.g. in the Visual Studio default XmlDoc /// format) into the configured AtomineerUtils format,
• Quickly update existing documentation after changing the AtomineerUtils block format or preferences,
• Automate an initial documentation pass.

After executing this command it is highly recommended that you read through and update the resulting documentation to be sure that it is complete, correct and accurate.

Note: This command is affected by the 'restrict documentation by access level' preference. By default, all code elements will be documented. However, in C#, Visual Basic and Java code, this option can be used to restrict the generated documentation so that it only applies to code elements with the correct access level. Generally this is used to apply documentation to just the public members of a library, or suppress documentation of private members while allowing public/protected/internal members to be documented. Please note that as C++ access levels are not specified within the code element declaration, this option is unavailable for C++.

Command: Align Code Into Columns

Quickly align text patterns into tidy columns and tables. This can be used to align assignments, commas, arithmetic/logical/bitwise/comparison operators, brackets, strings, numbers, variables and keywords. Alignment can be used to significantly improve code readability and clarity in repetitive blocks.

Usage
There are two ways to use this command:

• Place the cursor next to a symbol that you wish to align to, and execute the command. AtomineerUtils will search up and down from this starting point to auto-discover the block of similar code lines to be aligned.
• Select a block of lines to be processed, starting the selection from the symbol you wish to align to, and execute the command.

Description
When executed, this command will look at the closest text to the left or right of the current cursor position (or the top point of the selection). It then searches the block of lines to be processed for similar lines, and inserts tabs/spaces into these lines to align the matches into a column.

When used with a selected block, lines that don't match the pattern (e.g. blank lines) will be skipped, allowing tables with gaps in them to be processed in one pass.

For example (the red line shows where the cursor can be placed when executing the command):

int age |= 5;
int height |= 97;

int age    = 5;
int height = 97;

int age =| 5;
int height =| 97;

int age =    5;
int height = 97;

AddUser("Administrator",| "bunny");
AddUser("John",| "abc");
AddUser("Susanna",| "password");

AddUser("Administrator", "bunny");
AddUser("John",          "abc");
AddUser("Susanna",       "password");

int[] values = 
{
    4379, |81,
    323692, |1079233,
    12, |36846,
}

int[] values = 
{
    4379,   81,
    323692, 1079233,
    12,     36846,
}

By applying the command several times (left to right) you can align multiple parts of the lines:

byte flags = 0; // options
int volume = 72; // m3
long displacement = 134; // in water

byte flags        = 0;   // options
int  volume       = 72;  // m3
long displacement = 134; // in water

case Left: t = "left"; break;
case Top: t = "top"; break;
case Right: t = "right"; break;
case Bottom: t = "bottom"; break;

case Left:   t = "left";   break;
case Top:    t = "top";    break;
case Right:  t = "right";  break;
case Bottom: t = "bottom"; break;

The command will also align equivalent code elements such as logic operators, work on non-code text such as XML or CSV data, and tidy up code indentation:

if (readFile &&
    container.IsEmpty &&
    file.IsOpen ||
    reader != null)

if (readFile          &&
    container.IsEmpty &&
    file.IsOpen       ||
    reader != null)

<rec cn='Pitson' cc='PT' val='12'/>
<rec cn='Vea' cc='VE' val='7'/>
<rec cn='Lardy' cc='LAL' val='149'/>

<rec cn='Pitson' cc='PT'  val='12'  />
<rec cn='Vea'    cc='VE'  val='7'   />
<rec cn='Lardy'  cc='LAL' val='149' />

      int i = 0;
  int j = 1;
    int k = i + j;	

    int i = 0;
    int j = 1;
    int k = i + j;

Making the most of Alignment
Arguably one of the best features of the Visual Studio editor is also one of its least-known features. Hold down Alt while dragging (or use Alt+Shift with the cursor keys) and the selection becomes an arbitrary rectangular region (column) within the code. These columns can be copied and pasted, deleted, and overtyped (as you type, the text is repeated into every line in the selection). Once you have aligned the code into columns with AtomineerUtils, this feature makes editing tables of information incredibly fast and easy, as you can move entire columns, add and delete columns as easily as though you were editing a single line of text. This feature is incredibly powerful once you get used to it, and can save a huge amount of time.

Preferences
When inserting whitespace, tabs or spaces will be inserted based on your Visual Studio preferences. However, there is one dedicated preference (on the 'Misc' tab) for this command: When aligning code to a column, it can be aligned to any column (using spaces as necessary to minimise the inserted whitespace), or to the next tab-column (using only tabs).

NOTES:

• The automatic block detection works best on blocks of code separated by blank lines. If you don't separate blocks in this way, you may find you need to explicitly select the block to be processed to help AtomineerUtils align the text as required.
• Although it is targetted at code, this command works on any text, including text within documentation comments, XML or CSV files, etc.
• The algorithm used by AtomineerUtils is a generalised one. The advantage of this is that it is not limited (e.g. to only aligning assignments), but the compromise of the design is that on occasion you may find an example where AtomineerUtils aligns something you didn't want it to. In these cases, you may need to be more explicit (select only the lines you wish to affect), or apply the alignment by hand.
• Visual Studio provides automatic formatting as you type - this can remove the extra whitespace provided by the Align Columns command. To avoid this happening, go to Tools > Options > Text Editor > {language} > Formatting, and adjust the Spacing options provided. (You can test the results by using the Edit > Advanced > Format Selection menu option to reformat a chunk of code to see how Visual Studio treats the aligned code)

Command: Create C# or C++/CLI Property, Create C++ Access Methods

C++: Creates simple inlined "Get" and "Set" methods to access a member variable, making it much quicker and easier to make members private and properly encapsulate your class data.

C++/CLI: Creates a Property for your member variable, implementing default get/set methods.

C# (VS2005): Creates a Property for your member variable, implementing default get/set methods, and adding handy debugger attributes.

C# (VS2008/2010): Augments the VS2005 behaviour with a two-stage conversion. It will convert a member variable into an auto-property, and convert an auto-property into an explicitly implemented property with a backing field.

Usage
In your C++ header or C# class, place the cursor anywhere in the middle of a member variable or auto-property declaration, then invoke the appropriate command.

Description
A preference option (see below) is available that specifies the style of the member variables that are consumed and created by this command. However, a variable need not match the template to be processed correctly - it may have a lower-case first character, or an underscore as a prefix/suffix (e.g. 'variable', '_variable', 'Variable_', 'mVariable' or 'm_Variable').

C++: Get and Set methods will be created, and inserted into the document above the preceeding "public/protected/private:" tag. For known simple types (int, float, etc) the accessors will pass by value. For unknown types, it assumes complex types (struct/class) and will pass by const-reference. The names used for the getter/setter can be configured in the preferences.

C++/CLI: A property is defined, and inserted into the document above the preceeding "public/protected/private:" tag.

C# 2005: A property is defined, and is inserted immediately above the member variable declaration. The protection level for the variable will be changed to private, and the Property will use the protection level previously assigned to the variable (or public if it was private).

It also adds attributes to improve debugging of the property (stops the debugger single-stepping into the property get/set function, and hides the member variable in the Locals window so that you don't end up with the property and the member variable both being displayed alongside each other). (A using System.Diagnostics; will be automatically added as well if required)

C# 2008/2010: When executed on a member variable, it is converted into an auto-property. When executed on an auto-property, it is converted into an explicitly implemented property with a backing field. The backing field will use the variable naming style configured in the preferences.

You can convert from a member variable to an explicit implementation by just executing the command twice in succession.

A preference is provided to allow you to set a template for the backing field naming style. For an auto-property called 'MyProp', the default (a blank prefix) is to generate a backing field 'myProp'. With a template specified, other styles (e.g. '_MyProp', 'm_MyProp' 'mMyProp', '_Member_MyProp_' can be generated.

Note that debugger attributes are not added in VS2008/2010, as these IDEs provide much better debugger stepping facilities, so the attributes are no longer necessary.

private int mSpeed;

public int Speed { get; set; }

public int Speed
{
    get { return(mSpeed); }
    set { mSpeed = value; }
}
private int mSpeed;

public:
private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

public:
  property int Integer
  {
    int get()           { return(mInteger); }
    void set(int value) { mInteger = value; }
  }

  property const MyClass& ComplexClass
  {
    const MyClass& get()           { return(mComplexClass); }
    void set(const MyClass& value) { mComplexClass = value; }
  }

private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

public:
private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

public:
  int GetInteger(void) const   { return(mInteger);   };
  void SetInteger(int Integer) { mInteger = Integer; };

  const MyClass &GetComplexClass(void) const         { return(mComplexClass);        };
  void SetComplexClass(const MyClass &ComplexClass)  { mComplexClass = ComplexClass; };

private:
  int      mInteger;
  MyClass  mComplexClass;

Command: Implement/Declare C++ method

(C++ only)
This command allows you to:

• Create a skeleton implementation of a method from its header declaration.
• Add a header declaration for an existing implementation.

Usage
Place the cursor into the first line of a function declaration/implementation and invoke the command.

Description
When executed in a header (.h) file:
This converts the declaration for a method in the header, and any contiguous block of single-line comments preceeding it, into a skeleton implementation and a full documentation comment, which are appended to the source (.cpp) file.

• All default parameters and modifiers like "static" are stripped from the implementation
• Any block of C++ single-line comments immediately above the function are concatenated into a single line and moved into the description field in the header
• A skeleton function body is appended, and in the case of simple types, a simple default return value is provided.
• A documentstion comment is atuomatically generated, and the text cursor is left in the summary section.

When executed in a source (.cpp) file:
This adds a declaration for the method in the header (.h) file. Where possible, AtomineerUtils will locate the correct namespace/class to add the declaration into. The new declaration is inserted at the bottom of the class.

For this command to work, the .cpp and .h file must have a common filename, and both be part of your Visual Studio Project.

Header declaration:

// Creates a new Thingummy containing the required number of Wotsits
Thingummy *CreateThingummy(CreateInfo *pInfo, int NumWotsits = 12) const;

Resulting source file implementation (with doxygen-style comment)

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/// \fn	Thingummy *MyClass::CreateThingummy(CreateInfo *pInfo, int NumWotsits)
///			
/// \author	Jason Williams
/// \date	6/6/2005
///
/// \brief	Creates a new Thingummy containing the required number of Wotsits
///
/// \param	pInfo		If non-NULL, the information
/// \param	NumWotsits	The number of wotsits
///
/// \retval	NULL if it fails, else
///
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Thingummy *MyNamespace::MyClass::CreateThingummy(CreateInfo *pInfo, int NumWotsits) const
{

  return(NULL);
}

Command: Open C/C++ Source or Header

When executed in a C/C++ source/header file, opens the matching header/source file.

Usage
Execute the command when you are working in a C/C++ header or source file.

Description
When executed in a C/C++ source/header file, this simply opens the matching header/source file. The files must be in the same project, and use the same base filename.

Command: Hide DocComments using Outlining

Uses Visual Studio's Outlining feature to hide all Documentation XML Comments in your code.

Usage
Execute the command at any time, or have it automatically executed whenever you open a code document by enabling the preference.

Description
This command hides all multi-line DocComments (lines beginning with ///) in your file using the Outlining feature of the Visual Studio Editor. This allows you to see 'just the code' without the comments interfering with your view. To see the text of the comments, just hover the mouse over the [...] to show a tool-tip. To edit a comment, double-click the [...] to re-display the outlined text.

Command: Hide Attributes using Outlining

Uses Visual Studio's Outlining feature to hide Attributes in your C# code.

Usage
Execute the command at any time, or have it automatically executed whenever you open a code document by enabling the preference.

Description
This command hides all C# Attributes in your file using the Outlining feature of the Visual Studio Editor. This allows you to see 'just the code' without the attributes interfering with your view. To see the text of the attributes, just hover the mouse over the [...] to show a tool-tip. To edit the attribute, double-click the [...] to re-display the outlined text.

Command: Copy As Text

Copies selected text onto the clipboard in a simple, clean format for use in other programs.

Usage
Just as with a regular copy: Select the text you wish to copy and execute the command. If no text is selected, the entire line containing the cursor will be copied.

Description
When you copy text from Visual Studio to other applications, it includes colour codes for the syntax colouring scheme. This is not very useful when you want to put the text into a document that will be printed or emailed, especially if you use a non-white background colour! Additionally, Visual Studio copies the text verbatim - including surplus indentation that pushes your text to the right when pasted, and Tab characters that can cause the formatting to become a complete mess.

This command addresses all of these issues by copying the selected text in your document to the clipboad as plain text. It (optionally) strips unnecessary indentation from the block, and (optionally) converts tabs into spaces.

Note that for the formatting to appear correct in the pasted text, you must display it using a monospaced font (e.g. Courier New).

Command: Word wrap comment

Word-wraps the text in a comment block.

Usage
Place the cursor anywhere inside a // comment block (that spans one or more lines). Invoke this command. (Note that the Add Doc Comment command also does this, to save having to use another keypress, but this command is included so that it can be used in isolation and (e.g. from macros) if preferred)

Description
The text in the current //-style comment block will be word-wrapped according to the preferences in the DocComment section of the AtomineerUtils options.

Other Menu Items

AtomineerUtils Options...
Shows a dialog for setting the AtomineerUtils Preferences.

Help and User Guide...
Opens the latest version of this User Guide page (direct from the AtomineerUtils website) in your default Internet Browser.

Check for updates...
Accesses the AtomineerUtils website to determine if a newer version is available for download. (Note: This currently does not work if your PC is behind a Proxy Server. I hope to rectify this soon).

About AtomineerUtils...
Shows a dialog providing information on AtomineerUtils, the installed version, and the number of times you have used it.

SuppressUI and AllowUI commands

Suppress user-interface prompting to allow execution from a Visual Studio macro.

Usage
The SuppressUI and AllowUI commands are only available to macros (and hotkeys). They suppress or allow reporting of any problems via information dialogs. Suppression of this UI allows macros to automate execution of AtomineerUtils commands without being stalled by dialogs popping up.

Just include the following commands at the start and end of your macro:

    DTE.ExecuteCommand("Atomineer.Utils.Commands.SuppressUI")

    ... your macro here ...

    DTE.ExecuteCommand("Atomineer.Utils.Commands.AllowUI")

• Documentation style: Doxygen (Qt style \command), Doxygen (JavaDoc style @command), Documentation XML (<command>)
• User Name: Normally, author comments will use the user's login name, but you can enter a custom name here to override it
• Date format. This is a DateTime formatting string that controls how dates are displayed in doc comments. e.g. 'd', 'dd-mm-yyyy', 'dddd, d MMMM YYYY' etc
• Date culture. Use the current culture, or set a specific culture to have your dates formatted in the language/style of your preference.
• Live update: Here you can enable/disable the typing enhancements AtomineerUtils performs in regular and documentation comment blocks.
• Conversion: This allows you to enable or disable the conversion of <, > and & characters into the XML/HTML entities &lt;, &gt;, and &amp; as required to keep your documentation XML legal.

In addition, these Doxygen/JavaDoc-specific options can be set:

• Doxygen tags can be of the form '\brief' (Qt style) or '@brief' (JavaDoc style)
• Add single-line comments to right of code element. By default, AtomineerUtils will add a single-line comment on the line above any variable that you document. Check this option to tell AtomineerUtils to instead add the comment to the end of the same line (note that this is only fully compatible with Doxygen, as Documentation XML comments must always precede the code element that they document)
• Suppress 'brief' tag. Doxygen supports the Qt/JavaDoc "AutoBrief" style where the brief description entry does not have a tag introducing it. AtomineerUtils Pro supports this style of JavaDoc/Doxygen comments.
• Add declarations/prototypes to Doxygen comments. With this enabled, the declaration of the code element being commented will be added to the doc comment (i.e. @class, @fn, @property, etc)

The final section allows you to control which code elements AtomineerUtils will comment. By default it allows you to document any code element, but it is common for library programmers to only want to add documentation for 'public' members, or for application programmers to supress documentstion of private methods. If you wish to do this, set the access level(s) for which you want documentation to be allowed, and AtomineerUtils will ensure that you can only document those code elements. (This is primarily intended for use with the 'Doc all in this Scope' feature to stop AtomineerUtils documenting code elements you wish to remain undocumented). Please note that this feature is only available for C#, Visual Basic and Java code (C++ does not specify the access modifier in the code element declaration, so AtomineerUtils cannot determine the access level to apply)

Doc Comment - Border Style tab

This section controls the border of the doc comment. There are two standard comment styles that Visual Studio will recognise (it will syntax colour them and extract them as documentation comments for intellisense). Doxygen also recognises and parses these formats, so they are the recommended base style:

• 'Triple slash' format. In this form, every line in the doc comment is prefixed by ///
• 'C-style' format. In this form, a C-style /** ... */ comment is used, with a double asterisk at the start to indicate that the comment contains XML documentation.

AtomineerUtils Pro supports these formats (and more) by allowing you to define the format of optional first and last lines (the top and bottom 'separator' lines) and an optional prefix that is used on every line in the body of the comment. These can be almost anything you want, as long as they meet these primary requirements:

• The content of the documentation block needs to be excluded from compilation, so you need a well-formed //, /*...*/ or #if...#endif block as a minimum.
• The pair of separator lines, or the line prefix, must be distnct from other text in your file so that AtomineerUtils can correctly locate, parse, and update existing comments.

Any of these can be set to (none) to remove them from your comment style entirely. The default format is the 'triple slash' format with ////////// separator lines to demark the comment block, but several other common and demonstration formats are provided in the combo boxes, or you can type in a custom string.

Note that the top separator can be a multi-line block (using \n in the text to denote newlines). If you use this, you must use a /** ... */ comment style for AtomineerUtils to be able to correctly parse and update existing comments. Within this top separator, you can also optionally use %type% to embed the type of the code element (Class, Method, Property, Constructor, etc) and %name% to embed the code element's name in this separator section. A three-line demo format is available to trial this form.

AtomineerUtils also has special support for enclosing the documentation comment or entire code element within a code-outlining region. To achieve this, the top separator must start with '#region' or '#pragma region'. To enclose only the documentation comment in the region, set the bottom separator to '#endregion' or '#pragma endregion'. To enclose the entire code element in the region, make sure the bottom separator does not end the region - when AtomineerUtils sees the unterminated region, it will automatically ensure that the #endregion is present at the end of the code element. (Note: usually AtomineerUtils is extremely resilient to unparseable code, but the code must be parseable in this instance for the end-region to be correctly inserted)

Lastly, AtomineerUtils can optionally enforce a specific number of blank lines above and/or below each DocComment to ensure a consistent style throughout your code with a minimum of effort.

Doc Comment - Entry Style tab

These options control the text formatting within comments. As you change these options, a preview is shown at the bottom of the window so you can (roughly) see the effect - it is usually easier to play with the settings and watch this than to try to work out from descriptions what each setting will do. You can also click 'Apply' and test the settings immediately in Visual Studio to confirm that the settings achieve exactly what you want in your own code.

There are three sets of similar options. The first set applies to 'single entries'. These are entries in the comment that typically only occur once - summary/brief, returns, etc. The second set applies to 'groups of entries' - ones like param, typeparam and exception that often occur as a group of several entries. The final set is (optionally) used in cases where an entire entry will fit onto a single line.

Hint: You can use the quick-setup wizard to choose a style that most closely matches your requirements, and then use these options to tweak the style if required.

The core options are:

• What to insert between the entry tag and the description text. This controls how much whitespace there is between the tag and text, or can add a newline.
• What to insert at the start of each new line in the description text. This allows the text block to be left-aligned, indented slightly, or indented so that the text forms a block with each line starting directly below the preceeding line.
• (DocXML only) What to insert at the end of the text, before the end-tag. Again, this allows the tag to be separated with a small amount of whitespace, or moved onto a new line (left-aligned or lined up below the preceeding line of text)
• The 'Keep short entries as a single line' check-box allows AtomineerUtils to ignore the above settings if the entire entry is short enough to be added as a single line of text.

The other options available on this page are:

• 'Word wrap'. With this disabled, AtomineerUtils will leave the line formatting up to you. When it is enabled, AtomineerUtils will word-wrap the text as it updates a comment, to keep it tidy. You can set the word-wrap column relative to the edge of the page, or relative to the left of the comment block (so that all comment blocks are the same width, regardless of their indentation within the code)
• 'Add blank lines between blocks of entries'. By default, AtomineerUtils will separate each block of ssmiilar entries from the next by adding blank lines. This option disables that feature, to produce a more compact but less readable comment layout. (Note: Comment Templates can be used to specify exactly where blank lines are inserted, if you require more exact control over the layout)
• 'Align text in group to same column'. When the group formatting options specify that the text should be aligned with the text from the preceeding line, this can be aplied to each entry independently, or to the description text for all the entries in the group as a whole. This group-wide formatting makes the comment much easier to read, but often results in a lot of space being sacrified.

Advanced Customisation tab
The style and layout of doc comments, and the auto-doc text generated can be radically customised by editing the AtomineerUtils Rules. These are described in a simple XML-based form. Rather than editing the raw Rules.xml file, this Options tab allows you to customise specific parts of the rules independently in a set of xml files.

Each customisation file contains a lot of documentation in the form of embedded XML comments and examples that show you how to write your own rules to augment the default AtomineerUtils behaviour. Please see the Rules Guide for full details on how to edit your own custom rules.

The last section of this Tab allows you to move the storage location for the block comment style preferences into a set of custom files. These preferences will continue to be edited as normal in the preferences dialog, but will now be stored on your Rules Path, making it possible for them to be held under Source Control. You can move these files anywhere you like as long as they can be found on the Rules Path you set at the top of the Tab. (As described above, these files can be used with %variables% in your path to apply different comment styles for each of your solutions or projects)

More information on custom templates and rules can be found below.

Live Preview pane

This section (at the bottom of the three Doc Comment tabs) shows an example comment, illustrating the sort of style you can expect from the settings you have chosen. It updates live as you change the preferences. Note that this is a guide only, but it will give you a fairly reasonable idea of how the real comments will appear.

Source Outlining tab
Documentation comments can be collapsed/hidden using Visual Studio's Outlining feature. These options control how and when outlining occurs:

• Choose to automatically apply outlining for all files as they are opened
• Hide the entire comment, or leave the first line visible
• Remove or retain the whitespace between the comment and the code element

A similar set of options are available when outlining Attributes

• Choose to automatically apply outlining for all files as they are opened
• Remove or retain the whitespace between the atribute and the code element

Misc tab
This contains the preferences for several of the simpler commands, as well as general AtomineerUtils preferences.

'Menu Items' allows you to hide menu items for AtomineerUtils commands that you don't use. Why clutter the VS menus with options you never use? This just helps to keep the user interface clean and useful.

'Copy as Plain Text command' allows you to control the format of the text that Copy As Text will place on the clipboard.

The DocComment output of AtomineerUtils is extremely configurable via a set of simple Xml files. A full guide on creating these files is available here.

If you augment the rules, please consider emailing me your updated rules file for possible inclusion into following releases.