Visual Studio Keyboard Shortcuts

I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. When I first started working with AutoCAD, I learned to rely less on toolbars and buttons and more on entering short aliases in the command line to get things done. The result was that I spent less time going back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. Later, when I started using Photoshop, I was amazed at how much time you could save using keyboard shortcuts like CTRL+T (free-transform layer) and CTRL+J (new layer via copy).

The most important keyboard shortcut I ever learned, however, was CTRL+S. It only took one time losing hours of work in a CAD drawing to start using it religiously.

Now I look for shortcuts for any program I spend a lot of time working in. And since I've been spending more time with Visual Studio than with my friends and family the last 5-1/2 weeks, I've gotten pretty friendly with these little time-savers. Here are some of my favorite...

Shortcut	Operation	Notes
CTRL+K, C	Comment a line of code	You can place cursor in line without selecting anything
CTRL+K, U	Uncomment a line of code	Same as above
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER	Blank line after cursor line	Cursor can be anywhere in the line, and you don't have to use END, ENTER
ALT+UP or DOWN	Move line up or down	Cursor can be anywhere in the line, without selecting
CTRL+DELETE	Delete word to right
CTRL+BACKSPACE	Delete word to left
CTRL+. (period)	Open Smart Tag	When you get the red squiggle, sometimes it's hard to get to this with the mouse
CTRL+ALT+L	Open Solution Explorer
CTRL+; (semicolon)	Focus on Search Solution Eplorer	Same as above, except puts your cursor in the search box
CRTL+, (comma)	Focus on Navigate To	This searches for words in entire solution and takes you to it when you hit ENTER
CTRL+F	Open Quick Find
CTRL+H	Open Quick Replace
CTRL+Q	Open Quick Launch	Allows you to search everything in VS, including tools & options
CTRL+ALT+S	Open Server Explorer
CTRL+W, E	Open Error List
F1	Navigate to Help File	Place cursor in any keyword in text editor, opens MSDN help file for item
F12	Navigate to Definition	Place cursor in code to find definition
CTRL+SHIFT+B	Build Solution
F5	Start Debugging
CTRL+F5	Start w/o Debugging
CTRL+F6	Next Tab
CTRL+SHIFT+F6	Previous Tab

Oh, I almost forgot CTRL+K, D... Automatically formats tabs and white-space to make your code look snazzy!

Bugs Be Gone!

Week 3 has been all about jumping into an existing project, finding your way around the code, and making changes or tweaks in the HTML, CSS, or C# to fix bugs or make things look better. It has been great practice for troubleshooting and getting around in a big application. Visual Studio's Page Inspector tool, as well as the search function of the Solution Explorer have been a big help for me. Working together and individually, we've been able to fine tune some of the features originally built by the two previous troops.

This week I also started working on my personal project, Goalizr. Using Entity Framework code-first, I created my classes and database, and then seeded the database with some initial data for testing. My tables include Goals, Activities, and Emotions. I also needed to create some intermediary classes for GoalActivities and ActivityEmotions, so that I can associate multiple Activities to each Goal, and likewise, multiple Emotions to each Activity. We'll be busy the next few weeks creating the Fundio admin dashboard, but I want to keep working on Goalizr when I have the time so that I can have a solid application in my portfolio by the time I finish camp.

We also had a hiring day on Thursday, where recruiters and potential employers are invited to the school to conduct interviews and give us the opportunity to meet with folks in the industry face to face. I met some top-notch people from companies in the Houston area. One company, Assemble Systems, has a web application product that integrates 3D CAD drawings into an online viewer for Building Information Management. As I get closer to the end of camp, I'll definitely be looking into companies like this that combine CAD & GIS into web-based software solutions. There is some amazing new technology that's being developed right now, and I'd love to be a part of it.

On a sad note, we said goodbye to some of the graduates of one of the other troops. They were a huge help to us these last three weeks, and I wish them the best of luck on their own new career paths.

Coder Camps Prerequisite Work

In preparation for the Coder Camps programming school, I have been asked to complete some prerequisite work in the form of reading, going through online tutorials, as well as setting up this blog and a profile on LinkedIn. Although I'm still working on marking these off the checklist, I thought I'd post something about what it takes to get ready for a camp like this.

One of the books recommended by the school is Head First C# which focuses on the C# programming language and the .NET framework (not related to .net top level domain, by the way). I can tell from going through some of this book, there's a steep learning curve. I'm sure it's true with any programming language, even spoken languages, but I'm banking on being immersed in it for 9 weeks to get into the groove of things.

Another book I picked up, which wasn't recommended but looked interesting, was Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. Less of a technical book, the author explores the connections between humans and machines, and the history of communications technology such as Morse code & Braille. So far, a good read that explores the world of computers in an entertaining and easy to grasp format.

Another prerequisite is to become familiar with some of the technologies that will be used at the camp. Primarily, we'll be using Visual Studio Express for Web, a web development program designed to help you create modern web applications. After installing the free software, and poking around a little bit, I could tell this is a powerful program. I look forward to seeing what this baby can do!

Since all websites are based on HTML, and more increasingly CSS, JavaScript & jQuery, a general understanding of these is needed to have a good head start going into the training. Coder Camps recommends Codecademy.com online courses to get a handle on these coding skills. I've completed the Web Fundamentals & jQuery courses, and am in the process of completing the JavaScript. The site walks you through lessons and exercises and allows you to enter and test your code in a handy virtual console. Some other online tutorial sites such as Codeschool.com and Teamtreehouse.com include videos and premium features.

While most of these tech bootcamps say they can take a complete beginner and turn them into an entry level programmer, I'm sure the prerequisite work allows students to focus on the meat and potatoes of programming when they get to camp. I feel like I've got a pretty basic understanding of this stuff, but I'm still a little nervous about jumping into 9 weeks of it. Oh well, a little pressure never hurt anyone...