Visual Studio 2008 + WPF = Pile of Crap | The Coffeehouse

ScanIAm
On a scale of 1 to 10, people are stupid.

Over the course of 2 hours, I've had to kill VS2008 twice because it refused to accept UI input. It wasn't busy. It wasn't doing anything, it simply didn't allow any input from the mouse or keyboard. Now, I'm waiting while it passes error reporting data back to MS at an average of 204bps. 15 minutes into the process, and I'm tempted to just kill it.

I use VS 2008 w/TFS at work, and it reminds me of trying to run in a swimming pool...slow, Slow, and Frikking SLOW.

I attempted to open up a simple WPF project up at work that had 1 button and 1 textbox, and after 5 minutes of waiting for some kind of UI response, I gave up.

I look forward to all of the wonders that will come from the convoluted and baroque BS that is WPF, but frankly, I won't be using it for anything commercial any time soon, and I'll be suggesting that our company doesn't either.

Get your sh*t together, MS.

Charles
Welcome Change

What other processes were running on your system during this experience? Sounds like a low resource availability context.
C

OrigamiCar

just out of interest, are you using vs.net with multipe monitors?
Occasionally (once every two weeks or so) mine will stop accepting inputs and it seems to be because I have the palette windows on a second screen. If I run on one screen, it doesn't hang.

Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

Maybe you should scan for virusses or something, because I have had no problems with VS 2008 and WPF.

We just did a large project with PRISM and WPF and none of our project members had any issues whatsoever, even in the VPC.

Dr Herbie
Horses for courses

In reply to Maddus Mattus

#Jan 28th @ 11:58 PM

I get similar problems, but with WinForms projects in VS2005. I have one of several very similar projects (all spawned from the same original code base for different customers) which hangs for 10 - 15 minutes the first time I open a form in the designer.

After 2 years I still haven't found out what's causing it!

Still, it's something to chip away at in slow periods ...

Herbie

elmer
I'm on my very last life.

I get this type of behaviour from time to time, and have ususally traced it back to a 3rd party tool/add-on that I've introduced into the mix for some reason - usually a specific reason, like I needed to use it.

Re-Running the VS install in repair mode has fixed it every time for me so far, but clearly VS2008 is a bit too easy to damage.

vesuvius
Das Glasperlenspiel

Using Visual studio is like walking through treacle?

First point of call is whether .NET 3.5 SP1 has been installed on this machine, if not please ensure that this has been done. Has Visual Studio 2008 SP1 been installed either, because that is also a necessity?

Be warned though that this installation will take ages. Apart from that, I have had issues with VS 2008 intermittently taking forever to do anything, even with small windows forms projects, I have always gone for a reboot which seems to work.

Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

In reply to Dr Herbie

#Jan 29th @ 12:39 AM

Don't do freaky stuff in the constructor of your form!

Do it in the onload so the designer does not fire the code!

Zeo
Channel 9 :)

In reply to Maddus Mattus

#Jan 29th @ 4:56 AM

If you're running into issues at work with Visual Studio being slow with TFS. Turn on the logging for a normal session (1-4 hours) and then send the log file to the administrator.

http://blogs.msdn.com/edhintz/archive/2007/03/30/tfs-client-tracing.aspx

If you tweak TFS it should be running fast.

BTW, how much RAM do you have on your client machine, also how fast is your disk (5400rpm, 7200rpm, 10,000 rpm)?

Dr Herbie
Horses for courses

In reply to Maddus Mattus

#Jan 29th @ 4:56 AM

Yes, we've been through all the constructors and double-checked and then triple-checked!
My personal hunch is something to do with database connections, but I can't prove it yet.

Herbie

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

In reply to Dr Herbie

#Jan 29th @ 5:34 AM

Turn on ADO.NET data tracing and see if there are any connection attempts

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms971550.aspx

I've noticed of late that some times VS will stop responding to right click and have to be restarted once in a while (VS2008-SP1+DB GDR)

Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

In reply to Dr Herbie

#Jan 29th @ 5:34 AM

Live preview acting up?

Edit;

The thread title should be Visual Studio 2008 == new piece(crap)

Maybe VS is using VB.Net compiler?

spivonious

I'm finishing up a VS2008+WPF project, and aside from a few designer bugs, I have had no problems. I'm thinking it's something with your configuration.

It runs acceptably fast on a Pentium E2140, 2GB RAM, XP SP3. It runs super fast if McAfee isn't running, but sadly I can't disable it any more.

Red5
Systems Manager Curmudgen

Scan,
This tool has been helpful to me in the past:
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

It might help you spot something you didn't consider in your overall PC build.

jenkis

In reply to Zeo

#Jan 29th @ 5:04 AM

I have a similar problem, but throw in crashing as well. I am doing a WPF VS2008 SP1 3.5SP1 project. I am not using any plugins.

This occurs regardless of the hardware (home / office) and also in multiple vpcs. The office machine is pretty much top spec, quad core, 3gb ram , xp. ...

Simple WPF projects run fine in all environments.

Let me summarise the events:

1. VS crashes when I build in the case where I have a xaml file open that includes merged dictionaries, or a file that references a StaticResource that comes from a file that has merged dictionaries. This is documented in the SP1 release notes as a known bug I am fairly sure.

2. As a result of 1, I have to remember to close almost all xaml files before building or a guaranteed crash happens. I can leave .cs files open.

3. I have broken down my styles in a hierarchy, eg brushes.xaml is referenced by textstyles.xaml is referenced by controlstyles.xaml / datatemplates.xaml / ....etc. Therefore everything falls into category 1, as then all my UI controls reference the StaticResources and templates for everything.

4. I have turned off the designer so as to open in full xaml view, but opening the xaml designer is very slow.

5. I am sure you can imagine the pain of having to remember to close files all the time, then having to wait to open each one again.

6. Independently of all that, even with all windows closed upon build, it freezes on average every 30 mins as the original author describes.

I am almost not joking when I suggest to myself that this crashing / recovery activity should be in the project plan. It costs me 15-30mins a day, if you throw in the loss of momentum as well.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

vesuvius
Das Glasperlenspiel

In reply to jenkis

#Feb 26th @ 3:18 AM

You may want to try this http://blogs.msdn.com/wpfsdk/archive/2008/11/10/wpf-designer-hotfix-is-posted.aspx

magicalclick

It is just you, mine is always working fine. From VS2005 Express C# to VS2008 Express C#, no big problems at all. The only problem I have ever had is WPF designer crashs when I did something wrong in the XAML file. I don't remember how I got it, but it is rare case. When I fixed the XAML, it got back to normal.

This is my system if you want to compare:
AMD Athlon64 x2 6000+
3GB RAM
Some cheapy motherbord.
WIN7 Beta, upgraded from Vista Ultimat.
VS Express 2008 C#.
No Add-in.
No Anti-Virus. (Worst Crapware, so, no way)
My windows is pretty clean. Besides Vista Codec, FalshGet, Paint .Net, and IE Pro. I don't have much other software installed. If I do, I ususally recover my PC within a year since I hate junks in my PC.