Visual Studio 2005 Interface

Posted by Alexander Higgins - July 22, 2008 at 4:00 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog

I have been working on a new interface for the version 2.0 of my IIS Log File Parser which would allow me to create dockable, floating and auto hide panels in my applications, just like the ones in Visual Studio.Net 2005. What a gruesome and cumbersome task I had undertaken trying to recreate all of the features we .Net Developers take for granted in Visual Studio.

The Log File Parser is not the only project I wanted it for, I also have plans to incorporate it into HigginsLib, a master Libray of Asp.Net classes that feature various aspects of code I have assembled over the years (written by myselft and others including an arp poisener, Asp.Net CMS, Internet Explorer Proxy, an Asp.Net Proxy Server, A Directory Services/ADSI browser, an Asp.Net Html Parser, and many other classes and utilities) .

I am not a design guy. Don’t get me wrong, I can do it it, but its not my thing. And putting together a user interface, well it kinda of sucks. Then all of the sudden a little ray of hope shined on my day when I stumbled upon (no pun intended) an article on codeproject.com (Wow!!StumbleUpon a pun!?). By the way, CodeProject.Com and SourceForge.Net are two of my favorites sites, except I find SourceForge to be a usability nightmare, but I’ll save that for another post.

The article I found contained the open source code I needed to create just the interface I was currently developing. Yeah, it’s never fun to scrap a project you’ve been working on for a few weeks, but why try to reinvent the wheel when you can use the someone else’s wheel to invent a rocket engine. Kudos to Danilo Corallo for taking Weifen Luo’s Dck Panel Suite and creating such a great article on Code Project.

Here’s a screen shot the Visual Studio 2005 Interface. If you want to learn more visit the article at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/DockPanelSkin.aspx

Sample Image - DockPanelSkin.png