5 ms·

A click away is this comparison with the beta: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/08/visual-studio-11-user-interface-updates-coming-in-rc.asp

by eCa 14y ago

A click away is this comparison with the beta: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/08/visual-studio-11-user-interface-updates-coming-in-rc.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/08/visu...

crisnoble 14y ago
I will eat my words. Found this too: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/29/visual-studio-dark-theme.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/29/visu... I actually quite like the darkness.
- headbiznatch 14y ago
  It's the Blend interface and I dig it too. But I like dark windows and stuff in general - I know it's not for everyone.
- aninteger 14y ago
  Looks like this is shaping up to be the "Maddox Visual Studio, the best Visual Studio on the internet". Capital letters, black backgrounds, now we just need insulting error messages full of manliness.
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    I might be OK with the ALL CAPS menu titles if I understood the rationale behind them. Has this been discussed officially anywhere? Because if not, I can't get beyond the nagging idea that MS is playing some kind of joke that I don't get, and that's a distraction that I don't need.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - MichaelGG 14y ago
      The best explanation I can come up with is that there's a ton of pressure for Metro this and Metro that. Partners at Microsoft must be upset Apple's market cap is twice Microsoft's, and well, they're gonna fix that no matter what. ALL CAPS is a highly visible thing they can backpedal on; it's supposed to be sacrificed. Then they can say "See, 95% of the comments were about the menus, and we changed it, so now we're all good!" Deflects from more serious criticism, as this comment demonstrates.
    - bgrainger 14y ago
      There's a registry value you can set to go back to normal (title case) menus: http://www.richard-banks.org/2012/06/how-to-prevent-visual-studio-2012-all.html http://www.richard-banks.org/2012/06/how-to-prevent-visual-s...
      - jasomill 14y ago
        Nice. Now to figure out how to restore the ordinary window chrome, as the "active" and "inactive" states of the new title bar are identical. Try as I may, I can think of no conceivable rationale for this. Metro notwithstanding, this makes about as much sense as replacing project "files" with "friends"...
    - bztzt 14y ago
      They're there to distinguish the menus from their surroundings, since they want to avoid using lines etc. to do that.
      - CamperBob2 14y ago
        The fact that the menu titles consist of text characters isn't enough?
apike 14y ago
I find it strange that they've moved to all-caps for menu titles (FILE, EDIT, VIEW...), especially considering Microsoft's recent uses of good typography. All-caps is a tradeoff where you take away the identifiable shape of a word to make it draw more attention. You could argue that menu titles would be the absolute worst place to use all-caps.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  The ALL CAPS MENU TITLES are supposedly "more Metro-like", even though many Metro screenshots are all-lowercase and the Metro motto is "content before chrome." I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't made their menu titles disappear until you move the mouse near them (like Mac OS X's X-+ window buttons). That sounds like the "hide the UI so it looks good but is less usable" style Microsoft likes.
  - kristianp 14y ago
    I installed the beta, which had all-caps in some of the headers. Initially I was annoyed that Microsoft has to spend so much time on changing the look of every edition of visual studio, but when I ran it, I actually liked the grey colour and the ALL CAPS.
  - DavidAbrams 14y ago
    Microsoft is merely following Apple's shitty lead on that. Microsoft is finding new ways to hinder usage all over the place. The "+" symbols in Explorer that used to tell you which folders had contents are missing now. Oh, unless you happen to roll the cursor into the left pane; then they suddenly appear. WTF.
  - jasomill 14y ago
    There's an extension[1] that does this. I'm now tempted to install it, at least until I find a way to back out the SCREAMING new menus. With that said, I've been using the beta for a couple months and it seems both snappier and more stable than 2010. [1] http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bdbcffca-32a6-4034-8e89-c31b86ad4813 http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bdbcffca-32a6-...

by eCa 14y ago

crisnoble 14y ago

I will eat my words. Found this too: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/29/visual-studio-dark-theme.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2012/05/29/visu... I actually quite like the darkness.

headbiznatch 14y ago
It's the Blend interface and I dig it too. But I like dark windows and stuff in general - I know it's not for everyone.
aninteger 14y ago
Looks like this is shaping up to be the "Maddox Visual Studio, the best Visual Studio on the internet". Capital letters, black backgrounds, now we just need insulting error messages full of manliness.
- CamperBob2 14y ago
  I might be OK with the ALL CAPS menu titles if I understood the rationale behind them. Has this been discussed officially anywhere? Because if not, I can't get beyond the nagging idea that MS is playing some kind of joke that I don't get, and that's a distraction that I don't need.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - MichaelGG 14y ago
    The best explanation I can come up with is that there's a ton of pressure for Metro this and Metro that. Partners at Microsoft must be upset Apple's market cap is twice Microsoft's, and well, they're gonna fix that no matter what. ALL CAPS is a highly visible thing they can backpedal on; it's supposed to be sacrificed. Then they can say "See, 95% of the comments were about the menus, and we changed it, so now we're all good!" Deflects from more serious criticism, as this comment demonstrates.
  - bgrainger 14y ago
    There's a registry value you can set to go back to normal (title case) menus: http://www.richard-banks.org/2012/06/how-to-prevent-visual-studio-2012-all.html http://www.richard-banks.org/2012/06/how-to-prevent-visual-s...
    - jasomill 14y ago
      Nice. Now to figure out how to restore the ordinary window chrome, as the "active" and "inactive" states of the new title bar are identical. Try as I may, I can think of no conceivable rationale for this. Metro notwithstanding, this makes about as much sense as replacing project "files" with "friends"...
  - bztzt 14y ago
    They're there to distinguish the menus from their surroundings, since they want to avoid using lines etc. to do that.
    - CamperBob2 14y ago
      The fact that the menu titles consist of text characters isn't enough?

apike 14y ago

I find it strange that they've moved to all-caps for menu titles (FILE, EDIT, VIEW...), especially considering Microsoft's recent uses of good typography. All-caps is a tradeoff where you take away the identifiable shape of a word to make it draw more attention. You could argue that menu titles would be the absolute worst place to use all-caps.

cpeterso 14y ago
The ALL CAPS MENU TITLES are supposedly "more Metro-like", even though many Metro screenshots are all-lowercase and the Metro motto is "content before chrome." I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't made their menu titles disappear until you move the mouse near them (like Mac OS X's X-+ window buttons). That sounds like the "hide the UI so it looks good but is less usable" style Microsoft likes.
- kristianp 14y ago
  I installed the beta, which had all-caps in some of the headers. Initially I was annoyed that Microsoft has to spend so much time on changing the look of every edition of visual studio, but when I ran it, I actually liked the grey colour and the ALL CAPS.
- DavidAbrams 14y ago
  Microsoft is merely following Apple's shitty lead on that. Microsoft is finding new ways to hinder usage all over the place. The "+" symbols in Explorer that used to tell you which folders had contents are missing now. Oh, unless you happen to roll the cursor into the left pane; then they suddenly appear. WTF.
- jasomill 14y ago
  There's an extension[1] that does this. I'm now tempted to install it, at least until I find a way to back out the SCREAMING new menus. With that said, I've been using the beta for a couple months and it seems both snappier and more stable than 2010. [1] http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bdbcffca-32a6-4034-8e89-c31b86ad4813 http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bdbcffca-32a6-...