Help on Help

Quercus

Quercus

Regular
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
53
Location
Maryland
I’m having a lot of difficulty with the new MSDN for VS.NET. It seems like a major step backwards from the MSDN that accompanies VS.6. Basically, it seems like there is a lot of information, but none of it is readily accessible.

In VS6, the F1 key brings me to a page that lists almost everything I need to know about a command, property, method, event, object, etc. The Applies To list tells me what is just above my location in the object hierarchy, and the Properties, Methods and Events lists tell me what is just below my location in the hierarchy.

However, the same does not seem to be true in MSDN.NET. I recently went looking for information on the Form.BindingContext property from the example:

Code: 
Me.BindingContext(Me.dsCustomerIndividual, "Customers").EndCurrentEdit()

The help system showed me a page for the BindingManagerBase class, (which is what is returned by the above statement), not the BindingContext property itself, or any information on the parameter list. It took me about fifteen minutes of digging before finally finding a page on the property I was looking for and documentation regarding the parameter list.

Along the way was many pages filled with little information, such as the help page for the AddNew method which stated little more than that the method could be used to add another member to the collection, but had no mention of the parameters required for the method’s use.

Is there a trick to using the new help system that I’m missing? Some change in philosophy or conventions that will make using it easier. Because at the moment, its cost in frustration is almost too high to bother with.
 
If I type Me.BindingContext, put the cursor on it and press F1, I get a page about the Form's BindingContext property. There isn't much information there but it says it overrides the Control's property of the same name, with a link to that topic. I click on it, and it seems to have a wealth of information on the property.
 
It would appear that you are getting linked to a different place than I. If I type Me.BindingContext and press F1, I get a page about BindingContext class members. It's still not the property I'm looking for.

There are many links on this page, and those links all contain a wealth of information. But the point is, you still have to hunt for answers. In VS6, the system gave you the answers (in most cases) with the first key stroke.

Even in your case where the system returned the BindingContext property (as opposed to the class as it does for me), where on this page does it tell you that the Item member is the default member? It doesn't. You can only figure this by hunting and trail. I only figured this one out when I stumbled accross it.

All in all, I still find this system very confusing.
 
I found VS6 msdn help to be worse than .NET's. Maybe you have to hunt it down but the number of info is just huge. In vb6 i used help and sometimes only few sentences came up.
 
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