How can I make all of the IDisposable classes colored differently in the Visual Studio IDE?

Question

Title covers it all. I'd like classes which implement IDisposable to show up in a specific color so I can know if I should wrap them in a using block. Is there a setting or a process by which you can extend the IDE?

score 20 · Answer 1 · edited Aug 31 '21 at 06:53

20

I assume this will become easier/extension-free once Roslyn comes out, but this is presently not easy because you can't access the code as C# from an extension easily.

In Resharper it's easy, though! My example was tested in ReSharper 9.0. Sadly, there's no easy way to give this to you.

Extensions -> Resharper -> Options -> Code Inspection -> Custom Patterns -> Add, dialog popup
Select C# (upper left)
Select "Find" (upper right)
Add the pattern of new $disp$($args$)
Pattern severity: Show as suggestion
Description: Disposable construction
"Add Placeholder" of type: Type, name: disp, type: System.IDisposable
"Add Placeholder" of type: Arguments, name: args

Save and you'll now get a "suggestion" whenever a new disposable is being constructed.

Adding the pattern $disp$ $var$ = $exp$; could also be helpful.

"Add Placeholder" of type: Type, name: disp, type: System.IDisposable
"Add Placeholder" of type: Expression, name: exp
"Add Placeholder" of type: Identifier, name: var

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edited Aug 31 '21 at 06:53

keuleJ

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answered Feb 28 '15 at 20:22

Joseph Lennox

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Good workaround, but not as good as using a special color for variables/expressions of type IDisposable since it sort of makes it look like all cases of creating disposables are errors. R# feature request submitted: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/RSRP-472248 – dlf Nov 16 '18 at 14:15
can you please mention how to setup "Add Placeholder" parts in case of your last mentioned pattern (`$disp$ $var$ = $exp$;`) so we could just see all declarations of disposable items in .cs file. – T.Todua Jun 03 '20 at 12:34
Thank. just i doubt that in that addition, you described `$args$` while missed to mention about `$var$` ? sorry for bothering, just I'm new there. – T.Todua Jun 04 '20 at 07:07
@T.Todua I did miss that. Thanks! Fixed now. – Joseph Lennox Jun 05 '20 at 20:20

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:09

3

It is certainly possible to do this though it isn't as simple as just changing a setting. You would need to write a Visual Studio addin to accomplish this.

Visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsx/bb980955.aspx to get started. As others will point out. This is not for the faint of heart.

Here's a link that may point you toward what you are looking for:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb166778.aspx

answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:09

Kenneth Cochran

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good points. here is another good link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.visualstudio.textmanager.interop.ivshicoloritem.aspx – Stan R. Jul 27 '09 at 16:17
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I used to program ATL COM objects. I'm not faint-hearted. – quillbreaker Jul 27 '09 at 17:08

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:04

You cannot. This would require language service support and neither C# or VB.Net provide this functionality.

Cannot is probably too strong of a word. It's certainly possible to do this with an Add-In which does deep inspection of the code and figures out hierarchies. However it's a very non-trivial task.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:10

1

I am not sure, if FXCop or StyleCop can do this already. But then, it will be a post-compile suggestion/warning.

Resharper suggests this, I guess.

answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:10

shahkalpesh

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:10

0

Sure, there is a large set of tools to build VS extensions, see Visual Studio 2008 SDK 1.1 But time required to build such an add-in will require more time that you will spend by browsing components and determining whether they are Disposable or not

answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:10

Bogdan_Ch

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:14

0

The word on the street is this kind of thing will be much easier in VS.NET 2010. The editor is being rewritten in WPF.

answered Jul 27 '09 at 16:14

Jake Pearson

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 01 '10 at 21:08

0

Maybe I'm a bad person for doing this, but I've been using this piece of code recently:

public static void BulkDispose(object[] objects)
{
  foreach (object o in objects)
  {
    if (o != null)
    {
      if (o is IDisposable)
      {
        IDisposable disposable = o as IDisposable;
        disposable.Dispose();
      }
    }
  }
}

answered Feb 01 '10 at 21:08

quillbreaker

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It's not uncommon for Dispose to throw exceptions ("already disposed"), so you'd want each dispose call wrapped in a try/catch. – Joseph Lennox Jan 28 '15 at 21:47
1

Dispose shoud *never* throw because of multiple calls. If it does, the component in question doesn't comply with the IDisposable contract. See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.idisposable.dispose.aspx under Remarks: "The object must not throw an exception if its Dispose method is called multiple times." – bernhof Sep 15 '17 at 07:16

How can I make all of the IDisposable classes colored differently in the Visual Studio IDE?

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