Microsoft’s .NET code analysis tool, FXCop, has offered the ability to create custom code analysis rules for many years, but the experience has been less than stellar. The version for VS 2010 offers some improvements and a better integration story, but some fundamental problems still remain.
At PDC 2009, Michael Shim and Rob Relyea presented Microsoft’s plans for the future of XAML. Long term, they plan on unifying the various XAML languages and parsers, but for now developers will only get XAML 2009 for non-UI technologies like Workflow Foundation. The new parser, on the other hand, will bring new functionality to everyone who needs to analyze, manipulate, or generate XAML.
Microsoft has released a new version of FxCop, the popular static code analyzer and policy enforcement utility. This release fixes numerous bugs and adds support .NET Framework 3.5 language features. This release updates FxCop to have the same engine enhancements provided to VSTS Code Analysis in VS 2008 SP1.
Microsoft has created FxCop rules for projects leveraging the extensibility framework System.AddIn. This joins the out-of-band project Pipeline Builder as a must-have for developers using this .NET 3.5 framework.
With over 200 bug fixes and performance improvements, this beta is what many FxCop users have been clamoring for. FXCop checks .NET managed code assemblies for conformance to the Microsoft .NET Framework Design Guidelines. Beyond basic library design and naming convention checks, FxCop is especially valuable in pointing out globalization, interoperability, and security issues.
Multi-targeting in Visual Studio 2008 leads to a new set of problems. With .NET 3.5 bringing new features to the core assemblies, care must be taken when targeting .NET 2.0. Otherwise, an application can be compiled successfully but fail to run due to missing methods. One way to handle this is to use Krzysztof Cwalina's Multitargeting rule for FxCop.
The Code Analysis team at Microsoft has decided to include FXCop's spell checker in Visual Studio 2008.
FXCop has a lot of code analysis rules, but does Microsoft actually use them all? Turns out the answer is no. David Kean lists which FXCop rules are considered mandatory by the Microsoft's Developer Division.
