The Instant Feature Builder v1.0

I’ve been working on guided developer experiences at Microsoft for the past 6 years.  Beginning with helping Jack Greenfield and Keith Short deliver a full-day tutorial on Software Factories at OOPSLA 2004, cruising through Project Glidepath in 2005 and 2006, Software + Services Blueprints in 2007, Microsoft Blueprints in 2008 and finally the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 which shipped this past July, I’ve been trying to find the right combination of power and ease-of-use for both guidance authors and consumers.

A few months ago, as the Feature Builder Power Tool was just about to ship, I had a brainstorm and thought, what if I could build a drag-and-drop authoring experience that ran inside Visual Studio (including Visual Studio Professional) and delivered just the essentials of combining documentation with code and easy-to-use automation (via hyperlinks)…

Well, I built a prototype in June and just now finished my first public release:  Instant Feature Builder v1.0.

Note: You still need to download and install the Visual Studio SDK to use the Instant Feature Builder.

You can get the binary VSIX either from the Visual Studio Gallery (search for Instant Feature Builder) or get it along with the source at https://InstantFB.codeplex.com

Note:  This is a personal project and not a replacement for the Feature Builder Power Tool.  It does, however, give you 80% of the power of the full Feature Builder with a dramatically easier to use experience.

I look forward to not only your feedback but all the Feature Extension you build.  Please drop me a line so I can hilight your work.

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 11, 2010
  Second best thing after PreProcessed Text Templates. Alleviates the pain of "Path Name too long" problem as a by-product!