Review: Code Critic

Software Development, Rick Wayne 
December 2002

http://www.fmsinc.com/dotnet/analyzer/

If nothing else, Extreme Programming has taught us that nobody should be ashamed of having another pair of eyes look over his or her code. The principle holds even if the "eyes" are implemented in software instead of protoplasm. For .NET programmers, FMS has come out with a toll to cast a critical eye on their C# and visual Basic .NET programs. Called Total .NET Analyzer, the package sniffs out more than 150 different issues that can occur in your code, and recommends suitable fixes. The Analyzer performs its magic from within Visual Studio .NET, and the results appear in a tab within the environment. It finds dead code, potential performance traps, programming style issues and more, from Abstract Constructor ("Do not declare public constructors in abstract types"), through EventArgumentCount ("Microsoft recommends that there should always be two parameters for all events"), to my personal favorite, Write-Only Property ("Avoid using write-only properties").

Of course, having your nose rubbed in these issues will be a real learning experience, but it's a great way to pick up some of the best practices in .NET coding. If you disagree, fine: You can turn rules off, change their severity ranking, or even add your own notes to the output.

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