What are code inspections?

Code inspections is a feature in Visual Assist that automatically checks source code for issues and code smells, and suggests the appropriate fix. The main benefit of using code inspection is better overall code quality with minimal effort.

Code inspections work by utilizing code checkers, sometimes referred to as static analyzers. These are tools that analyze your source code passively—it happens as you type your code. You do not need to actually compile and execute your code to detect a problem (i.e. finding bugs and errors using run-time techniques such as testing).

Code issues are underlined in blue. Line information and a description of the issue is also shown in the VA Code Inspection Results window.

It looks for common patterns, broken coding conventions, and potential bugs in the code using algorithms and special techniques. The purpose of code checkers is to catch problems early in the development process, which can save a lot of time and effort later on. 

What issues can it detect?

The issues and code smells that can be detected vary widely from stylistic infractions on coding convention, all the way to system critical errors.  Here are some of the common fixable issues:

• Detecting and updating obsolete coding syntax
• Highlights possible readability issues and broken coding conventions
• Checking type-related errors (such as making invalid type conversions or assigning values of incompatible types, using uninitialized variables, or.)
• Wasted resources due to inefficient memory allocation/deallocation.
• Other issues of non-obvious, but potentially dangerous, incorrectness

Visual Assist’s code inspection feature is based on LLVM’s /Clang-Tidy code analysis engine so you can be sure that it covers a variety of checks targeted at finding security and API usage bugs, dead code, and other logic errors. Additionally, we extend the functionality through the use of ‘evaluated’ checkers (more below).

READ: More examples from a blog by Bartek from C++ Stories

Evaluated and unevaluated checkers

Code checkers are added gradually to the list of Visual Assist code inspections. All checkers that are in the list are thoroughly evaluated, checked, and tested. Evaluated checkers often include changed functionality that is not in the base clang-tidy, making them more reliable and safe. This is a key part of the value of the checkers we include. Using evaluated checkers guarantees that the code will be refactored properly and any suggested fix will not break anything.

On the other hand, unevaluated checkers are still based on Clang-Tidy’s extensive list but have not undergone the same quality assurance tests as its counterparts. Almost a hundred unevaluated checkers have been added in Visual Assist 2023.2.

Note that unevaluated checkers will still suggest the recommended fix and behave like normal checks, but users are advised to manually ensure that everything is working correctly. The benefit that this brings is that developers can know what and where a potential issue lies—which is oftentimes the bulk of the work.

Why use code inspections to fix issues and refactor code?

Running code inspections lists down issues in a window for you to examine before implementing fixes.

Code inspections read source code line by line, analyzing the structure, logic, and syntax. It pays attention to specific patterns or coding conventions that may indicate potential issues. As they encounter a line of code, it uses a set of rules and algorithms to determine if the code adheres to best practices or if there are any deviations.

Using code inspections automates a lot of the manual checking and verification that developers would traditionally do. With it, it no longer matters how familiar a developer is on a project, or how large a solution is—it all goes under the same level of scrutiny.

it provides some of the following benefits as well:

• Be able to utilize modern coding practices without actually knowing them.
• Improve code quality with minimal refactoring risk.
• Detecting potential code issues early.

WATCH: Understand how code inspections are evaluated

How to use code inspections to eliminate code smells

First, make sure to enable it by navigating to Extensions -> VAssistX -> Code Inspection (beta) -> Enable code inspection. 

Then you can either click on detected issues underlined in blue, use the Quick Refactoring Menu (Shift + Alt + Q) while on the highlighted issue, or use the code inspection dialogue to implement changes in batches.

WATCH: Code inspections in action

Visual Assist by Whole Tomato: Filling Gaps in Visual Studio for C/C++ and C# Developers

Visual Assist is a productivity extension for Visual Studio development work. It provides a set of intelligent refactoring, navigation, code highlighting and generation features for C, C++, and C# development. With its highly-efficient memory management and minimal UI, Visual Assist gives developers uninterrupted access to advanced features without slowing down the IDE.

Visual Assist is one of the definitive plugins that conceptualized and shaped most of the current features you see now in Visual Studio. And to this day it continues to develop user-centric design for maximum productivity and usability.

Download Visual Assist here.

The post Everything you need to know about code inspections first appeared on Tomato Soup.

In this blog post, we try to guesstimate the value of Visual Assist as a productivity and time-saving tool.

Why do developers need Visual Assist?

Before we dive into the numbers, we first need to understand why having Visual Assist is needed in the first place.

Technically speaking, VA is not necessary to code in Visual Studio. However, some developers can attest that there are projects that are almost infeasible to do without tools like VA. 

For instance, those working with large C++ source code may find that the IDE’s built-in features can choke on resource-intensive processes. In this case, users will greatly benefit from VA’s highly performant and context-aware features that have been specifically designed to support the areas where Visual Studio needs it.

Now let’s do some simple calculations with some hypothetical scenarios. You will soon find out that the opportunity cost in having Visual Assist is so low and the return on investment so high that there is simply no reason to ever code without it again.

Visual Assist for Developers

For developers, the benefit of having a performant and light coding assistant is pretty easy to understand. With VA installed, coding is simply faster and easier. With a slew of features designed to support even the highly complex C++ language, developers can focus on more important tasks.

The amount a developer spends wouldn’t define the usefulness of VA. A better metric to look at would be how productive it makes you or how much time it saves. 

In one of Visual Assist’s reviews, a game developer describes VA as “absolutely needed for professional programming in Visual Studio.” He explains how the features provided are basic—so much so that he was surprised that Visual Studio shipped without it in the first place.

A VA user testimonial. Read more reviews on G2.com

Disclosure: Ryan has since been recognized as a Whole Tomato MVP, but this review was submitted prior.

The value of Visual Assist for developers is that it makes development work faster and easier. It’s like investing in a good quality mouse—the regular one will do the job just too, but the added macros, extra buttons, and smoother experience in a premium mouse just feels better and more productive. You get the same results, just faster and with fewer inputs.

Visual Assist for Teams and Businesses

Project managers and developer leads are in a perpetual search of ways to make the most out of eight hours. These are the people whose decisions influence others, so they are usually more results-driven.

An analysis of our user surveys and focus group responses show that VA can increase productivity by around 20%. This means that having Visual Assist effectively reduces a 40-hour work effort to about 32 hours.

Here is an estimated-cost-savings matrix of an average project with and without Visual Assist:

Visual Assist can save teams 48-hours and $1,900 for a project that normally takes 10 work days.

VA helps maintain code by analyzing projects for technical errors and code smells. It catches issues as teams are writing code, saving them time during the testing and integration phase.

And since VA is regularly updated, the automatic prompts and corrections it suggests are always based on the latest coding and linter standards. Overall, it makes maintaining and testing code less tedious and time consuming.

These suggestions, no matter how minuscule, add up and save teams and businesses valuable time. They don’t have to spend extended periods of time manually checking code—meaning they can skip a considerable chunk of the development process.

Here are a couple of VA’s time saving features:

• Refactoring
• Code inspections
• Code debugging help
• And more…

It’s a bit complicated to estimate how efficient code maintenance practices and tools translate into time savings, but think of it this way: for each project, how much time does your team spend on finding, fixing, and testing errors, both minor and major,? 

Easily deploy Visual Assist

VA is a VS plugin and can be easily deployed. It does not matter if you install it before or during a project. Deploying with Visual Studio is a no-frills process with no additional investment for hardware required.

It has no known compatibility issues, so it should work with any other plugin you may have installed. Its features are customizable, so you can choose which functions to use and which to disable.

Get started with Visual Assist and experience a better and faster Visual Studio today.

The post How much time and money does Visual Assist save? first appeared on Tomato Soup.