I’m working on my first custom/user control in VB.NET 2008, after completing my first draft of a simple, but complete, app the other day. The control I’m working on is pretty simple, basically an edit box for numerical/currency/rate information that I’ll be using throughout my work apps. I’ve got the basic data entry stuff in there, and now need to figure out how to interface with the properties window properly, and how to save and load property settings set at dev time.

I’m getting the hang of this a bit more each day, but still don’t like a lot of it (and am so over trying to read the docs in the crappy help system). I am looking forward to some of the extra power and features that should be at my disposal down the line, though.

One thing I really hate is the way the whole system forces me into a particular folder structure, and then apparently doesn’t let me change the names of some things if I change my mind on it later (which I actually do a lot). I’m usually calling a project one thing when I start, then change it to something else later. So far, I’ve found no way to change the name of my project folder once I’ve saved the project. And I’m sure I’ve just overlooked it, but I don’t seem to be able to just copy one component file from one project to a folder for another project, as the environment seems to insist it isn’t there. (And if I try renaming folders manually, VS insists the files are missing.)

I’m sure I’ll learn more of this stuff later, but damn, I miss working in the logical, understandable VB6 editor. (I know the VS editor is supposedly a huge hit with developers, and apparently has legions of fans, but I get tired of it deciding that it knows better than me what I want.)