Navigating the Concord API

The Concord API is large enough that it can be a bit overwhelming at first glance. Here are a few hints which may make navigating the API easier:

1. When deciding what interfaces to implement, we have organized all the interfaces by the category of component that implements the interface. If you look in the native API header file (vsdebugeng.h) you can see each interface listed by section, as well as a description of what that category of component does.
2. When looking for methods to call, ignore interfaces. The Concord API is exposed to callers as methods on classes rather than interface methods.
3. Findstr in vsdebugeng.h: even if you are implementing a Concord component in managed code, sometimes the fastest way to find the method that you want is to look for strings in vsdebugeng.h. Since the API is the same between native and managed code, if you find the native API, it will work in managed also.
4. Browse the references in Microsoft.VisualStudio.Debugger.Engine – this is the flip side of #3, even if you are consuming the Concord API from native code, Visual Studio ships really nice support for browsing through managed APIs.