External issues

Reading the expression with the object being visualized

It would be nice to know within the visualizer what expression is being visualized. We could then easily create expressions that could be pasted into the Watch window.

Links

• https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/idea/503782/api-for-visualized-expression-in-custom-visualizer.html Closed! -- "We are unable to investigate this issue as we prioritize all incoming feedback based on their breadth of community impact."
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54749716/visualized-expression-in-custom-data-visualizer

Better deployment story for visualizers

Currently, visualizers need to be downloaded or compiled from source and pasted into one of two folders; unlike extensions which can be added directly from within Visual Studio.

Part of this is that there are no update notifications in VS.

It is possible to create an installer and upload that to the VS marketplace, and thus make use of VS upload notifications. But this is suboptimal.

Links

• https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/idea/463047/enable-custom-visualizer-authors-to-wrap-them-in-v.html
  Closed! -- "Not among the features we are able to fit into the near future roadmap."

Debuggee environment in visalizer

It would be nice to know some details about the debuggee environment:

• The current language of the source
• The current assembly
• The current file and line number

Links

• https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/idea/726810/api-for-visualizers-on-debuggee-environment.html
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55954016/detect-source-language-at-runtime-from-within-debugging-visualizer