Question

It’s probably a long shot, but is there an add-in for VS2010 that can change VS2010’s default formatting rules? In particular, I’d like to format similar lines so that the commas line up vertically, creating a tabular look. If it could line up equal signs, that’d be better still.

In this case, I’m populating a dictionary with methods to translate a flat file into an object.

Parsers = New Dictionary(Of String, Action(Of String))()

This is a pain to read:

Parsers.Add("Aircraft Make and Model", Sub(value) Aircraft.Name = value)
Parsers.Add("Words/Frame", Sub(value) Aircraft.WordsPerSubframe = Integer.Parse(value))
Parsers.Add("Bits/Word", Sub(value) Aircraft.BitsPerWord = Integer.Parse(value))
Parsers.Add("Parameter", AddressOf ParseParameter)
' ...

This is the best I’ve come up with:

Parsers.Add("Aircraft Make and Model",
            Sub(value) Aircraft.Name = value)
Parsers.Add("Words/Frame",
            Sub(value) Aircraft.WordsPerSubframe = Integer.Parse(value))
Parsers.Add("Bits/Word",
            Sub(value) Aircraft.BitsPerWord = Integer.Parse(value))
Parsers.Add("Parameter",
            AddressOf ParseParameter)

Ideally, this is what I’d like to see:

Parsers.Add("Aircraft Make and Model", Sub(value) Aircraft.Name             = value)
Parsers.Add("Words/Frame"            , Sub(value) Aircraft.WordsPerSubframe = Integer.Parse(value))
Parsers.Add("Bits/Word"              , Sub(value) Aircraft.BitsPerWord      = Integer.Parse(value))
Parsers.Add("Parameter"              , AddressOf ParseParameter)

Are there any existing add-ins for this purpose?

Answer 1

Elastic Tabstops for Visual Studio 2010:
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/ccff2b55-201f-4263-aea5-3e66024d6c0e