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I got a ton of comments on my post on the new project templates, and rather than try to answer them in the comments, I thought I 'd answer them here, so they're at least somewhat coherent to read.

Oh, and thanks for all the comments.

One more note: Some of the things that I did in the console app do not apply to all apps. For example, if you're writing a class library, you're going to get /// comments in front of your class and constructor, because I'm going to assume that you want somebody to actually use the library at some point.

Dude, the tabs are best set at 4

The templates are all defined with hard tabs, but when they're converted to real code, they'll get massaged into what you want (if you have the option set in Tools->Options).

You should leave the command-line arguments in there

I think we can agree that experienced programmers will know what to do here, so it's mostly an for inexperienced programmers. An important argument for not having them is that if they are there, when you are teaching programming, if they are there, you have to explain what they are. Since you haven't talked about what a string variable or an array is, you would prefer to put off those sort of discussions until later. That's pretty much verbatim a request I got from a professor who teaches C#.

I'm a big fan of the building-block approach - which you already know if you've read my book or columns. Having to talk about things before you want to is a problem.

This is not an easy decision to make, but in this case, I think simplicity is the more important concern. I will, however, take your comments under advisement.

The namespace should stay

Namespaces are mostly about organizing your code into useful components. But in a console app, that really doesn't apply, since it is very unlikely to be used by other applications. The namespace just adds complexity that you don't need.

One other comment was along the lines of "I didn't know you could do that". Namespaces are just a convenient way to give classes and other types long, hierarchical names.

The comments / TODOs should stay

I think there are some comments that can be useful - for example, the SQL templates will have comments that explain what you need to do to implement an aggregate function in C#. Useful guidance there is great.

But comments are not always useful, and the ones we had in the console app fall into the "not useful" bucket. They don't help novices because novices don't know what "entry points are". I guess you can argue that the TODO is helpful because it guides the novice on where to start, but the difficulty in finding the right place to put your code is minimal in comparison to the difficulty in figuring out how to actually write code that works.

If you consistently have trouble finding Main(), I respectfully submit that C# programming may not be for you.

Credit to the team for removing the cruft but, hey, they put it in there too.

Absolutely. Our bad.

Editing and Customizing Templates

The way in which project templates are stored is more than a little ugly, and it's not terribly obvious what file you should edit. This is deliberate. In previous versions, there were concerns about improper modifications to the project templates causing problems, so we made it cryptic to make this a less likely occurence.

Any takers on that? Anyone?

No, the truth is that we didn't spend a lot of time thinking about how users might edit or extend the templates, and therefore, not surprisingly, it's not very approachable.

In the long term, we're planning on fixing that. "Long term" is code for "don't be surprised if it doesn't show up in the next version".

In the short term, I'm hoping on writing - or getting somebody else to write - something that explains how the templates work, how you can modify existing templates, and how to create new ones.

How much time do templates save?

In the case of the console template, it's true that you can write that much content fairly quickly. But the template also gets you a live project that has the source file in it. Compared to creating an empty project and adding a new class and then adding a Main() to that class (or adding an empty file and typing the text), and then setting the project properties to get what you want, there is some benefit there.