Visual Lint Professional Edition 2.0.5

Visual Lint Professional Edition 2.0.5 is a software recommended for development teams who deal with large codebases or require customised analysis configurations. In addition to automated background analysis of entire Visual Studio solutions and workspaces and the other facilities of the Standard Edition, Visual Lint Professional Edition allows selective inclusion/exclusion of specific files or projects, whole project analysis and highly customisable analysis configurations.

Visual Lint is designed for developers who require advanced static code analysis capabilities within the Microsoft Visual Studio and eMbedded Visual C++ integrated development environments.

Visual Lint is an add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio and Visual C++ which closely integrates the Gimpel PC-Lint code analysis tool within the Visual Studio integrated development environment.

Although PC-Lint does a great job of analysing C++ source and header files for potential problems, it is a generic cross-platform tool and as such is not closely integrated with development environments. This is less than ideal if you want to perform a complete analysis of an entire workspace or solution, and furthermore, it can be difficult to spot the most serious potential problems amongst the mass of results.

Visual Lint overcomes this by closely integrating the Lint analysis process with Visual Studio and making analysis results available to the developer using dedicated displays, making it easier for them to act on the warnings identified. Automated background analysis ensures that up to date analysis results are available when needed.

Major Features:

1. Industry standard PC-Lint code analysis
   • PC-Lint is the industry standard code analysis tool for C++, so it makes sense to use it if you are interested in improving the quality of your code. Once that decision has been made, you need to determine how to use it effectively.
   • Visual Lint closely integrates PC-Lint within the development environment, making analysis results available to the developer in a form which is both useful and intuitive.
   • This makes it easier for developers to act on the issues identified - or (looking at it another way) harder for them to ignore them.
   • Either way, one of the most common obstacles to making full use of the analysis capability of PC-Lint is removed.
2. On-demand code analysis
   • Files can be manually analysed from the add-in toolbar or context menu of the code editor at any time, with results presented in dedicated displays.
   • Unlike conventional methods of integrating PC-Lint within development environments, the analysis will automatically use the correct project settings and you can keep on working while the analysis progresses.
3. Easy to interpret displays
   • There are plenty of code analysis tools out there which dump analysis results into the Output Window in text form. Whilst that is not too daunting when there are only a handful of issues reported, it soon becomes a real disincentive to use a code analysis tool at all.
   • By contrast, Visual Lint has a dedicated Analysis Results Display which presents warning information in an easy to follow format, and even provides tooltips to tell you what each message means. No more hunting through the manual looking for the meaning of that obscure message...
   • Of course the raw analysis results are still available if you need them.
4. Automated background analysis
   • Most code analysis tools require you to tell the IDE when you want to analyse a file or project, whereupon you sit back and wait for the analysis to complete (which can take a long time with large files).
   • Whilst you can still work this way with Visual Lint, you really don't have to, as it will quite happily analyse complete projects and solutions as you edit or chat by the watercooler. When you need analysis results for a particular file, they are likely to be waiting for you. Multiple files can be analysed simultaneously, with user preferences determining the maximum number of analysis threads.
   • Furthermore, while you are editing files, Visual Lint can re-analyse them as they are saved in order to ensure that up-to-date analysis results are always available.
   • Of course, when you really need the CPU (for example during debugging or building) background lint analysis is automatically paused.
5. Single file ("unit checkout") and whole project automated analysis
   • PC-Lint can analyse files either singly ("unit checkout analysis") or together as complete projects ("whole project analysis"), as shown in the screenshot on the right.
   • Whilst the former provides the most flexibility and speed, the latter allows unused and redundant code to be identified.
   • Visual Lint supports both - all you have to do is choose which you prefer, and how many analysis passes should be made.
6. No need to learn complex command lines
   • PC-Lint command lines can be very complex, and getting them right for a particular project is often unnecessarily difficult and time consuming - particularly when you consider that the intricacies of Visual C++ project configurations must be taken into account when doing so.
   • Fortunately, you don't need to worry about this when using Visual Lint - analysis of implementation files automatically takes into account project settings and the active configuration. There is no need to type in complex command lines or write batch files, and even annoying little things like the IDE tab size and for loop compliance settings are automatically handled for you.
   • In other words all the hard work is done for you, so you can focus on the important thing - your code.
7. Simple configuration
   • Setting up a PC-Lint installation can be fiddly and time consuming. Although PC-Lint includes an installation wizard which can do some of the preliminary work for you, you will still have to write include directives to match those within your IDE (and worse -  they could be different on every workstation).
   • Visual Lint automates this annoying task for you, and also provides a Configuration Wizard which can write new PC-Lint configuration files directly.
   • Once the PC-Lint configuration files have been created, you can edit them at any time using dedicated commands within the IDE.
8. Easy access to help when you need it
   • If you have ever struggled to understand the meaning of a PC-Lint warning message, you are not alone.
   • Fortunately, Visual Lint's displays include simple explanations of what each PC-Lint message means. Instead of wondering what they mean, you can concentrate on fixing them.
   • On those rare occasions when you may find you need information on specific PC-Lint options or operation, the PC-Lint manual (a PDF file) is easily accessible within the Visual Studio IDE via a dedicated command.
   • Customisable HTML and XML Reports
9. Need a report to show to your boss to show him the status of the project?
   • No problem - Visual Lint can generate them automatically, and even update them dynamically as the analysis progresses.
   • Visual Lint Professional Edition even allows you to define your own stylesheets, if you need a custom "look and feel".

Enhancements:

• Support for PC-Lint 9.00,
• Vastly improved reports,
• New displays

Requirements:

• One or more supported IDEs (eVC4.0, VS6.0, VS2002/2003/2005/2008)
• PC-Lint 7.5/8.0/9.0.

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