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Update readme - end of life notice
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# ImageComments (a Visual Studio Extension)

## Overview
This is an extension for the Visual Studio code editor that allows images to be displayed amongst code, allowing for visually rich comments. For example...

![](readme-files/example-1.png)
This is an extension for the Visual Studio code editor that allows images to be displayed amongst code, allowing for visually rich comments. For example:

![](readme-files/example-1.png)


## News

As of writing, this repo was still getting occasional interest, despite several years of inactivity. As there are now several alternatives offering more, I'll probably archive this project. Feel free to report new issues if the alternative's aren't an option for you, but I don't plan to develop any new features for it.


## Alternatives

* [Memeful comments](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MariusBancila.memefulcomments). Based on this, but supports animated gifs, and JavaScript and TypeScript.
* DevExpress Code Rush introduced a [Rich Comments](https://docs.devexpress.com/CodeRushForRoslyn/120417/visualization-tools/rich-comments) feature in 2018.
* Other forks, which may have further developments. For example, [TomSmartBishop/image-comments](https://github.com/TomSmartBishop/image-comments) from which the VS Marketplace entry was made.


## Usage Info

### Preamble
Disclaimer: This project is a WIP and it's pretty rough around the edges. Please report issues on the GitHub repo.
### Supported Versions

Visual Studio 2019 (though earlier releases support 2010~2017).

Supported Visual Studio Verions: 2019 (though earlier releases support 2010~2017)

### Download/Installation

[Latest 1.2.0.0](https://github.com/lukesdm/image-comments/raw/master/Output/ImageComments.vsix)

To install double-click/activate the VSIX file.


### How to use

Image-comments are declared with:

`/// <image url="X:\Path\To\Image.ext" scale="1.5" />` or `/// <img src="X:\Path\To\Image.ext" scale="1.5" />`
Expand All @@ -38,42 +55,45 @@ From 1.1.4.3 on you can also use relative paths (relative to the source file).

Images from URL will be downloaded and not updated as long as the file exists in the user temp directory.

Please note, if you use docfx at the same time, these environment variables must not be used, because docfx expects the images in a directory, e.g. "./images".

Please note, if you use docfx at the same time, these environment variables must not be used, because docfx expects the images in a directory, e.g. "./images".

Images are displayed using the [WPF Image control](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms610982) with a [BitmapFrame](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms619213) source, and accepted image and URL formats are tied to those, e.g. BMP, PNG, JPG all work as image formats, and C:\Path\To\Image.png, http://www.server.com/image.png and \\\server\folder\image.png all work as URLs.


If there's a problem trying to load the image or parse the tag, the tag will be squiggly-underlined and hovering over this will show the error, e.g

If there's a problem trying to load the image or parse the tag, the tag will be squiggly-underlined and hovering over this will show the error, e.g.:

![](readme-files/error-example-1.png)


The languages currently supported are Python, C#, F# (fixme), C, C++ and VB.


Image-comments don't really have anything to do with XML comments, but the format is convenient and it should be pretty straight-forward to transform them for Sandcastle documentation creation.
The languages currently supported are Python, C#, F#, C, C++ and VB.

Image-comments don't really have anything to do with XML comments, but the format is convenient and it should be pretty straight-forward to transform them for Sandcastle documentation creation.

The extension adds a command in the Tools menu to toggle image-comment display on or off.


### Uninstallation

In VS, open the Extension Manager, select ImageComments, then click uninstall. A restart of VS is required.


### Some known issues
* After adding an image-comment using a local image, you can't edit the image until VS is closed.
* The caret/selection highlight height on image-comment lines grows as high the image.

* You need to scroll/'bump' the editor window to see the effect of the on/off toggle command.


## Development Info
Requires: Visual Studio 2015 SDK

Requires: Visual Studio 2019 SDK


### Build instructions
Providing the VS SDK is installed, you should be able to build by opening the solution and hitting F6. Debugging has to be configured manually - On the Project Properties->Debug tab, choose 'Start External Program' and command line e.g. (if using default install location) 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe' with arguments '/rootsuffix Exp'. The 'Release' build configuration copies the .vsix package into the Solution's .\Output directory.

Providing the VS SDK is installed, you should be able to build by opening the solution and hitting F6. Debugging has to be configured manually - On the Project Properties->Debug tab, choose 'Start External Program' and command line e.g. (if using default install location) 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 16.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe' with arguments '/rootsuffix Exp'. The 'Release' build configuration copies the .vsix package into the Solution's .\Output directory.


### Program structure

It's a very small project and may be fairly self explanatory if you are familiar with Visual Studio editor extensions.
There are two components to the extension:

Expand All @@ -82,18 +102,12 @@ There are two components to the extension:

For testing information, see .\Testing\Testing.html

### Some known implementation issues
The code is a bit rough - it may not need a rewrite from scratch, but there's a bunch of stuff to be done

* Images downloaded from an URL might not show up right away
* Error/exception handling should be improved
* Program/project structure could be improved
* No automated tests and manual testing has been limited.
* There are some fairly obvious potential optimisations, but so far performance impact on plain Visual Studio seems minimal (in a release build on a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo laptop with 1GB RAM). It would probably just add unneccessary complexity, but further testing might show otherwise.
* ...

## License

Eclipse Public License v1.0. See [license text](http://github.com/lukesdm/image-comments/raw/master/License.txt) for details.


## Authors & Contributors

Luke McQuade (creator), Thomas Pollak, Lionsoft, Oleg Kosmakov, Morten Engelhardt Olsen, Wolfgang Kleinschmit, Sören Nils Kuklau, Tim Long, [your name here]

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