Software Rockstar

The latest beta version of FxCop 1.36 was recently made available for download. This new version includes various features and fixes that include:

• 200+ bug fixes that reduce noise, missing analysis and rule crashes
• Support for analyzing anonymous methods and lambda expressions
• New option for skipping analysis over tool generated code
• Better support for C++/CLI and the Compact Framework
• Language ‘friendly’ API names in the UI and resolutions
• New globalization, design and usage rules
• Performance improvements that cut analysis by 2x and use half as much memory
• Documentation that is now available on MSDN

FxCop is an excellent free static code analysis tool from Microsoft that checks .NET managed code assemblies for conformance to Microsoft’s .NET Framework Design Guidelines.

While FxCop is an invaluable tool for analyzing the external (public / protected) API of our assemblies, I was really hoping to have a way to also fire it against internal members of our code in order to enforce coding standards across our organization. David Kean’s tip shows us exactly how to do that! It turns out to be a simple matter of turning on the Run all overridable rules against all targets option under Project | Options | Spelling & Analysis menu.