Is it possible in Visual Studio to write code or debug an application while it is running?

As the questions says, I want to write code or debug an appication in real-time without setting breakpoints or pausing/restarting the application.

For example, when I write a game, I want to see what is happening when I change the code for the calculation of the light effects or the AI of the enemies immediately, while running the game on my second monitor.

Update: Ok, it seems that you guys don't understand exactly what I want.

I want Visual Studio to be more like a WYSIWYG editor...make changes or add new code and see instantly what has changed in my application, without the application to pause it's work.

Update: I saw this feature in this Video wit开发者_StackOverflow中文版h Java in Eclipse (go to 14:30, where he changes the light effects of the game without stopping it.)

Sometimes. Check out the Edit and Continue feature: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bcew296c%28v=vs.80%29.aspx

Based on the comments, it sounds like you either want a dynamic language (a lot of games are scripted with LUA, or check our IronPython or IronRuby) or you want to dynamically load and reload assemblies, which would require something like MAF perhaps. With that, you could build the bits that you are changing as addins, and then unload and reload the addin assemblies when they change. That seems hacky though, and will likely perform poorly compared to a DLR language.

here is all you want to know abt the Edit and continue feature in Visual Studio:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bcew296c(v=vs.80).aspx

You can edit the code while debugging, but no instruction will be executed during this time. If you hit F10, the next instruction will be executed. If you hit F5 the normal execution will continue.

Why not create a resource file with the values to apply. Then have a command you can execute in the app that will reread the file. World of Warcraft has a feature like this. /reload ui

Yes, but unless Edit and Continue is enough for your need you need to design and implement the functionality yourself.

• if the change is data driven - just reload the data when some file changes.
• if change is in code - consider making that portion of the code to be in separate assembly and dynamically load and rewire the assemebly (may require strongly signed assembly to proper version code). Or dynamically compile code into new assembly (to avoid assembly conflicts in the same app domain).

In all cases you need to figure out how to deal with loosing part of previous state that could be in older objects.