Add visualization for a couple of QuantLib types in Visual Studio debugger

[igitur]

As discussed in https://sourceforge.net/p/quantlib/mailman/message/37162962/

I see the embedded images were removed in the mailing list. That's a pity.

Anyway, the added Quantlib.natvis file enables better visualisation of QuantLib types in Visual Studio.

[lballabio]

Is it enough to add them to the QuantLib project, or should they be added to the test-suite and examples as well?

[coveralls]

Coverage decreased (-0.2%) to 70.82% when pulling 247fe71 on igitur:add-natvis-file-for-visualstudio into dcc2d4f on lballabio:master.

[ralfkonrad]

@igitur: Definitely something a VS programmer wants to have!

Does

<DisplayString>{year():0000}-{month():00}-{day():00}</DisplayString>

work as well and produces 2015-09-07?

This would be in line with

//! output dates in ISO format (yyyy-mm-dd)
/*! \ingroup manips */
detail::iso_date_holder iso_date(const Date&);

in date.hpp and personally I find it easier to read.

[igitur]

Is it enough to add them to the QuantLib project, or should they be added to the test-suite and examples as well?

It's sufficient to add it only to the QuantLib project. I tested the test-suite and an example project. Works 100%.

[igitur]

@igitur: Definitely something a VS programmer wants to have!

Does

<DisplayString>{year():0000}-{month():00}-{day():00}</DisplayString>

work as well and produces 2015-09-07?

This would be in line with

//! output dates in ISO format (yyyy-mm-dd)
/*! \ingroup manips */
detail::iso_date_holder iso_date(const Date&);

in date.hpp and personally I find it easier to read.

I agree. I also tried to find format specifiers to achieve this, but couldn't. The format specifiers you mention also don't work. But I managed to do it with some integer maths where the tens and units parts are calculated separately. Update pushed.

[igitur]

@ralfkonrad If you can think of other classes that could use special visualisation, please let me know.

[ralfkonrad]

It's sufficient to add it only to the QuantLib project. I tested the test-suite and an example project. Works 100%.

I guess this is because the "full" QuantLib project is referenced in the testsuite and examples:

QuantLib/test-suite/testsuite.vcxproj

Line 961 in e607238

<ProjectReference Include="..\QuantLib.vcxproj">

Therefore the natvis is forewarded as well.

I have not tested it yet but I do not expect it to work out of the box using CMake VS projects as the natvis will not be picked up.

[ralfkonrad]

If you can think of other classes that could use special visualisation, please let me know.

For me the Date visualisation is a gamechanger. Normally I ended up copying the serialNumber_ into Excel to convert into a readable date.

Other special visualisations might be

• Period if it is possible to convert the enum TimeUnit into e.g. 3Y.
• InterestRateIndex by showing the std::string name_;.
• InterestRate by just showing the Rate r_;

Besides that I think it will not work in a couple of interesting classes like DayCounter, Currency, Calendar as you do not have access to the name_ in the inner implementation.

[ralfkonrad]

@igitur I am not sure if you get informed about a comment on a closed PR without being mentioned, therefore this additional comment.