# Visual Basic > Slow Chat with the Microsoft Visual Basic team >  What is your Favorite New Feature?

## brad jones

I'll ask this question of both the VB team members and of the members of VBForums in general.....

What is your favorite feature (or expected favorite new features) of Visual Studio 2008?  If you aren't using 2008 yet, then what about in 2005?

I'd be curious to see if the VB team's reponses are the same as the VBF members!

Brad!

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## funkyonex

Hi Everyone -- thanks for hosting the VB team this week!

I'd have to say that there are so many features in VS2008 that I love but to pick a VB-specific feature I'd have to say my favorite is XML Literals. I've really been getting into LINQ and XML and it's just so pleasant being able to type XML literals into the editor and create, transform, and query XML with this much ease. If you'd like to read about some of my adventures take a look at the XML+LINQ tags on my blog. Also check out these How-Do-I videos to help get you up to speed. 

Enjoy!
-Beth Massi, VS Community

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## Paul M

One feature i really like is the Optional Parameters, which i would certainly love and sort of need in C#!

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## techgnome

Do Optional Parameters still exist in VB.NET? I've been using overloaded procedures for that. Not that I'd go back to Optional Parameters.

-tg

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## Paul M

Yep using the Optional Keyword and they mast be the last parameters and have a default value.

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## techgnome

Ugh..... I thought that had gone away.... dang.

-tg

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## PaulYuk_MS

There are so many fun ones.  My favorite still has to be Snap Lines on the Windows Forms designer.  So simple .. so handy!

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## penagate

I haven't used VS 2008 yet (looking forward to trying it) but my favourite feature of 2005 is the Object Test Bench.

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## saaidak

Hey there everyone, thanks for having us.

There are so many cool new features in VS2008 but for me its the ridiculously helpful intellisense! Its positioning, the linq syntax support, the performance, makes it all too easy. A close second would be multi-targeting. 

Thanks

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## Atheist

> Hey there everyone, thanks for having us.
> 
> There are so many cool new features in VS2008 but for me its the ridiculously helpful intellisense! Its positioning, the linq syntax support, the performance, makes it all too easy. A close second would be multi-targeting. 
> 
> Thanks


I really like how the "intellisense-box" becomes transparent when you press and hold the right Alt button. Clever :Thumb:

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## michaelrawi

Yes. I totally agree with Intellisense, especially for it's behavior. It's now like C# (you can type a word, and intellisense will pop up. Something that you can't get in VB 2005.

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## wossname

Optional parameters are the work of the devil.  I think it encourages sloppy program design.  It is more sensible to use multiple overloads of a function each taking different arguments.  Then have one version call subsequently more generalised overloads to avoid code duplication and encourage re-use.

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## Paul M

I don't see how that can be though? Each of the overloaded procedures are basically completing the same thing. The optional parameter basically encapsulates all of them and just makes life easier  :Big Grin:

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## techgnome

If you are repeating code.... then it's a poor design (IMHO).... when I overload subs, all of the subs with the lesser parameters call the one with the most parameters, passing in default values.

But I guess to each their own.

-tg

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## Joacim Andersson

> Optional parameters are the work of the devil.  I think it encourages sloppy program design.  It is more sensible to use multiple overloads of a function each taking different arguments.  Then have one version call subsequently more generalised overloads to avoid code duplication and encourage re-use.


Hmmm.... "Work of the devil", I wouldn't stretch it that far. I still use optional parameters at times as long as I don't need more than one, otherwise I go with overloading instead. Anyhow this discussion is a bit of topic since we're talking about new features and optional parameters have been available since VB4.

When it comes to my own favorite new featurs in 2008 I can't do anything but agree with earlier posters. I absolutly love everything about LINQ and XML literals are such a beutiful feature that I almost got a tear in my eye the first time I heard about it. The fact that it's a pure VB concept also makes me smile a bit since C# usually gets most of the power first.

For ASP.Net I absolutly love getting intellisense for JavaScript.




> I really like how the "intellisense-box" becomes transparent when you press and hold the right Alt button. Clever


Thanks for the info Atheist, I hadn't even noticed that feature  :Smilie: . No more "pressing-ESC-to-get-rid-of-the-drop-down-just-to-read-that-other-line-of-code-where-I-had-that-information-needed-on-this-line-as-well".

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