Are there patterns or libraries or any official Microsoft SDK for using Visual Studio as a specifically Task-Focused UI?
For example, both Revolution R (IDE for the R language) and SQL 2012 (and I think SQL 2008 and possibly 2005) use Visual Studio as the underlying IDE framework.
Is there an officially supported SDK and/or examples/samples for doing this type of thing?
I am building a language Parser for an existing language – whose only available IDE is INSANELY expensive – using Irony (and eventually will generate a Language Service as well).
Any direct or indirect suggestions/answers are appreciated.
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You might want to have a look at Visual Studio Shell. The Visual Studio 2012 Shell (Isolated) provides a foundation on which you can build your own custom-branded tools environment.
Visual Studio Shell is part of the Visual Studio SDK. A redistributable runtime is provided.
See also http://studioshell.codeplex.com/