System Symbols in Italics

Visual Assist considers symbols that do not change, or that rarely change, to be system symbols. These symbols are typically declared in shared system headers found via directory paths in project settings. Symbols declared in \Program Files, even if the files are part of solution, are also considered system symbols. Symbols declared or overridden in your projects are not system symbols.

Visual Assist can display system symbols in italics within the text editor. The italics differentiate references to system symbols from those that have been overridden.

Enable italics in the options dialog for Visual Assist.

System Symbols in C/C++

System symbols are those declared in system include files per the C/C++ Directories settings of Visual Assist or declared in the "\Program Files" directory. System symbols are typically those in:

• MFC
• Third-party libraries
• NuGet packages
• Vcpkg libraries
• \Program Files
• Imported objects
• System namespace

System Symbols in C#

System symbols are those in:

• System namespace
• Third-party namespaces
• NuGet packages
• \Program Files

Shared Access

Visual Assist stores declarations of system symbols in a fast-access, read-only database that is shared among all solutions that include the system headers. Only the first solution that includes the shared headers parses the files.

Registry Setting