Razor crashing constantly while editing views

Question

VS 2001 SP1 crashes non-stop when editing razor views.  I'm never sure what causes it.  Sometimes it's fine, and then other times it crashes when I try to edit an @if block.  Then on another its ok.  Or it causes VS to freeze for a minute or two.  It does this in /safemode, and normally.  In mvc3 and mvc4, with and without SP1 applied.   Also, typing / intellisense in .cshtml files is really slow.  Lagging 1/4 to 1/2 second behind key-presses at times, even when editing plain HTML.  Maybe these issues are related?

I dont' see how anyone can hope to use Razor for actual work, if this kind of performance is a problem.   Since people actually are, they  must not be living through this nightmare.  The problem (at least the *latest* problem) is in the report below.  

Does anyone know what the heck is going on?

Problem Event Name:	CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01:	devenv.exe
Problem Signature 02:	10.0.40219.1
Problem Signature 03:	4d5f2a73
Problem Signature 04:	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.HTML.Razor.Implementation.Shims.2_0
Problem Signature 05:	10.0.0.0
Problem Signature 06:	4f221241
Problem Signature 07:	44
Problem Signature 08:	105
Problem Signature 09:	System.AggregateException
OS Version:	6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID:	1033

Answer 1

It is always the same problem, and this is the stack trace from WER

Application: devenv.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.AggregateException
Stack:
   at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskExceptionHolder.Finalize()

I was able to fix it by adding this to the web.config in the Views directory.  Will this have any bad side effects?

<appSettings>
    <add key="webpages:Version" value="1.0.0.0" />
    ...
</appSettings>

Answer 2

For an MVC 3 app then that is the correct version.  But that should have been automatically generated when you created a new MVC 3 application via the template.  If you didn't use the template then more problems are likely to occur.

The exception in question is being caused by an exception while an async call is running in the designer.  It makes sense that webpages could have been causing it.

Michael Taylor - 4/25/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net

Answer 3

When something is normal, it doesn't even occur to mention it:

I am making an MVC4 app.  v3 works just fine!

* forums require two clicks on reply to reply.  clicking to vote helpful is not an ajax call, causing me to lose my reply, hence this short one.  the back button is broken now, meaning <- doesn't restore the previous form.  The editor mangles my text so bad I'm normally editing HTML to remove a bold/underline.  Sigh.  Move to Markdown guys!

Answer 4

MVC 4 uses webpages 2.0 

Michael Taylor

Answer 5

I am aware of that.  But if I put that in the web config, I can't edit a template because it crashes every minute or so, taking down VS.Net.  Hence the change to 1.0.0.0.  I suppose I will change it back when I deploy, or move back to v3.

Answer 6

MVC 4 is still in beta.  You should post problems that you are having in the ASP.NET MVC forums instead.  This forum is for the C# IDE itself and not beta products.  I can tell you that I'm using MVC 4 without problems so I suspect there is something about your machine that is causing problems.  Nevertheless it is beyond the scope of what we can help with here.  The MVC forums will get you the help you need.

Michael Taylor - 4/27/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net

Answer 7

I guess that makes sense.  I'll move it over there.  Put it here because it seemed like an IDE thing to me, I didn't really stop and think what part razor belonged to, just thought of it as part of VS and not mvc specifically.  I saw other mvc related stuff here, which is how I ended up here in the first place :)  Thanks for not recommending connect!  

Answer 8

I experience the exact same problems as FLIVE. Using asp.net mvc 4.0 beta here. Can not edit a certain view anymore always crashes :/

Answer 9

I rebuilt my development VM, installing just VS.Net & MVC4.  I skipped MVC3 in case that was part of the problem.  

The issue has gone away now, after the rebuild, but I'm worried about the future ;) I occasionally get issues with the designer not knowing what ViewBag is (or @Html.), and need to delete the ASPNet temp files in user/appdata/local... but thats it.

Answer 10

I get the exact same problem. MVC4 app, frequent crashes when editing views, extremely slow intellisense, etc. I get the same stack trace when it crashes.

What plugins do you guys use? I use refactor pro, v11.2.8. I suspect it's related to plugins.

---

Dive in deep!

Answer 11

Please report this to MS in the ASP.NET forums (http://forums.asp.net/). 

Michael Taylor - 10/5/2012
http://msmvps.com/blogs/p3net