The Missing F# Visual Studio Add-In

UPDATE 2: Even weirder. I was unable to use Alt+Enter to run F# statements within the interactive console in Visual Studio 2008 on Vista, so I tried to uninstall F#. It hung with 2 seconds remaining. I switched gears, cancelled the F# uninstall, and moved to uninstall VSLab. This occured without error, but I found that F# was also uninstalled when the VSLab uninstall was complete.

After reinstalling F# 1.9.6.2, I now have:

• The F# interactive console in Visual Studio 2008
• The ability to use Alt+Enter to run F# statements

I don’t have:

• The F# Add-In option in the Add-In Manager dialog.

Strange. Making progress!

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UPDATE: Partial progress. I downloaded and installed the VSLab “Hal” release and the F# interactive console loads in Visual Studio 2008, but I get the error “Error loading the Code Window context menu item” when enabling the VSLabs Add-In:

Here’s the output from the F# console:

val ___VS_PID : int

> [Loading C:\Program Files\University of Pisa\VSLab\vslabstartup.fsx]

namespace FSI_0003

Binding session to ‘C:\Program Files\University of Pisa\VSLab\VSLabFSICore.dll’…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (5 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (4 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (3 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (2 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (1 attempts left)…
VSLab internal error: cannot communicate with Visual Studio through DTE
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (5 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (4 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (3 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (2 attempts left)…
Error sending command to Visual Studio, RPC is likely busy, trying again (1 attempts left)…
VSLab internal error: cannot communicate with Visual Studio through DTE
Managed DirectX is missing.
>

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I’ve had no luck today figuring out how to get the F# Add-In for Visual Studio working. On both machines – one a Windows XP box running Visual Studio 2005, and another running Vista with Visual Studio 2008 – the F# Add-In option in Visual Studio’s Tools|Add-In Manager is missing.

I’m running F# September CTP, version 1.9.6.2. It may be a distro problem.

Anyone else run into this issue?