trying to add enum property to custom button

[plnelson]

What is the correct way to add an enumerated type to a custom control property so that the client can select a choice of enumerations in the control's Properties setting at Design Time?

I have a custom button control and I want the client to select a button style from an enumerated range of values:

       public enum BUTTONSTYLE { Style_Solid, Style_GradientA, Style_GradientB, Style_Image, Style_Liquid };

But when I try to expose it thusly:

        [DefaultValue( BUTTONSTYLE.Style_Solid)]
        [Category("Appearance")]
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Description("Sets style of the button")]
        public BUTTONSTYLE newbuttonstyle
        {
            get
            {
                return newbuttonstyle;
            }
            set
            {
                newbuttonstyle = value;
            }
        }

Visual Studio 2005 crashes and disappears without any error messages as soon as I drag and drop the control onto a form! It leaves nothing in the Event Log and the control disappears from the toolbox! What an I doing wrong and how do I debug this?

My button already has other (non-enum) custom properties that work just fine.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

(PS - I've been using Visual Studio 2005 since, well, 2005, and this is the fist time I've ever actually crashed it!)