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Brendan Tompkins [MVP] » CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
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CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again

Okay, here's another post where I'm completely changing my mind about something.  I've been experimenting with CodeRush, CodeSmart, ReFactory, and ReSharper.  A few weeks back, I kinda trashed ReSharper, in favor of CodeRush.  And I've also trashed CodeSmart in favor of CodeRush. 

Anyhow, I tried out ReFactory for about a week or two, and while I liked some things about it, namely the smallish footprint and how it plays nicely with CodeRush. I un-installed it yesterday and am giving ReSharper a try again.. This time, ReSharper seems to co-exist with CodeRush a little better, and it appears to be faster.  I'm not sure if I'm using a new build, but I'm liking this latest experience with it. 

Here's the only thing I can say with any certainty: All of these tools have their annoyances and they certainly can collide when they try to do the same thing for you (like auto parens for example) but all of them certainly make programming with VS a better experience than without any of them.

Now, I'm just going to try to sort out the best combination or single best tool or combination of the bunch of the bunch.  The only way to evaluate these things seems to be by trying them all out and hoping that selection pressure will drive the worst out...

-Brendan

Posted 09-10-2004 8:54 AM by Brendan Tompkins

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Comments

Scott Galloway wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-10-2004 6:12 AM
The latest builds of Resharper are certainly a lot better than previous builds. I use it constantly now at work and at home (when I'm coding obviously, it sucks for cooking) - it does take a little tweaking with the settings to get it just right for your particular coding style but it does save me a huge amount of time when coding. The refactoring elements are really nice too - not quite on par with IntelliJ but it's on the way there!
Grant wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-10-2004 6:16 AM
Flip-flopper!
Aaron Robson wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-11-2004 1:05 AM
I did the same testing of all of these apps recently, including Visual Assist X, which was my favorite. Then I reinstalled the latest Resharper, and haven't looked back - I'm not sure why I didn't like it the first time I tried it, but now I'm well and truly hooked. The only thing I'm searching for is a way to navigate forward and backwards through code. I highly recommend people giving it a go (make sure you learn all of the keyboard shortcuts).
Brendan Tompkins wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-11-2004 9:16 AM
Aaron. I agree. This last experience with ReSharper is vastly better. If I had to pick one currentl, it would definitely be ReSharper. I'm going to give it another week, and then probably post again as to which way I've gone.
Travis Laborde wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-13-2004 3:59 AM
I agree. For some reason, I'm in the other camp, actually preferring CodeSmart. But I've flipped a few times myself.

If only they would fix that random "crash when you close Studio" bug... Argh!

Travis
Jeff wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-13-2004 5:19 AM
I've been in much the same boat, flipping between a Resharper trial and a license I bought last year for Refactory.

CodeRush has been my drug of choice since early this year when they put up their beta/EEP release... but refactoring support is where I keep waffling. On the one hand, Refactory is something I've already paid for, it's fairly lightweight and it co-exists fine with CodeRush. On the other hand, Resharper's refactoring just feels more "solid" to me and I like their UI for changing things better (i.e. rename variable, etc). Still, with Resharper I'd have to pay for yet another license and then disable all the stuff that CodeRush does for me. For now, it's Refactory.

That said, there's been some hinting on the DevExpress newsgroups of a refactoring tool that's built on top of CodeRush's core engine. At this point, it's just "on the horizon"... but if it's done well and "feels" like CodeRush to me, it's a no-brainer.

JD
Brendan Tompkins wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-13-2004 5:58 AM
Funny, you don't realize that everyone else is going through the same stuff until you mention it.

I'm going to post more about this soon, but today ReFactory gave me a big surprise.. My machine has been up and running all weekend, and this morning it was slooooow! I checked and devenv had hold of 200M, which is okay with me if it's doing something useful, unless my machine was coding for me over the weekend, it wasn't doing anything useful. I killed devenv and the rest of my machine perked up. I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but this never happed before I installed ReFactory.
Jeff wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-14-2004 5:19 AM
Just a follow-up... I'm halfway through the current .NET Rocks show with Mark Miller (CodeRush architect/lead dev) and he's mentioned a couple of things that I'm anxious for.

First, he goes into a little more detail on the refactoring product (called "Refactor!") they're working on, including some info on the architecture. They're aiming at refactoring and general "code simplifying".

Second, he mentions the update to CodeRush that should include some new features. It's been a long time coming and is supposed to fix a slowdown that occurs sometimes in the IDE when you use a lot of linked identifiers (e.g. the pb/ps/pi type of templates). One thing he mentioned on the show, though, is that the update will include the option to have guide-lines painted between code blocks. Some editors have this already, but it essentially paints a vertical line from an opening brace down to its matching closing brace. I've used it elsewhere and it's very nice when you have many nested code blocks.

Both are supposed to be available via the .NET Subscription at DX within the next week or two.

And no, I'm not affiliated... just a CodeRush zealot. :)

Brendan Tompkins wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-14-2004 6:15 AM
Jeff,

It's looking like I'm less and less of a CodeRush zealot every day. I'm really turned on by the new Resharper. Have you tried it? I created some templates last night, and I have to say I like their implementation better than CodeRush's. Not as fully featured, but easy to use...

Another thing I've really found useful with ReSharper is the right-hand code status thingey.. You can really get hooked on keeping the little block at the top green (which means there are no errors/warnings in code). And the syntax checking saves me lots of time. Now when I compile (which takes a few seconds) I don't get random build syntax errors...

I think they should run a "Take the ReSharper Challenge" because I think after a week, anyone would be hooked.
Jeff wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-15-2004 1:12 PM
Hi Brendan,

The last time I tried Resharper was a couple of weeks ago on my home machine. It's interesting that you preferred their templates over CodeRush's -- I had the opposite feeling and recall disabling/removing that part of Resharper. I think what I like about CodeRush's implementation is how many are already there, their approach to aliases, and the verb-noun layout they use for most of them seems to 'click' with me.

I remember the code-status thing, though, and that is a cool feature. For the few hours I used it, I recall seeing it be non-green and immediately digging in to make it green again. :)

I generally liked Resharper's refactoring capabilities more than Refactory (which I already own a license to) -- seemed more stable and feature-rich.

For now, I'm waiting to see what the next update to CodeRush brings, as well as their EEP for the "Refactor!" product. Both are due at DevExpress "any day now"... I'm hoping the combination bring me add-in nirvana, but it may be that I'm just an IDE-efficiency junkie and will never be satisfied.
David Hayden wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-17-2004 4:47 AM
Brendan,

I told you resharper was awesome :) I love the status indicator as well.

Out of curiosity, do you have a subscription to DevExpress products? I need some winform controls and wondered if you used DevExpress winform controls and considered them the best on the market?

I can't seem to find any good resources that compare winform controls from different vendors and I need a professional opinion as to which controls to buy.
Brendan Tompkins wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-17-2004 4:51 AM
Hi Dave,

I was just reading your "NUnit - Database Testing and Automatic Rollback - Unit Testing" post. Have to look into that.

Sorry, I haven't used any of their controls.. Wish I was doing more winforms sometimes!
David Hayden wrote re: CodeRush vs CodeSmart vs ReFactory vs ReSharper... I'm Waffling Again
on 09-17-2004 7:37 AM
No problem.

I am definitely wandering out of my area of comfort, which is why I am looking for someone with experience to "make the decision for me" :)

Decisions. Decisions.

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