I gave Resharper 2.0 a chance last week and I have to say I was disappointed.
Not with the feature-set - it has all the features I loved in Resharper 1.1 and more. The problem was that it was intolerably slow. I always hated Resharper load-time, and in 2.0 not only is the project open times excessive (even when opening a brand new empty project) but everything else - from opening a code file to going to definitions - takes a second too long. For a tool that's here to increase my productivity it's counter-productive and frustrating.
I would give Refactor!Pro a chance, but from what you say it's more focused on refactoring and tools for writing code, while my favorite features of Resharper are those that help me READ code - Find Usages, GoTo Class and so forth.
Avnerk: other than a little slower load time on topen, I didn't notice anything slower. It handled large code files and solutions fast enough for me not to know the difference.
Interesting!
I tried the EAPs for Resharper 2.0, and then gave the full release a go, but in each case I had to uninstall it within a week or so. Just couldn't get on with it (even though I was happy with 1.5). Machine ran intolerably slow, and more annoyingly, if I temporarily disabled it in the add-in manager, it kept turning itself back on when I hit ctrl-space! Persuaded my boss to buy CodeRush and haven't looked back. Can't say I've missed anything in ReSharper - the only things that won it for ReSharper are now part of VS2005 such as the "resolve namespaces". In fact my fingers seem permanently moulded to a Shift-Alt-F10 combination! Bring on CodeRush 2.0 ...
I love Resharper's real time compile error. That was my win over feature. Code Rush has too much distracting gfx which are distracting.
The load time might take a few seconds which is a one time thing. If one is too impatient, switch to another task instead of staring at VS!
I've been using Resharper since its initial EAP and have been using version 2 since its EAP started. Whilst I agree that there are still a few places where 2.0 is a little buggy, I know that the Jetbrain's team will be releasing a 2.1 in the near future and I'm sure that this will improve the situation. In my experience, they are really strong in the area of releasing fixes and updates and also very responsive to their user-base.
I also agree with the above comments, Resharper is not just about refactorings for me, it's navigation and code viewing features give me a deep view of the code. It is primarily for these reasons that I could not live without Resharper.
I will give the DevExpress product a try when it's released, but I've tried most of the refactoring/code intelligence products on the market and have found nothing that comes even close to Resharper.
And.....no I do not work for Jetbrains or are in any other way associated with them.
I also found Resharper to be a better fit for my needs than Refactor and CodeRush. The features are simply more accessible than the in CodeRush. The only problem I have with Resharper is the performance. My solutions are pretty large and that really does have an impact on Resharper performance. Also I've noticed that a fast disk helps a lot.
I would say that ReSharper is first and foremost a "productivity" tool (which combines refactoring features, code automation, smart-navigation, plus a bunch of other things) ... typically it just lead the tools market in refactoring capabilities ... if the new version Refactor! will have more than ReSharper and prove more useful, great ... competition is good for everybody. The real point is that people should be made more aware of the tools out in the market that help them code faster and smarter, and make their life easier. That's the job of you bloggers! :-)
David Stennett
JetBrains (makers of ReSharper)
Couldn't agree more with Roy.
CodeRush gives you *too much* help ( if you could say that), sometimes it gets on the way.
And at first its a bit confusing with all the eye candy bits and pieces. Makes the page a bit crowded.
I used ReSharper 1.1 a few months ago and loved it! (real time compile error is just awesome). Looking forward to installing 2.0 but not before i give CodeRush a bit more usage.
I keep hearing from people that its a bit slow...
any commments on this?
Chris: Just to clarify -- no existing customers will have to pay for CodeRush 2.0 -- All existing customers will get CodeRush 2.0 and Refactor 2.0 for free, *plus* a year-long subscription that's good from the date of purchase. If you purchased more than a year ago (even folks who purchased 3 years ago) we'll give you a complementary 90-day subscription to updates. Pretty cool, eh?