Why should I buy ReSharper or CodeRush? [closed]

Question

I was trying to find similar questions here, but it appears that you guys only compare these tools and everyone know why is it so great :)

Well.. I don't. I know, that these tools are 'ultra cool and will transform me into a supercoder in a minute'. But I would like to know why?

What's so great in them, that they are so expensive (for a plugin)?
Some real example from everyday usage would be nice.

What I see, is a plugin, that does mostly the same what you can achieve with visual studio, but with different shortcuts.

Filide

Oops, maybe you were looking for programmers.stackexchange.com? – Goggle

No, actually I wasn't ;) I probably don't get difference because 'which is better' and 'why'. There are many 'which is better' at SO. – Filide

Use Eclipse and get all the ultra-cool tools for free! Oh, and per the question -- they generally allow you to automatically and easily refactor code in many different ways. Why VS doesn't provide the functionality out of the box is beyond me. – Ellingson

There are basically two reasons people post 'which is betters' on SO: because they are trying to get silver or gold medals and because... I don't know, something like they don't know better. But the second one isn't applicable in this situation. :-P – Goggle

Ok, I thought that its ok to ask here, because there are similar questions and nobody had problem with it :) – Filide

Generally speaking, somebody always has a problem with everything. – Ellingson

meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8401/… – Assassinate

Answer 1

Why not just download and install the trial version and try it for yourself? It's free.

EDIT:

I liken resharper to using a DVR. You can explain the benefits all day long, and people just won't 'get it'. But, once they use one, they never want to go back to the way it was before.

You might try 31 Days of Resharper. It's a bit dated, so it's missing a lot of newer features, but it should give you a solid foundation.

Also, try the Dimecasts Screencast on Resharper. Again, it's older, but you'll get the idea.

Theirs

Why don't anyone asking something just don't spend time by trying instead of asking? – Filide

@Dampee - They should. It's considered rude to ask questions on SO without having first tried to find the answer yourself. Still, nobody can answer why Resharper will be useful for you. Only you can do that, because only you know your workflow. That's why they give you a free trial. It takes 2 minutes to install and you see the results right away. It's also easy to uninstall. – Theirs

+1 Both have free trials. So then you can get an idea of some of the basics at least and I think, if used properly, will immediately answer your question of WHY. – Aleras

Oh... comeon. This is not question like 'will this code output this string?'. I can't see results in a few minutes. I was looking for oppinions of users that are experienced with this. If you don't want to help me.. fine, it's ok. Nobody does force you to be helpful. These tools offer so many things, that you need more time to try that out. I still don't see why it is sooooo bad to ask for advice in this matter. Btw: it seems that people agree with you, so maybe I should start answering in same way "just try it by yourself, bye" :) – Filide

@Dampe - You don't get it. Resharper is the kind of product that no two people get the same benefit from it. Only YOU can know if Resharper is useful to you, because only YOU can judge that. The only way you can know that is by trying it. Trust me, you'll either love it or hate it within minutes of using it, and if you love it then you will spend the next 2 years finding new things in it, it has so much added value that you can't even begin to describe it in a way that gives it justice. You have to use it to understand it. – Theirs

@Mystere Man: Ok, that's fair enough. Thank you for your time spent on this. – Filide

Answer 2

You can't do what ReSharper gives you with Visual Studio. If that were the case, JetBrains would never sell a copy.

It's considered enough of an improvement over bare bones Visual Studio where I work that every .NET developer in the company uses it. No one writes a line of C# without it. Cool has nothing to do with it, and the company doesn't balk at the license fees. It's worth it.

Harberd

No one writes a line of C# without it. Why? – Filide

Your logic doesn't really hold there; clearly if it allows you to do things more conveniently, it will still sell. It's compelling feature is that it helps people work more efficiently. If it does this for you, sure, use it, but if it doesn't, then don't. I personally can't stand it. – Sibyls

I'm sure there aren't many things on earth that are 100% unanimous, but the overwhelming majority of .NET developers where I work use it and like it. It is compelling enough where they find that it enhances their productivity. My logic does hold, same as yours. It's called an opinion. The only difference is that yours belongs just to you; I'm speaking for the twenty or so .NET developers that I have personal contact with. – Harberd

@Dampe - because it enhances productivity. It's intuitive; it helps without forcing or getting in the way. I feel like it's reading my mind, and in a good way. – Harberd

Logical reasoning is not opinion. I'm sure you are just mis-speaking in order to try and argue, but I don't quite see why. – Sibyls

Everything isn't logic; it's a subjective judgement. I'm not mis-speaking; I simply don't agree with you. Why? I think you're wrong. That's all. – Harberd

Answer 3

Well, the new VS2010 included some ideas that those tools introduced years ago. By the way, I used ReSharper and I assure that it has much more that VS can offer.
Amongst the most important features it allows to enforce the same style along all the code, including naming convention and indentation (just to mention a couple). This allows groups of coders to work on code that looks always "familiar".
The production is drastically improved with those tools because they can suggest and write for you a lot of code with a simple key combination. Ok, VS includes some of this code generation but it doesn't cover the same amount of places where this can be done. It is too extensive to write here all the features and you can check them in detail on the official websites.
They (at least ReSharper that I used a lot) also improves the solution navigation, finding files, classes, methods with an easy to access and clean interface.
The only thing I can say is that once you try it, it is difficult to go back.
The best thing you can do is download the trial and try it yourself. I am sure that you will see why they are so beneficial.

Edited, added from the comments:

• Jump to file in solution explorer.
• Enforces naming convention such as 'm_variableName' or 'MethodName', or 'privateVariableName'.
• Automatic naming creation... if you have a class named 'CoolFileReader' it automatically suggests (based on the convention) 'm_coolFileReader'.
• Highlights in gray the unused variables and using directives.
• Suggests to add references to other projects in the same solutions. ... more...

Frieder

I know I can dl it and try, but I wanted oppinion from real users. Btw: keep same formatting .. Ctrl+K,Ctrl+D in VS. Searching for methods.. Ctrl + , etc. – Filide

Jump to file in solution explorer? enforcing naming convention such as 'm_variableName' or 'MethodName', or 'privateVariableName'? Has automatic naming creation... if you have a class named 'CoolFileReader' it automatically suggests (based on the convention) 'm_coolFileReader'. And so on... – Frieder

Highlights in gray the unused variables and using directives, suggests to add references to other projects in the same solutions... – Frieder

+1, finally something useful, thank you. – Filide

The fact is that I am surprised every time I use it and I still find something new even after months/years of usage, so it is difficult to collapse the cool features in few lines :). Glad it helped. I am sure you will love it ;). – Frieder

Answer 4

I liked how Mark Miller once described CodeRush. He said (paraphrasing) that it lets you code at the speed of thought.

Godsey

Answer 5

There are a great deal many things that developers have to cope with due to the IDE not being as helpful as it could be. Refactoring, by far, is one of the most time-consuming processes with at times what feels like minimal payoff for the labors. Then there's the difficulty in ensuring that what you have done in the process is correct. Of course, there's test cases to prevent things from going too badly, but some things creep in without notice. Tools like ReSharper change that. Their refactoring tooling is top-notch, and can shave hours off of development time. What's better, is its intuitiveness. I have occasionally found myself writing a foreach loop to have it refactored into a linq statement. If you haven't given it a chance, I highly recommend it.

EDIT: Another thing I forgot to mention. I come from a background of Netbeans and Eclipse. When I was transitioning to VS due to my job, ReSharper brought in some of the behaviors of those applications into VS. If you are in a similar transitional situation, then it's another additional benefit.

Unicellular

I wanted to argument by typing fore + TAB + TAB, but then you got me with that LINQ transformation. – Filide