Question

I heard that R#5.0 (still in beta) will support VS 2010. My question is
VS2010 == VS2008 + ReSharper ?

I know there are many improvements to VS2010, so I ‘m not sure weather is it really worth purchasing the R#5.0 for VS2010?

Answer 1

Well, I haven’t explored VS 2010 new refactoring features that much, but its my understanding that VS has some but definitely not all of resharpers features implemented (From MSDN):

Navigate To

You can use the Navigate
To feature to search for a symbol or
file in the source code.

Navigate To lets you find a specific
location in the solution or explore
elements in the solution. It helps you
pick a good set of matching results
from a query.

You can search for keywords that are
contained in a symbol by using Camel
casing and underscore characters to
divide the symbol into keywords.

For more information, see How to:
Search for Objects, Definitions, and
References (Symbols).

Generate From Usage

The Generate From
Usage feature lets you use classes and
members before you define them. You
can generate a stub for any undefined
class, constructor, method, property,
field, or enum that you want to use
but have not yet defined. You can
generate new types and members without
leaving your current location in code,
This minimizes interruption to your
workflow.

Generate From Usage supports
programming styles such as test-first
development.

IntelliSense Suggestion Mode

IntelliSense now provides two
alternatives for IntelliSense
statement completion, completion mode
and suggestion mode. Use suggestion
mode for situations where classes and
members are used before they are
defined.

In suggestion mode, when you type in
the editor and then commit the entry,
the text you typed is inserted into
the code. When you commit an entry in
completion mode, the editor shows the
entry that is highlighted on the
members list.

When an IntelliSense window is open,
you can press CTRL+ALT+SPACEBAR to
toggle between completion mode and
suggestion mode.

So I guess it would depend on which of Resharpers features you want to use. If you are satisfied with the above which is certainly great improvements, then you don’t need Resharper.

On the performance question, well it might perform better because of tighter integration.

Personally the above leaves me still needing a lot of features like (just the ones i can think of right now – might be more):

• There are as far as I can tell only about 6 refactorings, where resharper currently has more than 30
• No import type completion, which i use ALL the time. One shortcut adds to references and adds import statement
• No smart completion
• Change namespace to follow navigation structure and update all references with one shortcut
• Goto is more advanced in R# you can go to inheritors and bases,
  file member, recent files and edits and theres the fast goto feature
• Resharpers static analysis is far more comprehensive than what you get from VS

So what do you need? (I am definitely not giving up Resharper)