So far I use to develop in Java. Java is multi-platform (now works on Android!), has a very powerfull VM and is open, well behaved, etc. But is also old and seems to be stopped on time in terms of language features. Scala and Gosu are nice replacements, but I don’t like Scala syntax and Gosu is very immature and unlike to win from Scala. All this makes me think about moving to C# at least for web development! Phew!
One thing that is quite important to me is IDE support. Right now I use Eclipse for Java, and my favorite features are these (most important first, somewhat):
- Full code navigation (call hierarchy, show variable reads & writes, inherited members).
- Incremental compilation (which means fast compilation).
- Many kinds of errors are detected and underlined before compilation.
- Many intelligent quick-fixes (can fix/write many code for you and quickly rename elements and refactor references).
- Intelligent and configurable code completion. Display hints even for unimported packages/classes.
- Over 15 kinds of refactorings, all of them very useful.
- Over 15 options of source generation (add unimplemented methods, generate getters and setter, generate delegates).
- Configurable code formatter, even for code fragments (select code then format).
- Debugger supports hot code replacement and “Drop to Frame” so I can go back an check other things without full program startup.
- Code cleanups (remove unnecessary parenthesis, remove unnecessary “this” references, etc).
- Very decent, autonomous and seamless CVS integration, with integrated file comparison and computer-aided merge.
- Very nice tools for web development (server deployment, JavaScript and HTML editor with formatter).
- Tons of plugins (code coverage analyser, memory dump analyser, eGIT).
Which of these features are available in Visual Studio for C#/ASP.NET? If I can get some by adding a cheap plugin, please tell.
Well, I like Visual Studio a lot more than Eclipse. I have only used Eclipse for minimal Java programming and Action Script. Visual Studio can do every thing you listed and if you combine it with a paid plugin like Resharper or CodeRush, you get a lot more. Why don’t you download Visual Studio Express and play around with it? That would be much better than getting an answer from a very biased C# dev.