Before posting blogs like this a warning should be given: "WARNING: The following post may cause excessive laughing. Cease drinking all milk products before viewing this blog."

This brings a whole new meaning to your "Levelling Up in the IDE" post from last week. ;)

Because of your recommendation, I downloaded and installed the eval version found here:

http://www.devexpress.com/Downloads/NET/CodeRush/

The only other plugin I have installed (VS.NET 2003 Enterprise) is VisualAssistX.

After the installation, I started up the IDE to see what it had done. It took a VERY long time to load the IDE. Once it finally finished loading, it was unusable. The IDE crawled chewing up 100% of my 2.4ghz P4 all the time. It would show a few animations, but they appeared to be pointing to completely irrelevant things.

I closed the IDE and got an unhandled exception error. After hitting OK, devenv.exe started trying to debug itself over and over again until I killed the process.

I admit that there is a possibility that VisualAssist is causing problems with it, but I am not willing to give that up: I paid for VA and love it like a son.

I have to second that, on my dual 2.8 Ghz/2 gig RAM machine CodeRush was slow and also I found it annoying at times. I do use other Devex products, which are pretty good, BTW.

How does this compare to Resharper?

> CodeRush was slow and also I found it annoying at times.

I'm evaluating it as well. The jury is still out. I think VS 2005 stole some of this add-in's original thunder. Primarily with snippets but also with the other 2005 improvements.

Regarding performance issues, CodeRush adds about 2-6 seconds to startup. The first time may take longer (e.g., 8-15 seconds), as every feature is loaded and a profile is built for all the plug-ins you have. After that, subsequent startup times should be *extremely* fast.

Also, with the 1.0.33 build or Refactor! Pro, there is a perf issue with large files (e.g., files greater than 18000 lines of code). The problem is caused by availability checks in the Optimize References refactoring. This will be fixed in the next update. For now, if you have version 1.0.33 or Refactor! Pro, you can move the associated DLL (Refactor_OptimizeUsings.dll) out of the plug-ins folder, which is here by default:

C:\Program Files\Developer Express Inc\DXCore for Visual Studio .NET\1.1\Bin\Plugins\

If you're experiencing any other kind of performance issue, it is likely a conflict with another product, and we want to hear about that (please send a description of the issue to support@devexpress.com, and we'll work to resolve it ASAP). CodeRush and Refactor! Pro both have a strong reputation of being very fast, so if you find a situation where that isn't the case, we want to hear about it; we're highly motivated to do everything possible to ensure that you have a lightning fast editing experience.

Finally, for those who have the final versoin or the eval installed, I highly recommend selecting the "Training Videos" menu item, or go here directly, to see the light ;-)

<a href="http://www.devexpress.com/CodeRushTraining">http://www.devexpress.com/CodeRushTraining</a>

I get lots of crap about my Cartoon Network-esque IDE. Strikes folks strange when I am doing code reviews and those hints all over.

BTW, I love it! Its addicting. I wish other things were like CodeRush; Word, my text editor, NAnt, my command line.

+1 to what Mark says. I work on giant project, including one now that has a file with 16,000 lines of code (don't ask) and I don't notice CodeRush. If you've got slowdown, it's likely not CR.

Coderush is great, I'm like a ninja coder now, lightening fast. See, you didn't see that.
It's like coding in shorthand, a world where you don't have to type angle brackets. Typing angle brackets is for homo's anyway.
Go get Refactor! (that exclam mark is to keep the homo's away) and you'll become a true Jedi Coder. Think of it and the code refactors, women love it and you'll look slimmer.

I've got coderush on 3 machines, they have different specs but they all run coderush without a hitch.

1985 called and it wants its derogatory name for people who are attracted to people of the same sex back.

I'm evaluating CodeRush (again!) as well. I tried it about a year ago and didn't like it; wan't intuitive to me. Keep in mind that at the time I was also using Visual Assist which rocks! and is very intuitive out of the gate. The shorthand filtering in intellisense is worth the price alone and I could _not_ live w/out it.

I'm also evaluating CodeSmart 2005 which has some slick tools besides templating in it as well. And it plays well with VA which CR doesn't do out of the box. So far I'm liking CodeSmart a lot. I'm also looking at MZ-Tools for VS.NET which is pretty slick especially for $50.

To think of the work I'd actually be getting done if I wasn't evaulating these tools. How's that for irony?? ;-)

IMO, CodeRush is kinda spendy at $250. That's hard to justify when VS 2005 has snippets and many other new productivity features right out of the box.

Now at $50, it'd be a no brainer even if I ended up not using it. And at $99, possible, but I'd have to be sure I liked it enough to use it all the time.

Jeff -

Visual Assist (www.wholetomato.com) is $129 and then $49 upgrades. This is THE one tool I absolutely refuse to live without. Works with VC++, VB.NET, C#, and oh wait, JavaScript!!

If for no other features than the "favorite" features they list (which really are my favorite features) this add-in is indispensible. Seriously, download it and try it; you'll be hooked! Nothing saves more time typing and works with your brain like a glove.

...woops; favorite features list:
http://www.wholetomato.com/products/features.html

Hmm.. OK, CR requires a bit of getting used to.
As for the steep 250, I actually agree with Jeff on that, however, I got CR when I bought DevExpress's .NET subscription last month.

IMHO, VA is to padewan as coderush is to Jedi, when you master the code you'll use CR :)
And all these people that say it's confusing using CR, it ain't. See the tutorial, get to know the shortcuts and you're off. Don't be a homo and use CR.

I spent a lot of time evaluating all the Visual Studio plugins. Most of them dropped off the radar pretty quickly and the two leading contenders were Resharper and CodeRush. I spent about a month switching back and forth between the two and ultimately settled on Resharper. It doesn't have the flashy eye-candy of CodeRush, but it does show more useful information and generally works better an almost every way.

Visual Studio 2005 has moved a long way towards bridging the gap between IDEs with and without the plugins, but it still isn't quite there.

OOOooo! 8) I've got CR, How do I get galaxian set up that way in the IDE ?? Its my alltime 80's fav game, apart from pacman, mooncresta..er.

Thanks
:)

I just can't live without CodeRush anymore :) great tool and great support too!

> How do I get galaxian set up that way in the IDE ?

It's your all time favorite? Really?

Because that's Galaga up there, not Galaxian.

I'm just sayin'.

opps, yep your right its Galaga :) and I do enjoy the game. Still have it in Mame.

But.. ??
how did you get it working it in CodeRush ??

http://www.warblade.as/game.asp - Very nice game

Will Mark Miller work on improving from Galaga to Nemesis? If I get a Megaram cartridge I'll code even better.

"but source code editors advancing only in very small steps. "

WTF? IDE's have come a heck of a long way.

Have you ever written a program in edlin? Or DOS Edit?

I once wrote an assembly app in DOS Edit and it was luxury compared to what they told us to write it in; edlin. Luxury I tell you!!!

You young pups don't know how good you've got it!

I feel like I'm in Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen sketch, but seriously! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo (I think that's it, I don't have sound on this PC)