Visual Studio .NET vs. Eclipse
Being mainly a Java/Eclipse developer I’m finding it quite hard to move to .NET/C#. You see, Eclipse has spoiled me and given me all of these wonderful features that I can’t get in Visual Studio .NET. I’m wondering why I ever wasted my time hand-editing my code all of these years. Here’s the run-down on my issues:
1. C# is Java. There, I said it. It’s Java with different words and some extra stuff like Properties. Everything is the same but named differently. How convenient. It’s a lot like the difference between C# and VB.NET but a little more so. The upside is that I get to say I know two languages for the price of one and a half.
2. Refactoring. Holy crap, I’m screwed. I can’t use an IDE without refactoring any more — I get completely frustrated. “What do you mean I have to change the name of this function myself in all of these files??” Global search and replace? Ick.
3. Code Indenting. The Eclipse indenting isn’t perfect either but at least it doesn’t trip over itself when you go one line too far down and go back up. Oops.
4. Code Completion. Right in there with indenting. Give me the end bracket/brace, damnit! I don’t want to type it.
5. Code compiling. Compile my code as I write it so I can see mistakes, please. I hate recompiling my project every single time I want to check for errors. I’m not typo-free (or else I’d be a secretary).
6. Unit testing tool integration. For the love of Pete help those poor NUnit saps put unit testing right in Visual Studio. Why do I have to switch back and forth between apps and find the compiled executable I want to test. Integration integration integration. It’s all about saving small increments of time (remember time motion studies?) … if I have to switch 200 times a day between apps and that takes 5 seconds, there’s 4000 seconds! Six and a half minutes and a hundred times more frustration.
7. CVS integration. How can a modern IDE survive without code repository integration? … and I’m not talking about Visual Source Safe here, CVS is the minimum. Eclipse’s CVS integration is beautiful. Copy it. Please.
That’s it for now … believe me, there will be more. I’m kind of exaggerating my exasperation for comedic (maybe?) effect but only a little bit. It’s a seriously sad situation here.
If you know how to solve any of these problems, let me know! I’m using the original version of VS.NET (2001, I guess).