[I’m sure some vendors aren’t going to like me for doing this series].
Last time I wrote on this subject I mentioned that I was not convinced that I was using the best Refactoring tool available and I had decided to retest them all (at least the ones I know of).
Well, today is the JustCode! from OmniCore.
The Good
This product offers some cool features. For instance, JustCode! offers C#ers built-in error checking with underlining of errors. It also offers a few refactorings; I’m not really sure how many new ones are there, but it doesn’t appear to be as many as was included with .Net Refactor. It does offer templates and ReSharper-like problem correction (stuff like stub a method for me). It does most of this through keyboard shortcuts (which is a huge win for me, but you can always create your own). In many respects this tool looks like a watered-down version of ReSharper. It adds the same kinds of enhancements (just not as many).
Unlike .Net Refactor this tool does a good job of keeping up with the proper context (it only shows applicable refactorings based on where the cursor is or what’s highlighted.
The Bad
When I originally tried this tool (back when I was exclusively a VBer), I found it slowed down my environment horribly. v1.1 got a little better with this… but it seems like it still has moments of making my machine cry out in pain (and this is an X64 (dual core) machine with 1gb of ram. It’s most notable on saves. Beyond that everything else seems snappy.
My Final Thoughts
First of all, understand that I’m just simply playing with this stuff in VS2005 (and not contacting support which might resolve some of my issues, so you might want to try a little harder than I did), so you might have a different experience. I simply loaded the trial in my environment and used it for a bit to get a feel for what I like/don’t like.
To me it feels like ReSharper Lite (which is a compliment), but it just wasn’t enough refactorings/enhancements for me (at least that I use). They have a decent comparison between themselves and ReSharper and CodeRush. Just be aware that this comparison doesn’t compare against the latest CodeRush nor does it compare itself to the others using all their features (so the column for JustCode! is all yes), but the comparison should give you a decent idea of what the tool does.
This tool costs $149 which is more than I would be willing to shell out for this feature set (compared to the others), but that’s me.
[I guess next up is the new CodeRush/Refactor! I’ve been using this on my laptop and it is much improved! (although it does still annoy me at times)]
[tags:VS.Net, Refactoring, C#, VB.Net]