>>Anybody using any of these tools? Which seems to be the most common or most used? I would like to try them but would prefer to use something more commonly used.
>>
>>I no longer use the Dev Express controls, but the CodeRush and Refactor seems like a great product.
>>
>>Thanks
>>Tim
>
>
>I've used both, but I've switched over the CR/R! - when I tried out Resharper (a few years ago now) it was a cool product but it was so slow I found it impossible to use VS with it running. It did a nicer job with intellisense and did background compilation style flagging of code before C# had that. The refactoring tools were nice and they made code suggestions that were helpful.
>
>CR/R! is really two different products. CR is more of a templating engine and code analyzing framework. R! is their refactoring tools build on top of CR. You can write your own VS plug-ins on top of CR. For example, I wrote a plug-in that shows me the VB.NET version of any C# code I'm looking at (or vice-versa). As for templating, that just means you can type some really short abbreviations for stuff and it will fill in the rest (think code snippets on steroids). The refactoring tools are cool (and fast) - ex. renaming a method/variable, extracting code into a new method, changing the order of parameters, rename a file to the current class, extract class to a new file, etc. I probably only use a small portion of the templates and refactorings but the ones I do use are really handy. It also has a nice tab-to-next-reference feature. For example, position the curson on a method then hit tab and it will take you to the next piece of code that references that method. Keep hitting tab to see all the code references.
>
>They've started building more code analysis features into the product. From what I've heard this is still a place where Resharper comes out ahead, but it's definitely getting more useful. For example, it highlights undisposed classes (and has a refactoring to wrap it in a using(){}).
>
>They have a free version you can download and install - try it out. You'll definitely want to watch the videos they have available to get an idea of what types of things it will do.

Hi Paul,

Thanks a bunch. I just viewed some of the video and downloaded the CodeRushExpress to try out. CodeRush has the Refactor included as I understand it or you can purchase just Refactor alone. The express version appears to have a more limited function but does include some Refactor capabilities. I remember installing at least the core engine once before because I had one of your plug-ins. I can't right now remember which one or what it did, but I would like to find it again. Seems like I used to have little lines that tied blocks together visually and I don't have that any more. I have changed computers since then, so haven't got it all back yet.

Tim