.NET Refactoring Tool Enters Beta

Here. "C# Refactory is a revolutionary new tool which enhances Microsoft's Visual Studio.NET IDE. It performs a number of complex refactorings automatically, allowing you to shape and re-shape your code as needs arise. It also helps you identify code which needs attention by calculating metrics, from 'lines of code' all the way up to 'cyclomatic complexity'. It is fully integrated with the IDE - no external tools means that refactorings are always ready at your fingertips." As I'm writing a bunch of book code just now, I'm not a good beta tester for this tool, but the descriptions of what it does look yummy. I would especially love Extract Method and Rename Type.

Wow this looks interesting! I went to download this but they already have enough beta testers and you can't download it. It has always amazed me that m$ hasn't already done this, the ide already has all of this information.

The lack of openness of the VSIP program is totally disappointing to me too. Practically all other IDEs I know of have extensibility points and several are based on user supplied plugins - thinking of the latest from eclipse.org.

BTW, If you haven't seen IntelliJ yet you really should do yourself a favor and download the eval bits [1]. Its a Java IDE that is _very_ VS.NET inspired but has done them one better in several areas. Most notably in refactoring.

Also a feature I'm thinking og hacking into VS.NET is to automatically provid "using" decls when ebcountering a type not declared. So if I tyoe StreamReader rdr = new StreamReader; I should be prompted asking if I want System.IO added to my using declarations...

Just one of those creature comforts you get used to in IntelliJ. Especially when you're new to the class library.

[1] - http://www.intellij.com

I would like to suggest that the person at MS responsible for the code editor and Intellisense(TM) in VS.NET, should really take a close, hard look at IDEA 3.0 from JetBrains.com (formerly IntelliJ).
This Java IDE has absolutely the most productive and intelligent code editor I've ever seen. This tool is many light years ahead of the VS.NET IDE (code editing aspects). Why can't Microsoft realize that automatic code completion is not enough, and why doesn't anybody understand the importance of code refactoring.
I urge everyone who reads this, and is familiar with the VS.NET IDE, to download an evaluation version of Idea 3.0 and see what we are missing in VS.NET. If these things can be done in Java, why have they not been done in .NET ??
Why can't developers using VS.NET not benefit from the CodeDom and metadata inherent to the .NET framework, when these facilities could be used to enable the creation of a truly self-contained and intelligent IDE?

Don't just take my words for this.
Take a look at IDEA from JetBrains (IntelliJ) today and see what MS should have done.

I would second (or third) the comment on IntelliJ IDEA. Absolutely the best IDE on the market for serious Java developers, though Eclipse is not too far behind. The refactoring tools, autocomplete, and popup documentation features are wonderful. I've just come over to using VS.NET and I'm not that impressed with it.

For example, if I try to use a class that I have not previously "imported" with a using statement, VS.NET doesn't give me any sort of IntelliSense functionality until I manually import the namespace. In IntelliJ, it gives me a choice of classes from all the packages it knows about and then automatically imports that package or just that class (configurable). The code comments in IntelliJ will use the javadocs, which is a huge help. Many, many other features to numerous to mention.

The VS.NET IDE does feature a number of extensibility options, and an easy to use Add-In model. See http://www.codeproject.com/macro/#Visual+Studio+%2ENET+Addins for articles written about VS.NET addins - including one sample about a refactoring addin.