CodeRush

asp:review

CodeRush

AccelerateYour Coding Experience

By BrianNoyes

Let'sface it, Visual Studio is probably the most productive integrated developmentenvironment in the world. From the code the designers write for you, to colorcoding, IntelliSense, automatic statement completion, and other features, we'respoiled as developers. I realize that all too well every time I find myselfneeding to write some code in an impaired environment that doesn't have VisualStudio - or worse yet, working on a project that isn't .NET. However, there isalways room for improvement, and CodeRush for Visual Studio.NET from DeveloperExpress steps in and adds to the Visual Studio environment a variety ofproductivity benefits to which you will quickly become addicted.

CodeRushboasts a long list of features that each add a little extra power to the codingwindows in the IDE. Probably the most powerful features of CodeRush focusaround its ability to help you write code faster. For example, the CodeTemplate allows you to insert common blocks of code into your editor based on ashort sequence of shortcut keystrokes. The product ships with many templatesfor common coding tasks, such as injecting properties, try..finallyblocks, and many other constructs. You can also easily define your owntemplates.

Tryingto show the power of CodeRush with a screen grab does not begin to do thisdynamic product justice - but we'll try. Figure 1 shows a property block thatwas injected simply by typing the character p and hitting the default actionkeystroke (I have mine mapped to [Alt][SpaceBar]). You can see a couple of thingsin Figure 1 that hint at some of what CodeRush can do.

Figure 1: Code Template generation withgraphical hints and markers.

First,when you activate a code template, the focus immediately shifts to the nextthing you're likely to want to modify about the generated code. In the case ofthe property definition just created, that is the name of the property. Thetemplate also contains something called markers (the little bluetriangles), which you can use to jump from code element to code element to fillin the blanks of the template simply by hitting [Esc]. The markers are kept on a stack;jumping to one with the [Esc] key results in the cursor jumping to the marker, and a briefgraphical arrow (the Collect Marker arrow shown in Figure 1) appears anddisappears (with a nice fade effect) to draw your attention to where it needsto be. These are called Action Hints, which you can, of course, toggle on oroff.

You canalso see in Figure 1 that CodeRush adds graphical adornments to your code tohelp visualize your code, including little symbols that indicate the visibilityof declarations, where return from a statement will occur, and so on. Templatesalso contain linked identifiers that allow you to change an identifier in oneplace, and have it updated everywhere else it's used in the template, as youtype.

Beyondtemplates, you get a lot of assistance from CodeRush in the form ofIntellassist, which you can think of as IntelliSense on steroids. Intellassistprovides additional hints that pop in as you type. These hints help you selectcode elements you need in the context of what you are working on; you cancustomize these features, as well. Another feature is Smart Cut and Paste,which allows you to select entire blocks of code for cut/copy/paste operations.This saves you from tediously trying to get the selection just right so youdon't end up with weird formatting you must fix after pasting a block of codefrom one place to another.

It'sdoubtful that the features that ship with CodeRush won't be enough for you. Butif you're a power geek who must always go beyond the built-in capabilities of atool, you won't be disappointed. CodeRush is built to be extensible, and allowsyou to add functionality through its extensibility model. There is already arapidly growing community of users who are contributing plug-ins to CodeRushthrough the Developer Express Web site.

CodeRushis a little difficult to describe, because it's so dynamic and so much can beaccomplished using the interactive code editor. But trust me, it's a fantasticproductivity enhancer to which every Visual Studio.NET coder will quickly growaddicted. Here's the bottom line: If you download it and try it, you'll wantit.

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WebSite: http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/products/NET/Coderush

Price: US$249.99