Is Visual Studio also a good IDE for non .NET languages?

Question

I'm a bit in IDE trouble, and I'm not alone I have noticed, still I haven't found an answer on many of my questions.

I would very much stop using different editors and become very good at one (on windows), adhering the pragmatic adage : "Learn one editor (ide) well". I' m willing to put in a lot of effort, to gain on the long term.

I have programmed (java) with Intellij and Eclipse, and am progamming c# now. (VS08 was at first very disappoing for me, till so at SOF mentioned Resharper and now I'm very happy with it, especially since I started writing macros for further adjustments)

For all purpose editors, VIM and EMACS come to mind, but I'm afraid they just cannot compete against VS08/Resharper when it comes to C#, which I'm using a lot on this moment. Further, it isn't clear to me if they support refactoring (after installing packages for the language in question?)

But since VS08/Resharper is so powerfull for c#, I would like to give VS a serious chance. But for that it should have support for langauges that don't compile to CIL.

hence my question : Is Visual Studio a good tool for non .NET languages?

(and like asked on the side : how about refactoring in VIM/EMACS?)

Answer 1

As far as C/C++ goes, Visual Studio is considered the gold standard (well, Visual Studio + VAX if you really want to get specific). It's not perfect, and it's certainly not as good as the C# tools it has, but it's still a damn sight better than anything else out there, on any platform. (Assuming you didn't want C99 support.)

Of course it doesn't really do non-.NET other than those two.

Answer 2

How about VI mode for VS? I think Eclipse has one too.

You'll just have to learn vi-related commands, but will be able to work in, C# (with VS), Java (with Eclipse), C++ (with VS or Eclipse), scripting languages (with vi), ...

Answer 3

It is good for C/C++ but it is not comparable with what you get for C# or VB.Net ( i don't think it support other languages )

for javascript intelisense is still limited

Answer 4

VS is IMO, better then average editor but not something you can't live without.

If you like your editor to open as fast as Notepad with bunch of features, try EditPlus (on the down side it uses older RegExp implementation but on the plus side it can be made to be portable.

If you would like total extensibility, fast startup, inovative fatures, integrated reposity etc.. try E-Editor, windows port of Mac TextMate.

VIM is ofc superb, but ... long learning curve may be a problem and some people can't find themselves in 2 mode editors.

About Resharper... mhm... almost all of its non-code analytic features may be integrated in mentioned editors. For its suggestive features I doubt there is alternative. I disabled it for the moment because I tend to let Resharper fill in my holes so it can be a double bladed sword - sonner or latter I will totally stop thinking about some things like, can this variable be null or can I move its declaration. I run resharper once I finished some working procedure or at the very end to polish the code.

I personaly use EditPlus for all of the NON MS languages, but E-Editor got my attention recently.

Answer 5

"I would very much stop using different editors and become very good at one (on windows),"

Why?

"adhering the pragmatic adage : "Learn one editor (ide) well". " Really? How is this pragmatic?

After 30 years in this business, my lesson learned is "tools come and go."

Once upon a time we had big fights over vi vs emacs. Not vim with syntax coloring, but plain-text-vi on black-and-white monitors.

Why narrow your world to one tool? How will you cope with innovation if your tool is not the new state-of-the-art?

Answer 6

I tend to avoid using IDEs outside of the languages they are designed. A dedicated IDE can include class libraries, function references, code completion utilities, etc. out of the box.

Once you step outside that, however, you have a clunky and resource hungry text-editor. You might as well use a text editor in that case just to keep your workstation nimble.

It might be better not to learn one IDE well, but rather a text editor. I've used jEdit for years for several reasons: It's multiplatform, includes syntax highlighting for lots of languages, and can be feature-extended with plugins. It's become one of my standard tools, but it's only one in the box.

Answer 7

I think that there is good specialization at the moment. VS is the clear candidate for .Net, with Resharper and DevExpress as great augmentation for increased productivity.

Currently we use Aptana for the "Web 2.0" stuff - CSS/jQuery/MooTools, and that has been a great environment as well. I have avoided the Intellisense in VS 08 for jQuery and do prototyping in HTML/CSS/JS in Apatana, then do all the Domain design in VS. Works for us pretty well.