I've raved about IntelliJ IDEA before and I still hold that this is the best usability oriented editor I've seen anywhere.

Now, the same folks who brought you this IDE have created an add-in for VS.Net that will eventually give .Net developers what Java developers have had for a long time: good intelligent coding and editing usability with amazing refactoring support: Resharper (user and password are “eapuser“).

The Add-in is still in Alpha state but can be freely downloaded using an early access program.

I've already found it very very good (although a lot of features are still lacking). Look here for a review of what's currently there.

 

One thing that bothers me is this: The add-in only works for C#. When I open a project in VB.Net I get only two features available to me and the others are disabled. I'm not sure if this is due to the alpha state of the add-in or due to the fact that VB.Net is not going to be part of this functionality.

 

If it's not going to be part of it, it's not going to be the first refactoring add-in that does this. Xtreme Simplicity's C# Refactory(you can guess by the name already) is specifically designed for C# as well.

 

There are no products that add refactoring functionality to VB.Net, but there should be. Why is this the case?

Well, here's an interesting tidbit any CEO can understand: the first company that adds refactoring support to VB.Net will make lots of money. Can you grok that? now please go and provide us “morts“ with this functionality.

 

I've already contacted the company that I believe should be the most likely candidate: AXTools. Their CodeSmart add-in already provides lots of great productivity enhancements, and refactoring support would just be another great bit to add to that.