--- title: "How CodeRush pissed me off" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/24/how-coderush-pissed-me-off.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/24/how-coderush-pissed-me-off.html" published: "2004-03-24T21:11:00" updated: "2004-03-24T21:11:00" tags: [".Net Original", "Cool Tools"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "CodeRush . What can I say? I may be a little less on the objective side, having used CodeSmart for the past several years, but any tool that claims they are the only tool to have a “code templates“ feature , either is…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # How CodeRush pissed me off By Roy Osherove March 24, 2004 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original), [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) **Historical article** · Originally published March 24, 2004; technical details may be outdated. [CodeRush](http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/Products/NET/CodeRush). What can I say? I may be a little less on the objective side, having used [CodeSmart](http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3net_screenshots.htm) for the past several years, but any tool that claims [they are the only tool to have a “code templates“ feature](http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/products/net/coderush/Templates), either is lying or have no idea what is in the market. Hell, CodeSmart have had this functionality for at least 3 years that I know of, even back in the VB6 days. It actually offends me as a developer that CodeSmart isn't even on their list of [competitive features table](http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/products/net/coderush/FeatureComparision). Heck, you have [Resharper](http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/) there, but that's not even out of Alpha version, and you have [Visual Assist](http://www.wholetomato.com/x/index.html), which , to my mind, has been (for other than C++ dev) almost non existent in features, but where the heck is [CodeSmart](http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3net_screenshots.htm)? It's almost as if they are avoiding it on purpose. _are you_? _**Disclaimer**: I do not work for [AXTools](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/24/www.axtools.com), maker of CodeSmart, I'm just a huge fan of their software and have been using it for a long time. As a happy customer, I always show it to people and they love it. Remarkably, its still not very well known._ Anyway, here's my list of “real world” comparison features with [CodeRush](http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/Products/NET/CodeRush) and [CodeSmart](http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3net_screenshots.htm). The 4 most important things I use with CodeSmart are: 1. **AutoText** - CodeRush has this and it's called “Templates“ CodeRush does a slightly better job of templates, because you have active field markers in the expanded text that you can change easily after the expansion actually occurs. I'd love to see this in CodeSmart, but it's not heartbreaking. 2\. **Consolidated project view + Class view** - CodeRush has nothing like this 3\. **Extended find & replace** \- CodeRush aint even close. 4. **Code builders** \- Same as above As for CodeRushe's features: Most of them are eye-candy, and are just as useful as they sound. Nice to have, nothing more.  - **Markers**,i.e. “better bookmarks”. OK. what else? \- **selection expansion** - I like it. would like to see it in CodeSmart. saves time. \- **Quick** **\- nav**: already have a quick solution for this, and it's free: [QuickJump](http://www.codeproject.com/dotnet/quickjump_net.asp) \- **Spell checking**: got it in CS \- **Flow evaluation**: don't have it, nice to have but not earth shattering \- **live error highlighting**: I'd like this a lot! \- **Smart cut/copy**: sorta have it already. I wonder just how many people use this. \- **Duplicate line**: erm.. macros? hear of those? \-**Add-in extensibility**: coolness. I wants it. Now, [take a frigging look at CodeSmart's features](http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3net_screenshots.htm) and tell me it does not have better features. Really. I can see why there was no comparison to CS in the chart. I can live with “_We provide other features, but not these right now_” but ignoring the competition as if they don't exist is an insult to my intelligence. ## More in .Net Original [All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original) - Mar 27, 2004 ### [Delegates & Events - A short Q&A](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/27/delegates-amp-events-a-short-qampa.html) - Mar 24, 2004 ### [The Regulator moves to SourceForge, slowly but surely](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/24/the-regulator-moves-to-sourceforge-slowly-but-surely.html) - Mar 22, 2004 ### [GotDotNet is friggin broken](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/22/gotdotnet-is-friggin-broken.html) - Mar 22, 2004 ### [Download Slides & code from my Regex and Plugins presentation](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/3/22/download-slides-amp-code-from-my-regex-and-plugins-presentat.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/