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I work in Visual Studio exclusively for my day job the last 8 years so my experience is pretty limited. But every time I try out other languages and IDEs on my

I work in Visual Studio exclusively for my day job the last 8 years so my experience is pretty limited. But every time I try out other languages and IDEs on my own time, I'm almost shocked at how hard the tools are to work with compared with Visual Studio. VS has excellent intellisense. Compile and runtime errors are clearly pointed out, usually with helpful error messages. And real-time debugging and being able to set variable watches make developing much easier. Compine that with the new integrated performance/memory profiling tools and it's a slam dunk. These tools may be available in other IDEs, but they are so easy to use in Visual Studio. Again, this may be due to my experience and familiarity, but I haven't found anything close. In theory Eclipse should be able to compete since the debug capabilities should be the same (.NET vs JVM) but it was disappointing. Cludgy IDE, poor intellisense. And even creating a simple Java console application required several manual configuration steps. In .NET you can have a new console app running in 2 clicks, and it's pretty intuitive so even new users shouldn't be too overwhelmed.

bmj 11y ago
Did you work with other IDEs/languages before you started working with VS? I typically use VS every day (currently on 2013), and yes, I have a similar experience with other IDEs. Then I remember that I know VS pretty well, and maybe that's why this other IDE doesn't seem so great. If I spent 8 years with a different IDE, and someone gave me VS2015, I'd probably have that same "this clearly isn't as awesome as X" feeling.
- gknoy 11y ago
  I'm not sure. I used Eclipse extensively for several years (though am not an expert), but immediately discarded ANY interest in Eclipse within about 20 minutes of using PyCharm. Because of that experience, I no longer felt that IDEs were interchangeable. I haven't used Visual Studio in about a decade or more, but I would not be surprised if there were things about it that don't have an easy analogue in others, and which people miss.
oblio 11y ago
Creating a Java console app is not really the same as creating a non-portable, Windows only console app. Of course VS does Windows integration better, that's kind of the point :)
- tracker1 11y ago
  In VS, you create a new console solution (Or web) in your language of choice... a hello world template is created... click the run/debug button, it compiles and runs. That has emphatically not been my experience with Eclipse at all... I've had to participate on a number of Java solutions over the years, but it always felt like a hair pulling experience. For that matter, I'm often frustrated with VS after spending most of my time the past 4-5 years in node... full text editor, and two console windows open (plus browser(s)). After a while, it feels like the low tech option is easier. There are things I miss when I play with VS... but when I use VS for JS editing, I find I'm fighting with formatting options that reformat my text, and other developers with the defaults that don't care. That said, I do like VS more than every other IDE I've used... WebStorm is really nice for node, but I haven't tried the latest NTVS seriously.
at-fates-hands 11y ago
I'm a front-end guy and after working at a MS heavy shop where this is all we used for everything (TFS for source control, ALM for project management, Azure for test and dev environments) and I fell in love with it. The ease which all of these are integrated into your IDE spoils you a lot. Also, even as a front-end guy, I was able to debug fairly complex applications because the compiling errors are so clearly laid out where they are and hints on how to resolve them. I've used nearly every IDE imaginable and I've found VS's intellisense to be second to none.
odonnellryan 11y ago
Do you use JetBrains products for VS? If not, you're really missing out.
- jinushaun 11y ago
  I don't know how people use VS without ReSharper (JetBrains).
  - odonnellryan 11y ago
    and dotTrace?!

bmj 11y ago

Did you work with other IDEs/languages before you started working with VS? I typically use VS every day (currently on 2013), and yes, I have a similar experience with other IDEs. Then I remember that I know VS pretty well, and maybe that's why this other IDE doesn't seem so great. If I spent 8 years with a different IDE, and someone gave me VS2015, I'd probably have that same "this clearly isn't as awesome as X" feeling.

gknoy 11y ago
I'm not sure. I used Eclipse extensively for several years (though am not an expert), but immediately discarded ANY interest in Eclipse within about 20 minutes of using PyCharm. Because of that experience, I no longer felt that IDEs were interchangeable. I haven't used Visual Studio in about a decade or more, but I would not be surprised if there were things about it that don't have an easy analogue in others, and which people miss.

oblio 11y ago

Creating a Java console app is not really the same as creating a non-portable, Windows only console app. Of course VS does Windows integration better, that's kind of the point :)

tracker1 11y ago
In VS, you create a new console solution (Or web) in your language of choice... a hello world template is created... click the run/debug button, it compiles and runs. That has emphatically not been my experience with Eclipse at all... I've had to participate on a number of Java solutions over the years, but it always felt like a hair pulling experience. For that matter, I'm often frustrated with VS after spending most of my time the past 4-5 years in node... full text editor, and two console windows open (plus browser(s)). After a while, it feels like the low tech option is easier. There are things I miss when I play with VS... but when I use VS for JS editing, I find I'm fighting with formatting options that reformat my text, and other developers with the defaults that don't care. That said, I do like VS more than every other IDE I've used... WebStorm is really nice for node, but I haven't tried the latest NTVS seriously.

at-fates-hands 11y ago

I'm a front-end guy and after working at a MS heavy shop where this is all we used for everything (TFS for source control, ALM for project management, Azure for test and dev environments) and I fell in love with it. The ease which all of these are integrated into your IDE spoils you a lot. Also, even as a front-end guy, I was able to debug fairly complex applications because the compiling errors are so clearly laid out where they are and hints on how to resolve them. I've used nearly every IDE imaginable and I've found VS's intellisense to be second to none.

odonnellryan 11y ago

Do you use JetBrains products for VS? If not, you're really missing out.

jinushaun 11y ago
I don't know how people use VS without ReSharper (JetBrains).
- odonnellryan 11y ago
  and dotTrace?!