Which IDE do you use?

Scripting
1

On PC I’ve been using Visual Studio, and on Mac I’ve been using Xamarin Studio, and of course I’ve tried MonoDevelop. But they feel clumsy compared to Eclipse, which I use at work.

MonoDevelop lacks a lot, Xamarin doesn’t even find all references, and VisualStudio - although probably the best out of the three - seems to be lacking at least in refactoring features. Eclipse has nicer autocomplete functionality, much more diverse refactoring tools (like simply moving a method to another class), and I also would really like automated javadoc-like comment creation. Can I somehow easily do that with c# and VisualStudio?

I’m about to start a new project and would like to do things in a more tidy and coherent fashion this time. So I’d be interested to know: which IDE do you people use?

2

I use MonoDevelope for Unity.

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automated javadoc, I’m assuming you mean something like the jautodoc plugin for Eclipse?

Sure, visual studio has add-ons like that. Ghostdoc for instance:

Refactoring, the VS community at large loves ReSharper:

There are all sorts of extensions for Visual Studio that do all sorts of crazy stuff. Only downside IMO is that a lot of them are paid features rather than free.

Of course… there are C# plugins for Eclipse that exist. I can’t really speak to their quality though.

2 Likes
4

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, I thought that there have to be some good plugins. In Eclipse I think many things like the refactoring are already built-in. I’ll need to check out that Ghostdoc and ReSharper.

Yeah, I guess it’s better to go with VisualStudio + add-ons.

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Oh, but Resharper seems to be a rather pricy product. Any alternatives?

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I must preface with the fact that I do not code professionally and I am still new at it - that being said: I personally use Visual Studio. I used to use Monodevelop since it came built-in with Unity, but one day (for a reason I’ve yet to determine) Monodevelop stopped working on my computer. It would launch an instance in the background (the process was running) but the software never actually loaded. I then started to use Visual Studio and followed the Microsoft Virtual Academy videos for some training on the environment and C# in general. I really enjoy the feel of Visual Studio - everything is located in an area that makes sense to me.

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Last time I checked, there didn’t exist any that had autocomplete features, or that was under active development.

@JeffersonTD , the only way to get something with close to the same quality as Eclipse in the C# world is to get Visual Studio, and buy Resharper. You’ll not get the built-in marketplace that makes Eclipse the King Of IDEs, but you’ll at least get the entire suit of navigation- and refactoring-tools an IDE needs. It’s not ideal at all, and is one of the big drawbacks of living in .NET-land compared to living in JVM-land, but it’s how it is.

You could also take a look at some of the free or open source projects around. SharpDevelop is on par with MonoDevelop. In my experience, it’s fundamentally broken less often than MD, but it lacks Unity-integration.

Some people on this forum has been saying good things about Consulo recently. The stated main goal of the project (“creating one IDE for all programming languages”) makes me think that it’s doomed to fail, but I’d still give it a go. Since it’s open source, there’s also the possibility that you can introduce what you need.

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I use a Windows PC and with Unity I use Monodevelop.

9

Thanks for the comment. Once I really get rid of my previous project, I’ll consider that. It’s just that its pricetag is a bit much considering that this is a freetime project and I’m not sure how much it really would help. But when I have more time, I’ll probably activate the trial version.

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I use Sublime most of the time. It is so fast and the multi-selection/caret controls are amazing. I do use VS some too, but find it bloated and the unity integration doesn’t work that well yet.

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I use MonoDevelop. I’m pretty lazy.

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Honestly a lot of it is perspective. I hated Visual Studio the first time I went to it after having use Eclipse for a while but it’s really grown on me.

For Unity I’ve used both Mono and Visual Studio fairly extensively. Visual Studio offers a richer, better experiences hands-down. I really see no reason not to use it if you consider it’s also free. In terms of document formatting the out-of-the-box Format Document function of the Editor in Visual Studio gets the job done IMO.

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Currently MonoDev because it’s the only one that’s working since installing 5.2 and VS. It even took out VSCode.

14

VS + ReSharper

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Where’s the obligatory “notepad”, followed by “vi, you windows pleb”, followed by “emacs, you idiot, who uses vi!?”

3 Likes
16

VS. Formerly a Sublime Text addict.

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CodeWright 7.5 (Bulk of all my coding is done with this, have used this for too many years to change)
VS & ReSharper
MonoDevelop (Mainly for Debugging)

I use VS & ReSharper for non Unity stuff.

Mainly one uses what they are most comfortable with and used to.

18

MonoDevelop. Can’t use Visual Studio on Mac anyway.
I have no issues with MonoDevelop except for its debugger. Other than that it works perfectly. I hear the debugger is going to get better in the near future :).

19

Depending on the OS, by preference and experience.
windows: Sublime, notepad++, however for functional IDE’s i prefer VS.
Linux: GEdit, or install a windows wrapper, and use notepad++
Mono develop isn’t a bad option either, it is Open Source and works on all platforms i believe.

20

I use VS 2015 Community Edition, but I’m curious about the new MonoDevelop coming with December’s update of Unity.