JetBrains have released ReSharper 3.0, but I think they may have to re-brand it, as it now has extensive VB.NET support too:

ReSharper is proud to enable Visual Basic .NET development, providing full support and a host of productivity features. Visual Basic developers will be sure to enjoy a truly enhanced Visual Studio experience thanks to ReSharper’s quick navigation and search, all the important code refactorings, full-fledged code assistance, code completion & generation, code templates, and a lot more.

Maybe they can call it ReCLR or ReNetter or something like that…

JetBrains have released the first EAP version of ReSharper 3.0.  According to the 3.0 Roadmap, the 3.0 release is going to be mostly about adding in VB.NET support for ReSharper.  There is a full list of changes for this build available here.

VB specific changes:

• Rename works in Visual Basic
• The following refactorings work in Visual Basic:
  • Rename
  • Move type to another file
  • Copy type
  • Move static members
  • Introduce variable
• Live templates work in Visual Basic (not all macros work; no bundled templates)
• Type name completion (Control+Alt+Space) works in Visual Basic
• Smart code completion (Control+Shift+Space) works in Visual Basic

Non-VB specific changes:

• TO-DO Explorer (try ReSharper -> Windows -> To-do Explorer)
• Solution-wide error analysis (enable it by checking the ReSharper -> Options -> Highlighting -> Analyze whole solution checkbox)
• Automatic member reordering (configured at ReSharper -> Options -> Member Order; configuration UI is plain XML for now as the options are not finalized yet)
• More context actions and quickfixes
• Suggestions
  • Make field read-only
  • Make parameter type more specific
• XAML is supported (to the extent of recognizing symbols declared in XAML files and resolving some references; more will come in future builds)

Download here.  I’d highly recommend installing this in a Virtual PC image if you use your machine for development normally. I’m using the Orcas CTP image, that way I get to test two things at once. 

• Ian Olsen’s ReSharper vs. CodeRush post (and it’s subsequent follow-up). He makes some very useful points about the two programs. After my ReSharper demo licence expired recently I really empathise with this point:

  I really miss ReSharper’s usage search tools. Being able to move up and down the call graph with a keystroke or two is really nice, and very conspicuously absent from CodeRush. If you spend a fair amount of time reading other people’s code, this is huge. With everything else CodeRush does, I can’t fathom why this feature is missing. In Visual Studio 2005 it’s tolerable, because Visual Studio has its own (admittedly lame) implementation of this, but I’m thoroughly crippled in Visual Studio 2003, where I still do a fair amount of work. I could go back to ReSharper for this reason alone.

  We’ve been having discussions on ReSharper vs CodeRush at work, but from my own experience & now from reading these posts, I’m think ReSharper is for me. I really liked it’s syntax highlighting too, and the background compiling is a huge help, being stuck in VS2003 as we are. When my licence ran out it felt like I’d lost an arm.

  I also just noticed that JetBrains have launched the .NET Tools Blog which, although it is just about their software, does have some really helpful tips on how to use ReSharper well. eg: Quick-Fixes help generate switch blocks.

• Larkware. The daily grind was added to FeedDemon as soon as I found it (thanks Scoble!), there’s just so much good stuff in there, if you can stand to wade through all the ads.

• Taking the award for the most historically accurate technical analogy I’ve ever seen is Ted Neward’s essay on Object/Relational Mapping: The Vietnam of Computer Science. This is particularly interesting to me as I’m in the process of trying to come up with a more flexible O/R-M methodology using some reflection magic. This has given me something more to think about.

• And finally, while it’s got nothing at all to do with .NET, Paul Graham’s latest essay The Power of the Marginal is, as always, required reading.