Why i moved from visual studio and code to JetBrain's Rider
Disclaimer
This is not a flame war kinda of post, its just a haring of my personal point of view on how i like to code and how i like my tools work better for me 😉. Hope it helps someone.
The history
Well years ago, i was struggling on what tool to use, and then i was stuck with vs code, which was awesome attending my most desired things in a tool: generality, performance and OS compatibility.
I was happy but always looking for ways to improve, at the time i even write a post asking developers which they use and their personal reasons why:
Webstorm or Vscode need some help here.
and this comment catch my attention:
But not until this year i became a heavy Rider user and now ill tell you why.
My personal sweet spot
Lightweight compared to visual studio
When i started working with C# i stumbled upon Visual studio and Resharper and it blew my mind code was great but this is really awesome out of the box, but sluggish on my machine so i stuck with it for while and came back to code until rider came up, i mean its way heavier than code but in my experience way lighter than VS.
Works flawlessly on any OS
Speaks for itself, i kinda have to use windows and Linux or mac daily, having the same experience on all of them has been really cool for me.
Right out of the box(Killing many other products for me)
And the things that i think that is really awesome about Rider(or any Jetbrains tool):
Resharper integration
This is another point that speaks for itself, many c# developers i know love Resharper and it is in Rider.
Great JavaScript support with debugger
This was a really selling point for me, Rider provides full IDE support for JavaScript and working with it everyday too for Front end os lambda functions its really great not having to switch to code like i did when using VS.
Great docker tooling
Awesome Docker debugger and integration right in the IDE also
Amazing Git integration
I'm not very fond of git GUIS but for merges and conflict dealing i kinda prefer using something like git Kraken. But as not surprising Rider gave awesome git support killing another tool that i used
Great unit tests and code coverage tooling
This has surprised me and its even better when using with dotCover allowing me to have first class testing support and not worrying on anything else for generating code coverage
Great database tooling
Really really good its like Datagrip integrated on the os on this image i have two databases one Oracle and other SQL server connected on my solution and i can query and modify them as i will. Needless to say it make me uninstall the other tools i had to manipulate my database needs.
The bumps on the road
Its Paid
Its a downside we cant deny even having many ways to use and test it for free currently there's no community version of Rider
Its still and IDE so it can be heavy
Yeah as i said its still heavier than code at least the code with my extensions, but in my opinion the productivity gain its a nice trade-off and its still lighter than VS.
.Net new stuff comes a little late
And this is expected Microsoft is able to bring support to new features way faster, but the delay is very little
No Code with me yet
This will hopefully end soon, but code with me its really awesome and i miss it sometimes
Wrapping up
As a stated this only a personal view of my usage of the tool, sharing it i hope that someone with needs like mine can find an awesome tool to work as i did. Rider provides an awesome competition to Visual Studio and us developers are the beneficiaries on this like the code completion VS 22 and its many other incredible new features. Needles to say Visual Studio and Visual studio code are not only dominant but awesome and also really great tools, use whatever makes you fell better and most productive. Feel free to share your experiences working with these tools
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