Visual Studio 2010 is out, more or less. It will be officially launched in May and be available through retail outlets in June. But it is available now via MSDN for subscribers.

I’ve played around with the beta and the RC versions for a while, and I downloaded the RTM version last week. My only gripe is that it is slow to start, but once it is open it is a joy to use.

I first started using .Net when version 1.1 was released in 2003. Version 2 of the CLR which was released with Visual Studio 2005 was a big improvement, as you would expect. When I moved to VS 2005 I also discovered Resharper and I have been a fan ever since.

One thing that I have noticed over the years is that each new Visual Studio release has incorporated some of the functionality that was provided by Resharper. For Resharper you could substitute CodeRush + Refractor and the statement would also be true. I think if I had tried CodeRush before I got used to Resharper then I would probably use CodeRush instead. They are both great products and both have substantial numbers of loyal followers.

However, to get back to my point. Resharper and CodeRush – and I think there may be one or two others, there certainly used to be, but these are the main contenders – provide some functionality that is missing from Visual Studio. As each subsequent version of Visual Studio incorporate some or most of this functionality, Jet Brains and Developer Express need to add more functionality to Resharper and CodeRush otherwise no one would buy or upgrade their products.

Resharper 5 has just been released. It too has been in beta and then RC versions for some time. I was very disappointed that the RC versions that I tried did not have highlighting of the current line. A very small issue, but one that made coding, for me at least, so much easier. Maybe its usefulness was more perception than reality, I don’t know. Except that when it wasn’t available in VS 2010 I was bitterly disappointed. But the final version has it restored and so all is well with the world.

And Resharper has a whole bunch of new stuff as well. It has to if it wants to stay in the market.

So the result is that with each version of Visual Studio we developers get a better environment in which to code, and our add-ons keep improving at the same time.

I recommend that you try out VS 2010 and also give Resharper or CodeRush a try as well. You won’t be disappointed.