What is the best alternative IDE to Visual Studio

Question

As I've only ever used Visual Studio for .NET development, I would like to expand my horizons and see what else there is on offer as an alternative to it. So what in your opinion is the best alternative to Visual Studio? Is there a viable alternative?

Answer 1

If you are looking to try Java, I believe NetBeans is a very, very good IDE. However, for .NET, sure there are alternative IDEs but I don't think it makes much sense to use them unless you are developing on an Open Source platform, in which case SharpDevelop is a good choice and is reasonably mature.

Answer 2

For .NET development, VS2008 is the best but if you want to check for another best IDE, Eclipse probably the best after VS if you are rating it among the IDEs, ofcourse you cant do .NET development in Eclipse though

Answer 3

The other great thing about SharpDevelop is the ability to translate solutions between the two big managed .NET languages VB.NET and C#. I believe it doesn't work for "websites" but it does for web application projects.

Answer 4

Zeus.

Here's an example showing code completion, taken from the Zeus homepage.

Answer 5

Try out this one: "Pao" at http://pao-ide.info . It's still in development and not up to production use but it's quite unique in features. Basically, all the language constructs, such as assemblies, types, members, statements, expressions are treated as objects and are associated with rich operation options. You can enjoy features usually seen in graphical editors, such as multiple selection, multiple copy-paste, tagging, batch operation and very powerful search capability. It takes some getting used to but eventually might increase productivity. Right now, it only supports form applications though.

Answer 6

vim

It also helps you to stop using your mouse so much!