What do you think?
Rate this book
ReSharper Essentials
In Detail
ReSharper is one of the best tools that extends Microsoft Visual Studio. It adds a lot of features which increases a developer’s productivity. It started with providing support for C# and VB.NET projects, but the current version supports developers in almost any type of applications which you can create with Visual Studio.
Written with very clear walkthroughs and step-by-step instructions, this book contains many cases that practically show you how to write better code, refactor it and quickly find problems in your code.
This book explains how to start using ReSharper and how you can configure it to suit your needs. In the beginning it focuses on introducing the most commonly used features that help you in writing code and find things in smarter, quicker ways. You will learn about code analysis which will help you to eliminate errors and code smells, and how ReSharper supports web development by providing support for writing ASP.NET (MVC) applications and JavaScript/TypeScript or HTML/CSS code.
This book introduces tools that facilitate your work with unit tests and teach you how to write a simple ReSharper plugin. The last chapters present the new features introduced in ReSharper 8, which provide support for architects and allow you to use ReSharper analysis besides Visual Studio and also support for TypeScript (8.1). Finally, it quickly reviews the best ReSharper plugins recommended by the author.
This book will show you how to use ReSharper features to be a better developer, in a practical manner.
ApproachA practical, hands-on guide that will help you to unleash the power of ReSharper to write better quality code.
Who this book is forIf you are a developer who is working with Visual Studio and are looking to make your work more efficient, this book is for you. It is most useful for new ReSharper users but those who are currently using it will also find many useful tips and references updated to the latest version (8.1). Prior knowledge of Visual Studio is a must.
- GenresProgramming
183 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
3 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 23, 2014
"ReSharper Essentials" provides a good introduction to the world of ReSharper, from configuring to using to customizing. Although somewhat short and not very deep, it did educate me on various pieces of functionality that I was not aware of, and I have been using ReSharper for a couple of years now. There are lots of things I liked about the book, a few I disliked, and one huge omission that I feel should have been covered.
The Likes:
• The book focuses on the many of the most useful features of ReSharper, and how to customize behavior through the myriad of options.
• The author recommendations throughout the book added value over a basic ReSharper instruction manual. I finished the book wanting more, but there was concrete value, such as specific shortcut key combinations to remember for regular use.
• I learned a few things that I didn't know, such as using multi-file templates, some shortcuts I wasn't aware of, navigating to extension methods, and decompilation not being "on" by default.
• The list of recommended plug-ins was very useful.
• The succinct list of keyboard shorts in reference form at the back of the book will be leveraged by many.
The Dislikes:
• This book's purpose should not be to sell ReSharper. As a result, I would have liked an objective comparison to other tools, such as CodeRush and JustCode.
• I would have liked more concrete tips based on the author's experience. Repeat fewer concepts from ReSharper documentation and provide more tips on usage that are not necessarily documented.
• The Reverse strings example was not very useful when describing plug-in development. How about a real-world, useful, pragmatic example?
• There is mention of using XSLT for the duplicates report; why not include one as a sample? It may be in the downloads - in full transparency, I have not checked.
Now the huge omission: in my opinion, no discussion of ReSharper is complete without talking about how it makes you a better developer. Not just a more efficient developer, but a better developer. I was extremely surprised to see no mention of LINQ in the book. I used ReSharper to learn how to code with LINQ. ReSharper does such a fantastic job of suggesting LINQ alternatives to more general constructs, such as foreach, that it is worthy of mention. For a Visual Studio plug-in to make me a better developer is fantastic and worth the price. No mention whatsoever. Surprising.
All in all, I would recommend the book to someone fairly new to ReSharper or is dabbling with plug-in development. Don't expect to get very deep in the materials, however - the book is short and can be read in a couple of evenings. It does fulfill its role - to provide the "essentials".
http://bit.ly/1mnvVYO
The Likes:
• The book focuses on the many of the most useful features of ReSharper, and how to customize behavior through the myriad of options.
• The author recommendations throughout the book added value over a basic ReSharper instruction manual. I finished the book wanting more, but there was concrete value, such as specific shortcut key combinations to remember for regular use.
• I learned a few things that I didn't know, such as using multi-file templates, some shortcuts I wasn't aware of, navigating to extension methods, and decompilation not being "on" by default.
• The list of recommended plug-ins was very useful.
• The succinct list of keyboard shorts in reference form at the back of the book will be leveraged by many.
The Dislikes:
• This book's purpose should not be to sell ReSharper. As a result, I would have liked an objective comparison to other tools, such as CodeRush and JustCode.
• I would have liked more concrete tips based on the author's experience. Repeat fewer concepts from ReSharper documentation and provide more tips on usage that are not necessarily documented.
• The Reverse strings example was not very useful when describing plug-in development. How about a real-world, useful, pragmatic example?
• There is mention of using XSLT for the duplicates report; why not include one as a sample? It may be in the downloads - in full transparency, I have not checked.
Now the huge omission: in my opinion, no discussion of ReSharper is complete without talking about how it makes you a better developer. Not just a more efficient developer, but a better developer. I was extremely surprised to see no mention of LINQ in the book. I used ReSharper to learn how to code with LINQ. ReSharper does such a fantastic job of suggesting LINQ alternatives to more general constructs, such as foreach, that it is worthy of mention. For a Visual Studio plug-in to make me a better developer is fantastic and worth the price. No mention whatsoever. Surprising.
All in all, I would recommend the book to someone fairly new to ReSharper or is dabbling with plug-in development. Don't expect to get very deep in the materials, however - the book is short and can be read in a couple of evenings. It does fulfill its role - to provide the "essentials".
http://bit.ly/1mnvVYO
March 5, 2014
I received an ebook copy from Packt Publishing for an honest review, So here we go :).
I've been a long time, on and off user of Resharper. But it has taken me a long time to learn most of its features. Even today I still find little gems I never kew existed, it's like Visual Studio itself, which has so many features I've never even seen before.
This book quickly takes you through the most important feature area's of Resharper and teaches you the most important shortcuts. Ctrl-T, Ctrl-R, Ctrl-U, Alt-Enter, Alt-` and (Ctrl-)Alt-Ins. With those few key presses and an idea what they do you'r probably able to unlock all the hidden potentials of Resharper by paying attention to what is shown on your screen. Without those you might not even know what Resharper can do for you. The book showed me a few thing I didn't even know existed :).
As a get to know your way around guide, I really like the book. It's short, concise and full of screen shots. When reading it, I recommend you have Visual Studio open, Resharper and your favorite Solution loaded and that you try out each item before continuing.
It fails as a reference and even though there are a few chapters on the Commandline tools and extensibility points, there is not enough depth and guidance to write a useful Resharper plugin or custom refactoring. But I didn't expect to find this in an Essentials book to begin with. One could probably write an in-depth book of 400 pages on that specific topic. I'd loved to have seen more tips and tricks instead the chapters on plugin development I would suppose.
The writing style is far from formal and sometimes even a bit too informal for my liking. The ebook has a few layout issues on my Kindle Paperwhite (No cover, Opens half-way in the table of contents and tips and hints are not indented or outlined, making them hard to distinguish from the other contents), nothing that can't be fixed (and probably will be fixed soon).
All in all, a great way to get to know Resharper and to find those few hidden gems. You still have to learn the keyboard shortcuts to apply all of the tricks in a useful form though.
I've been a long time, on and off user of Resharper. But it has taken me a long time to learn most of its features. Even today I still find little gems I never kew existed, it's like Visual Studio itself, which has so many features I've never even seen before.
This book quickly takes you through the most important feature area's of Resharper and teaches you the most important shortcuts. Ctrl-T, Ctrl-R, Ctrl-U, Alt-Enter, Alt-` and (Ctrl-)Alt-Ins. With those few key presses and an idea what they do you'r probably able to unlock all the hidden potentials of Resharper by paying attention to what is shown on your screen. Without those you might not even know what Resharper can do for you. The book showed me a few thing I didn't even know existed :).
As a get to know your way around guide, I really like the book. It's short, concise and full of screen shots. When reading it, I recommend you have Visual Studio open, Resharper and your favorite Solution loaded and that you try out each item before continuing.
It fails as a reference and even though there are a few chapters on the Commandline tools and extensibility points, there is not enough depth and guidance to write a useful Resharper plugin or custom refactoring. But I didn't expect to find this in an Essentials book to begin with. One could probably write an in-depth book of 400 pages on that specific topic. I'd loved to have seen more tips and tricks instead the chapters on plugin development I would suppose.
The writing style is far from formal and sometimes even a bit too informal for my liking. The ebook has a few layout issues on my Kindle Paperwhite (No cover, Opens half-way in the table of contents and tips and hints are not indented or outlined, making them hard to distinguish from the other contents), nothing that can't be fixed (and probably will be fixed soon).
All in all, a great way to get to know Resharper and to find those few hidden gems. You still have to learn the keyboard shortcuts to apply all of the tricks in a useful form though.
July 26, 2016
I've bought "ReSharper Essentials" (the e-book variant) a few weeks ago, and shortly after I finished reading it I was asked to leave a review.
I'm a long-time user of stand-alone JetBrains IDEs, and I bought this book after I was assigned a Visual Studio-based project to see if there are any Windows/.NET/VS-specific tricks or features I was unaware of.
The book is well-written and relatively short to read in a few days of lunches. I can't say it mentions many features I wasn't aware of, however after finishing it I found myself using ReSharper more extensively than before. If you a new to JetBrains tools (and ReSharper in particular), you'll find a thorough description of what it is capable of; if you are already a seasoned user, it will probably help you to build a complete picture. I especially liked the chapter on recommended ReSharper plugins. You can find loads of these plugins on the Internet: some are real time savers, some aren't - and some guidance is certainly helpful here.
The downside is that the book mostly scratches the surface. This is not bad, given its size, however, I'd prefer more tips and advices on how to use ReSharper in real-world scenarios, and less reference material (ReSharper comes with the good documentation, after all). Besides this, all hotkeys in the book are for Visual Studio, not IDEA keyboard scheme, which may come unhandy.
To sum up: it's a good introduction to ReSharper, but don't expect too much news if you are already using the tool for a year or more.
I'm a long-time user of stand-alone JetBrains IDEs, and I bought this book after I was assigned a Visual Studio-based project to see if there are any Windows/.NET/VS-specific tricks or features I was unaware of.
The book is well-written and relatively short to read in a few days of lunches. I can't say it mentions many features I wasn't aware of, however after finishing it I found myself using ReSharper more extensively than before. If you a new to JetBrains tools (and ReSharper in particular), you'll find a thorough description of what it is capable of; if you are already a seasoned user, it will probably help you to build a complete picture. I especially liked the chapter on recommended ReSharper plugins. You can find loads of these plugins on the Internet: some are real time savers, some aren't - and some guidance is certainly helpful here.
The downside is that the book mostly scratches the surface. This is not bad, given its size, however, I'd prefer more tips and advices on how to use ReSharper in real-world scenarios, and less reference material (ReSharper comes with the good documentation, after all). Besides this, all hotkeys in the book are for Visual Studio, not IDEA keyboard scheme, which may come unhandy.
To sum up: it's a good introduction to ReSharper, but don't expect too much news if you are already using the tool for a year or more.
August 13, 2016
After using Resharper for years for lightweight usage, I didn't know what to expect exactly from Resharper Essentials. I can say that I'm pleasantly surprised by what the book offered for its size, often written in a easily consumable form.
Not only did it cover useful things I was not aware of yet, its coverage of Resharper 8 also introduced me to several hidden gems I this far missed, be it the architecture view, the enhanced code quality analysis capabilities or multifile templates.
Especially the early focus on using Resharper from a Test Driven Development way of coding was very welcome as the creation and refactor aspects help a lot in breaking down the inner barrier many have regarding real TDD style coding.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who uses Resharper for the first time or thus far used Resharper only lightly and would like to step up their productivity but also code quality.
It will enable you to leverage a far larger amount of Resharpers power and create better code in significantly less time.
Not only did it cover useful things I was not aware of yet, its coverage of Resharper 8 also introduced me to several hidden gems I this far missed, be it the architecture view, the enhanced code quality analysis capabilities or multifile templates.
Especially the early focus on using Resharper from a Test Driven Development way of coding was very welcome as the creation and refactor aspects help a lot in breaking down the inner barrier many have regarding real TDD style coding.
I highly recommend this book to everyone who uses Resharper for the first time or thus far used Resharper only lightly and would like to step up their productivity but also code quality.
It will enable you to leverage a far larger amount of Resharpers power and create better code in significantly less time.
August 13, 2016
I bought this book on the Packt Publishing web site (http://bit.ly/1mnvVYO ) and I was asked for a review.
"ReSharper Essentials" is a short, well written book/tutorial into Rehsarper for beginner users. And as such it fullfills its role perfectly. Before I read this book, I had been using Resharper for some time but it turned out that I didn't know many functions of it. Now my knowledge is more complete and I use this tool in more efficient manner.
This book also describes more advanced elements of Resharper like tools for Architects or Resharper API. However, they are not described in many details and some functions are barely mentioned, probably because of the page number limit for the book. For instance, I'd like to see more examples of extending Resharper.
To summarize, it is a good book for newbies but if you have been using Resharper for a long time it is not for you.
"ReSharper Essentials" is a short, well written book/tutorial into Rehsarper for beginner users. And as such it fullfills its role perfectly. Before I read this book, I had been using Resharper for some time but it turned out that I didn't know many functions of it. Now my knowledge is more complete and I use this tool in more efficient manner.
This book also describes more advanced elements of Resharper like tools for Architects or Resharper API. However, they are not described in many details and some functions are barely mentioned, probably because of the page number limit for the book. For instance, I'd like to see more examples of extending Resharper.
To summarize, it is a good book for newbies but if you have been using Resharper for a long time it is not for you.
March 16, 2018
This book gives excellent coverage of ReSharper. It was published in 2014, so it's coming up on four years old, but it's still very relevant. If you're new to ReSharper or have used it and are looking for more details, this is absolutely worth picking up.
April 28, 2014
I am really impressed with this book. The author communicates with the reader as though he is personally walking you through practical tutorials about how to use ReSharper; it feels like you're being taught by a colleague who knows the tool really well. I am a huge fan of ReSharper's refactoring capabilities, so I was happy to see that the book mentions refactoring in its second paragraph. I find this to be one of the most useful features of ReSharper and appreciate the fact that the author shares the same sentiment.
The book covers a lot of material and ReSharper is a very feature-rich tool that is hard to fully encompass in a single publication. The author has done an excellent job of covering the most commonly-used productivity enhancements that it provides. In addition, he has included a great keyboard shortcut cheat sheet at the end of the book that lists the ones he covered, in the order that he introduced them through the chapters. I have found this to be a great ReSharper refresher as I write code.
I have been using ReSharper for years and am amazed at how much I didn't know about the product. Features like Safe Delete, covered in Chapter 2, would have saved me a lot of extra manual refactoring work that I've done in the past. Even some features that I would leverage less frequently, such as ReSharper's ability to provide IntelliSense with the MSBuild and NAnt build systems, are mentioned in the book. References like this inspired me to go learn more about the product features through Internet searches.
He wraps up the book by discussing how to write ReSharper plug-ins to add features not already included in the product, how to debug those plug-ins, and how to deploy your plug-ins. His explanation of the plug-in architecture and his examples are very clear and easy to follow. Although some of the deeper details of these activities are not included in the book, the author provides links to find the instructions on the Internet. He also recommends a number of released plug-ins that you should consider installing to enhance ReSharper's built-in capabilities.
I want to thank Packt Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book for review. It is a fairly quick read that will make you even more productive with Visual Studio and ReSharper. The biggest challenge I found with the book is being able to remember all of the great keyboard shortcuts so I always have them at the ready! This is a great book for any C#/VB .NET developer. If you don't already use ReSharper, this book will show you what you have been missing.
You can also find details at the publisher's site here: http://bit.ly/1mnvVYO
The book covers a lot of material and ReSharper is a very feature-rich tool that is hard to fully encompass in a single publication. The author has done an excellent job of covering the most commonly-used productivity enhancements that it provides. In addition, he has included a great keyboard shortcut cheat sheet at the end of the book that lists the ones he covered, in the order that he introduced them through the chapters. I have found this to be a great ReSharper refresher as I write code.
I have been using ReSharper for years and am amazed at how much I didn't know about the product. Features like Safe Delete, covered in Chapter 2, would have saved me a lot of extra manual refactoring work that I've done in the past. Even some features that I would leverage less frequently, such as ReSharper's ability to provide IntelliSense with the MSBuild and NAnt build systems, are mentioned in the book. References like this inspired me to go learn more about the product features through Internet searches.
He wraps up the book by discussing how to write ReSharper plug-ins to add features not already included in the product, how to debug those plug-ins, and how to deploy your plug-ins. His explanation of the plug-in architecture and his examples are very clear and easy to follow. Although some of the deeper details of these activities are not included in the book, the author provides links to find the instructions on the Internet. He also recommends a number of released plug-ins that you should consider installing to enhance ReSharper's built-in capabilities.
I want to thank Packt Publishing for providing me with a copy of the book for review. It is a fairly quick read that will make you even more productive with Visual Studio and ReSharper. The biggest challenge I found with the book is being able to remember all of the great keyboard shortcuts so I always have them at the ready! This is a great book for any C#/VB .NET developer. If you don't already use ReSharper, this book will show you what you have been missing.
You can also find details at the publisher's site here: http://bit.ly/1mnvVYO
May 30, 2014
You don't usually find tech books written by Pole - that's why I couldn't just leave it be, even if personally I'm not sure whether a tool like ReSharper really needs a dedicated book. Anyway, to the point:
1.) It's more a booklet than a book, but that's fine as it's supposed to be an introduction and a tool like ReSharper can't be learned by reading: reading may provide an overview, but it's a typical 'learning by doing' utility.
2.) The content is ... fine. It's clean, brief and touches pretty much every topic it should touch. But it's just touching. Personally, I think that printing out the ReSharper short-cut list and going through all of them in practice will give you a better idea of a tool. Exceptions: extensibility & recommended plugins - that's the only actual part you can't learn in that easy way. But don't expect miracles - extensibility & plugins sections in the book are very brief as well.
To summarize: this book is only for beginners. And I'm not even sure if I'd recommend it to them - they could manage as well on their own (the tool doesn't have a steep learning curve), BUT if you prefer learning your stuff via books and you're new to ReSharper - this book is for you.
1.) It's more a booklet than a book, but that's fine as it's supposed to be an introduction and a tool like ReSharper can't be learned by reading: reading may provide an overview, but it's a typical 'learning by doing' utility.
2.) The content is ... fine. It's clean, brief and touches pretty much every topic it should touch. But it's just touching. Personally, I think that printing out the ReSharper short-cut list and going through all of them in practice will give you a better idea of a tool. Exceptions: extensibility & recommended plugins - that's the only actual part you can't learn in that easy way. But don't expect miracles - extensibility & plugins sections in the book are very brief as well.
To summarize: this book is only for beginners. And I'm not even sure if I'd recommend it to them - they could manage as well on their own (the tool doesn't have a steep learning curve), BUT if you prefer learning your stuff via books and you're new to ReSharper - this book is for you.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews