ReSharper Community Support Rocks

After posting my TDD screencast last week, I was surprised to receive an email from JetBrains.  It seems they watched the screencast too.  They had a couple questions for me and gave me a few pointers on keystrokes I could use to save myself time.  I’m going to reproduce the email here, because I think it really shows the level of communityness they exhibit.

Hi Evan,

First of all, thank you for your video where you demonstrate the power of ReSharper, we really appreciate the effort you give to explaining ReSharper features. The second big thanks come to you for the opportunity to see how other people work with ReSharper, all live. Unfortunately, we rarely have such opportunity. And that is what I want to ask you about – some questions about ReSharper usage. If you have some spare time, could you please answer questions below?

1. What ReSharper version are you using?
   3.0.468.6
   
   • For how long time have you been using ReSharper? Less than a year (started on 2.5)
     
     • What was the toughest thing to learn about using ReSharper? Finding a workflow with all the keyboard shortcuts
       
       • What was the biggest “WOW!” you discovered in ReSharper? That first unit test I write in it where the code doesnt exist, using the Alt+Enter quick fixes (along with looking at the keymap) and watching that first class and interface literally flow off the unit tests

         </ol> Also, I’ve noticed you are not using several time saving features, and I would like to tell you.

       1. You could use creation or initialization of fields from unused constructor parameters. Check quick-fixes on gray parameters.
          • You could use Go to Next/Previous Error to skip warnings and go straight to red code.
            • You could use Go to Declaration, or go to base/derived to navigate to classes which are right under caret, instead of going the hard way of clicking in Solution Explorer or using Go to Type.
              • You could use Go to Recent files to quickly jump between the current set of files you are working on.
                • You could use Expand Selection to quickly select “throw new NotImplementedException()” and replace it with meaningful code</ol> If you know them, could you please tell me why you were not using them? Are there any other things you know about, but not using for either reason? I’d like to know!
                Nope, I’m definitely going to play with those.  You guys have so many more features to play with.  R# Rocks!

                Thank you for your time, and I must note we are already fixing bugs which were seen while watching your demo 🙂

                Ilya Ryzhenkov
                .NET Tools Product Manager
                JetBrains, Inc
                http://www.jetbrains.com
                “Develop with pleasure!” </blockquote>

                When was the last time you blogged about a product and got a direct response from the vendor (with helpful usage suggestions)?  This was a first for me!  JetBrains, you guys are rockstars!