A few years ago I was introduced to ReSharper (JetBrains) from a co-worker (Thanks Grant!).  Having always been one who desires to move more quickly through code and take advantage of any shortcut I can, ReSharper felt like "coming home".

Last week I was invited to be part of their development academy as a an academy expert.  For those of you not aware of this hidden gem that JetBrains has created:

Members of the Academy are recognized experts in various areas of software development. They contribute to Java and .NET communities by advocating best development practices through formal and informal publications and meetings, and serve as a versatile source of expertise.

I'll be entirely honest and say that I don't consider myself an "expert" in anything, let alone ReSharper.  Yes, ReSharper is an integral piece of my development environment and an extension of my finger tips, but I'm always coming across new key commands or features that were always sitting there, begging me to use them, making me realize, I can stretch this tool a bit more (or is it the other way around?).

The reason I'm so fond of ReSharper is that development tools litter the .NET space.  This is plainly visible by picking up a magazine and thumbing through it, taking notice to all of the component manufacturers and tools available.  The quality and usefulness of some of these tools can often be called into question.  ReSharper, however, is a pleasure to work with.  Even in it's memory hogging days (around version 4.0) I didn't mind it so much, the productivity gain was entirely worth it (version 4.5 works beautifully).  There are tools that I like having and tools that I must have.  Had the company I work for not purchased ReSharper, I would have paid for it out of my own pocket.  I can't say that for a great number of tools out there.