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Project Rider: A C# IDE Alternative

JetBrains announced that it's developing a C# integrated development environment that works independently of the Visual Studio environment.

JetBrains this week debuted Project Rider, described as a "a cross-platform C# IDE, based on the IntelliJ Platform and using ReSharper technology," writes JetBrains Technical Evangelist Matt Ellis, in a blog. The company announced the project at NDC London, an independently run developer conference, of which JetBrains is listed as a Global Partner.

Project Rider is in early stages of development, and Ellis said that an early access preview will be made available to a private group via signup. For those who are interested in C# development independently ofVisual Studio, Project Rider is an option that allows that. Ellis notes that even though Rider is based on IntelliJ, it uses "ReSharper in a headless mode, out of process, and communicating with it via a very fast custom binary protocol."

Even in early development, navigation, editing, and code inspection features are already well fleshed out in this early iteration, as are refactoring, decompilation, and project debugging capabilities. It currently runs on Windows and Mac OSX, with Linux support still needing to catch up (but it's there).

That JetBrains has been developing products aimed at independence has been inherent in the development of the company's products and plugins for some time, with dotPeek and ReSharper as prime examples, and even other JetBrains IDEs like WebStorm (for JavaScript) and DataGrip (for databases). "It's quite clear that there's an ever increasing tendency of developers using non-Windows platforms, and we'd like to give them the same experience they've come to know and love with ReSharper," said Ellis.

Ellis explains that Project Rider isn't a replacement or evolution of ReSharper, but something new that will grow along with continued refinement of ReSharper. "The fact that Project Rider is using ReSharper reinforces our commitment to ReSharper, as any updates to ReSharper mutually benefit not only ReSharper but Project Rider also."

To jump on the EAP and get more comprehensive feature information for Project Rider, head to Ellis's blog for details.

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