Microsoft Beta Software

Yesterday, Ben shortley mentioned something about Whidbey a.k.a. Visual Studio 2005 supporting refactoring for C++, so I thought I have to check that out. On the MSDN website I discovered there are free versions of VS 2005 Beta 1 called the “Express” products. So I installed both Visual C++ and Visual J# 2005 Beta 1 products.
First, I started Visual C++ and didn’t notice any big change on the surface. So opened the help system and read the section “What’s new in Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1”. In the section “Editing Code” I could read the following: You can now re-factor changes to Visual C# and Visual J# code. These refactoring options include rename, extract method, extract interface, change signature, and encapsulate field.
Big disappointment, no C++ refactoring built-in. (There is, however, a 3rd party product that adds refactoring capabilities, I found out later.)
Second step: I started Visual J# and had a look to the new refactoring menu: There were only two disabled entries: “Extract Method” and “Rename”. So I thought: Let’s select some lines of code to activate the “Extract Method” menu item: Nothing! And the same thing with “Rename”. What’s the only conclusion to make? “That’s a Microsoft product, don’t be surprised.” I am very sorry, but if I read there is a refactoring functionality in the “What’s new in Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1” document, I expect those features to be implemented and enabled.