Exactly. Eclipse also has it, and I couldn't believe Visual Studio doesn't. It's so useful to just right click -> Rename an entity in code.
It is too old, based on C++ concepts that don't have place in a modern post C++11 world.
WTL was never an official framework.
When the going native turnaround came about, they started staffing the compiler team again, but it does take years to recover what the .NET has enjoyed in the meantime.
On the other side, the going native also seems to affect .NET side, with AOT compilation for WP8 and the new JIT/NGEN compilers being developed for the next release.
n.b. I worked on Visual Studio for four years and was the PM behind the managed wizard framework introduced in 2005 (which I've noticed is still around today).
Similar to the functionality all Java IDEs have out of the box, but in Visual Studio you need Visual Assist or ReSharper.
What kind of refactoring? What do you mean by code navigation?
Refactoring:
- Semantic renaming of any identifier consistently across the whole source code
- Transform code blocks into methods, functions
- Move code blocks across modules, classes
- Generate accessors, setters for a given instance, class variable
- Change type of a given variable consistently across all the places it is used
- ...
Code Navigation:
- Show call stack for every use of a certain method/function
- Show all descendents of a given class, interface across the code base
- Show all ascendents of a given class, interface across the code base
- Show which classes, interfaces introduce, redefine a certain method
- Show which binary provides the implementation of a given class, function
- ...
Where exactly is Visaul Studio lacking here compared to your Java IDEs? Or are you comparing apples and oranges -- C++ to Java?
No it does not.
The amount of refactoring support out of the box differs for each Visual Studio version (professional, premium, ultimate, ...).
Plus if I were to produce a comparison table, there quite a few refactorings from Java world that don't exit in Visual Studio out of the box.
As a small example, finding the usage of identifiers only provides partial information of what Java IDEs are able to. Which can search for different ways the identifier is being used, being called, as a method, being assigned to, etc.
As for plain C++, KDevelop, Eclipse CDT, Netbeans and QtCreator all provide much more refactoring support than Visual C++ ever did.
I do like Visual Studio and use it since the first 32 bits only version, Visual C++ 2.0. But I am also aware of its defects.
My employer won't pay for the listed plugins, given what is already being paid for MSDN subscriptions.