You Have All These Features, But You Still Don't Do THIS?

Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition is $300.  Professional jumps up to $1,200.  It’s the only non-free IDE or editor that I use.  It probably has a thousand features that I have never even attempted to use.

Then there’s line highlighting.  For all the versions of Visual Studio and all the things Microsoft has put into it (many of which I question the need for) they have yet to add one incredibly useful UI element that even the most basic free editors have.  Heck, various vendors including SlickEdit have even built line highlighting into their add-on products for Visual Studio.  The problem there of course is that I must purchase a product to gain what should already be included in even the most basic editor.  SlickEdit’s tools are free, but the version that is compatible with VS2k8 isn’t out yet.

So what’s the lesson for the rest of us developers?  Simple.  If your software doesn’t support the basics, don’t bother putting in another kitchen sink.