>> 1) Auto-complete with popup help.
>
> I found this to be possibly the most irritating feature of IDEs. It 
> *sounds* like it should be useful, but it isn't.
>
> The whole UI slows down while it opens and populates the list of options.

Not here.

> Sometimes it doesn't show up when you want it to.

Not here, unless you made a typo (it's actually a good indicator to know 
you've typed something wrong if the pop-up list doesn't appear).

> If you're trying to invoke a method of the current class, no matter what 
> you do it won't populate the list.

Seems to work fine here...

> (Even once the source is compiled.

...even without the source compiled.

> "please use the currently selected alternative to complete what I'm 
> typing", other than by using the mouse. If you press enter, it inserts the 
> selection AND A NEWLINE. This is extremely annoying.

Not here it doesn't.

BTW this is with VS C# express edition (it's free), your experience with 
other IDEs may vary :-)

> After the horror of building a GUI the hard way, I always use a GUI 
> designer if I have a choice. (Like I've said, you don't need an IDE for 
> that necessarily.)

It's helpful that it's integrated though, apart from the obvious reasons of 
not having to load and switch programs and save etc, it means if you for 
example rename one of the icons or something it can update the references to 
it in all your other code files.  Also when you add an event handler the IDE 
can automatically auto-insert the method skeleton into your code and 
register it to be called for that event, so all you need to type is actually 
what you want to be done for that event.

>> 4) The red underlining of compiler errors as you're typing (in MS C# IDE)
>
> That's useful IF IT WORKS CORRECTLY, which it doesn't always do IME.

Which IDE? in VS C# Express it works flawlessly IME.

>> 6) "Template" projects for a Windows app
>
> What does that do?

You can go "File -> New -> Windows App" and it generates all the necessary 
code and resource files for a ready-to-compile form application.  You then 
simply add in whatever extra bits you need.  I guess you could do the same 
by creating all the files by hand first, and then copying&pasting in 
explorer and renaming everything everytime you wanted to start a new 
project.

I remembered another one:

7) Code refactoring.  Like if a function is getting a bit long, you can 
select a block of code and say "extract this to another function".  All 
parameters and return values will be handled automatically.  Or if you type 
a function name that doesn't exist yet, you can click and say "generate the 
boilerplate code for this function".  Or you can go to "Insert -> New Class" 
and it will create a new file with the new class template in it.  Or rename 
a variable and get the option to rename all instances of it in all files.

Sure, each of the above are fairly small things, but in total it makes 
programming way faster.

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