If you are a neo .NET programmer, one of the tools in your arsenal would have been the .NET Reflector. A very powerful .NET decompiler that has been answering a lot of our questions about what exactly happens behind the curtain.
It so happens that Red Gate the company that took over the development of the tool from Lutz Roeder has announced that that tool will no longer be free. And Yes, No longer ”Free” as in Free Beer. It never was “Free” as in Free Speech! The true rationale behind this move might be something we would never know..
And if you had the older free version of Red Gate Reflector- it would run for until June 2011.
Here are the possible alternatives
Get Red Gate’s Reflector
- Pay $35 USD and get the license
- Troll on Red Gate’s Forum – Convince them to Roll Back their decision (belive me a lot of them are already on it)
If you want to be unforgiving towards Red Gate here are the alternatives
- Team Up with a couple of devs and roll out your own .NET Decomplier like this wonderful team is doing http://wiki.sharpdevelop.net/ilspy.ashx . We have nothing but praise for rolling out the basic functionality out of the window with in couple of weeks. Fork them on github and may be contribute a feature.
- Buy Jetbrains Resharper 6 – EAP Available ! Download the nightly builds from JetBrains Confluence Site.
But I want leave you with a positive note.
JetBrains has announced that the would develop (read it as GIFT) a Free Stand Alone Decomplier to the community! To fill the void that has been left by Reflector. And this time “Free” as in Free Beer.
Request: Stop reading this right now and show your gratitude to Jetbrains. Leave a Thank You note here if you haven’t already.
Update: Jetbrains is looking for a name for this new standalone .NET Decompiler. If you have a prospective name for this new tool, let Jetbrains know by posting it on their facebook page there are 5 licences up for grabs if your name makes the cut.
And, I will post a deep dive of this new tool once it’s out.
Again, Thank Jetbrains for their work :) A simple Thank You often goes a long way.
Update 2: The new decompiler by jetbrains is called dotpeek. It’s not out in the wild just as yet. But you can follow @dotpeek to keep yourself posted.
Update 3: Telerik has just launched a free decompiling tool called JustDecompile you can download the beta from here
Update 4: JetBrains decompiler dotpeek available as EAP download it from here. And here’s the introduction to the tool.
Tags: .NET, ILSpy, programming, Reflector, tools
Dude….found you….but not this bad news !!!…Reflector is gone? It’s more like making Google search paid…
Yes, decompiling should be free.
Wish RedGate understood that.. :)