It is highly recommended, but not mandatory. Without the SP you'll have the colors mixed up due to a Visual Studio bug, so you'll definitely have to turn off the identifier coloring option. The unused code and error markings could also appear in strange colors, but that's usually not so intolerable.
The R# 2.0 — 2.5 versions shipped with a non-public KB fix for Visual Studio that would fix this particular issue. It's not available from Microsoft apart from the SP, but once you install the older R# version, it will be there and you'll have no problems with the coloring in R# 3.0 as well.
Hello,
It is highly recommended, but not mandatory. Without the SP you'll have the
colors mixed up due to a Visual Studio bug, so you'll definitely have to
turn off the identifier coloring option. The unused code and error markings
could also appear in strange colors, but that's usually not so intolerable.
The R# 2.0 — 2.5 versions shipped with a non-public KB fix for Visual Studio
that would fix this particular issue. It's not available from Microsoft apart
from the SP, but once you install the older R# version, it will be there
and you'll have no problems with the coloring in R# 3.0 as well.
—
Serge Baltic
JetBrains, Inc — http://www.jetbrains.com
“Develop with pleasure!”