Category: Uncategorized

I recently got an upgrade to a much faster machine at work. Doing so made me consider all the apps that I use daily for development. So here they are:

Applications

• RSSBandit: for the first two hours at work when I’m supposed to be working. Seriously, the best aggregator for the best price.
• CLR Profiler: for profiling allocations in applications that run on the CLR. Clunky graphs, but the info is still pretty useful.
• Ethereal: network analysis tool that knows every network protocol known to man; very useful and very free.
• TcpView: check out what ports are in use at a glance.
• Process Explorer: Task Manager amped to 11. Shows everything in Task Manager plus performance monitors for each process, including .NET monitors. Also colour-coded so you can see programs using the CLR at a glance. And, of course, free.
• NUnit: to see that green, baby! I still use the NUnit GUI. Made over, of course.
• NCover: code coverage; it’s the only one to use. Here’s an improved xsl file for it.
• VS 2003: duh!
• Vault: the only source control solution. Actually, no it’s not: it’s geared toward programming teams(with money), but I use it because it’s free for personal use and Eric Sink is just so damn smart about software(like Joel Spolsky without the attitude)
• FxCop: are you designing your libraries with the MS .NET design guidelines? You should be, and this will help you.
• Regulator: excellent regular expression tool. Let’s you doodle.
• Reflector: find out how MS did their thing with the Framework.
• Codesmith: generate strongly-typed collections, data objects, or anything else with this template-based coding generator
• Notepad2 and Notepad++: two light weight text editors that do a lot more than Notepad.

VS Plugins

• TestDriven.NET: do TDD right in Visual Studio; and attach a debugger to the unit test case that is giving you some trouble. Free, but you must fill out a survey.
• Resharper: the only good refactoring tool for .NET. It’s not perfect but it’s the best out there. The only developer tool that I’ve been willing to shell out money for; I’m continually finding new things that Resharper does. (The rest on this list are all free; well, VS isn’t but I got it for free.)
• Copy As HTML: converts code to html for posting to blogs. Performs syntax highlighting and line numbers.
• GhostDoc: winner of Roy O’s add-in contest; takes the tedium out of adding comments to code. Still a little rough around the edges, but lots of potential here.

Got any others that are indispensible?

Some good weekend reading:

Practical Applications of the Philosopher’s stone. For drunks. “We noted a loss of vodka through spillage (for my science homies).”

[via The Daily Grind]

If you’re a computer geek, you probably know that MSN’s new search is now in beta. Since I have a mild case of the blogging vanity, I had to do this search. Sweet! (Compare this with Google, where I show up on the second page, despite my efforts to change that. (Damn it!). Although, after doing a Google search for this post, I see that my profile on blogshares comes up on the first page. Reading that blogshares thing is depressing for one with the vanity.) Since it’s still in beta, and Google is just too damn awesome, I’m sticking with Google. But if you give me an MSN Search Deskbar….

Anyway, others have been having some fun with MSN Search. I have to recommend Adam Barr’s searching. Go fast, MSN may change it. Especially the search for “anal sex.”

 

You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party. What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves. What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Here’s another one for you. [via Wesner Moise]