Dev Utils

I know… I know. Everybody has their own list of top developer utilities out there. I just thought that I might as well put up my own list. But the most popular list out there is by Scott Hanselman. Here goes my own version. These are only the tools that I use frequently and they really do help me save quite some time from a day’s work.

Notepad++

• Multiple tab interface
• The tab icon for unsaved files are displayed in red
• Supports code coloring for more programming languages than I know
• Regex search
• Code and XML files can be collapsed in regions
• Lists all functions in the javascript file in a pane

Ditto

• Maintains a list of your past copies (clipboard entries)
• Ctrl + ` key combination brings up a window listing your copy history at the cursor position which is handy
• I had also mapped (Ctrl + 1, Ctrl + 2, …) to my past copies so that I can paste past copies fast without the need to pick from a list.

XML Notepad 2007

• I mainly use this to view and edit XML documents that are not formatted in an easy to understand format. It is actually surprising that the “Edit->Advanced->Format Document” command does not format the XML document.
• I also do like the fact that you can apply XSLT stylesheets to your XML documents and view them rendered in HTML.

Clickie

• Provides a “Copy Path Name” option in the right click context menu in Windows Explorer. It copies the whole path name into the clipboard. Awesome…

ExamDiff

• Compares two files. Does a pretty good job of it. WinMerge is also good. No real preference here.

FastStone Capture

• I know there are a bunch of other tools that can do an arguably better job but I am used to this one. Pretty cool software. The same company also provides a whole set of other image utilities that you might be interested in.

SlickRun

• Lets you set up “Magic Words” to start the program of your choice. Can help avoid using the start menu for frequently used applications
• “Windows Key + Q” sets the focus to the SlickRun window.

Virtual Dimension

• Lets your setup your desired number of virtual desktops. Each desktop is customizable with its own wallpaper.
• Provides the option of only displaying the applications in the current virtual desktop in the taskbar, thus helping to avoid clutter in the taskbar.
• Alt + Tab only switches between applications in that virtual desktop.
• Adds menu items to the title bar context menu to allow transferring windows between the many virtual desktops
• I use this to have my email and other office apps on one virtual desktop and my Visual Studio windows in another and so on thus helping to avoid clutter.

.NET Reflector

• Enough said.

Reflector Graph Add-in

• Cool little addin to the .NET Reflector that displays the dependencies between DLLs in a visual format that is easy to understand.
• I use this tool to figure out my project build order meaning projects with no dependencies should get built first and so on and so forth.

 

OLE/COM Object Viewer

• Gives you a lot more information about the COM registered classes than the Registry Editor like the codebase path etc.
• Also let you view the interfaces that are registered on the system.

Web Development Helper

• Other than the well known uses, it lets me execute javascript code on the current page. The DOM explorer is not too impressive. For most other cases I use FireBug.

DebugBar

• Lets me view the javascript code that is downloaded to the client side using “WebResource.axd”.

FireBug

• Has a whole bunch of lovable functionalities. Gotta see it to believe it.
• Can inspect the HTML code by mousing over the elements on the page.

View Source Chart

• Lets me view the source of the HTML page as it is currently rendered.
• The HTML source is formatted and color coded in an easy to understand manner.

Foxit Reader

• An incredibly small and fast PDF viewer that is way faster than the unbelievably slow loading Adobe Reader.

Terminals

• Terminals is a multi tab terminal services/remote desktop client.

JSON Viewer

• A viewer for JSON strings.
• Comes in three flavors: A standalone viewer, A plugin for Fiddler 2, A visualizer for Visual Studio 2005.