Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Toys For Coding Boys
Seems like every developer with a blog inevitably posts his list of favorite coding toys. So I figure, who am I to buck the trend? Without further delay, here's my list of favorites...
Programming Toys
Code Rush - Without a doubt, this is THE coding tool you need if you are a Visual Studio developer. I will NEVER code without it again. It combines nifty code templates with refactoring tools and visual coding aids. Plus the support for this thing is unparalleled. The site hosts short, 5 to 15 minute training videos that will get you started. The newsgroups are regularly browsed by the guys who write and use it.
Visual Studio 2005 - Yeah, I know, all you Microsoft bashers out there are ready to start picking at MS. I've been using their development tools since Basic Compiler 1.0 (yeah I'm an old fart). I even recall VB for MSDOS! So VS2005 is really a great development environment. I don't know of any tool that is as complete as this one. You can knock MS all you want, but their tools have kept me employed since the 80's.
DPack - From USysWare is a nifty but overlooked little set of free utilities for VS 2003/5. The "surround with" feature is especially useful.
General Use Toys
UltraEdit - No one should be without this powerful text editor. This is the best tool I have ever downloaded, period. It's a text editor, so what makes it better than notepad? Oh how do I count the ways.
It has a Column mode, for cutting and pasting columns of text. It has View As templates for Syntax Highlighting. Included are C#, VB (6 and .Net), Java, XML, HTML and more. You can also download additional templates for Perl, PHP, and more. Can't find one? You can make your own too!
Big Files? Oh yeah. Using it's built in FTP capabilities I downloaded a 1.2 GIG log file from the server. Took a while to download, but once to my laptop it flew through it with no problems. Has a built in macro language, search and replace (can use regular expressions!). So go look at it already, you won't be disappointed. This is the one tool I use every day without fail.
PS Hot Launch - This handy little tool will let you create a custom menu for your system. Then you can tie it to a set of custom defined hot keys to bring up the menu, or items in the menu. For example, I use Win+Alt+Z to pop up the menu. In the menu I created shortcuts for each of my hard disks. Now I can get to them either through Win+Alt+Z and picking the drive in the menu, or hitting Win+Ctrl+C for drive C, etc. It's free, and quite handy if you are a keyboard junkie.
SlickRun - Cool little utility, puts a command line anywhere you want on the desktop. Single line, you can key in any command you want. Additionally, you can define shortcuts of your own. vs, for example now brings up visual studio for me. And it's free!
FreeRamXP Pro - Handy little memory monitor and compactor. Sits in the system tray and gives constant updates to the amount of free ram. At predetermined times, it will compact memory, free up much needed space. Very handy. It also has a nifty menu option to Force Shutdown or Force Restart, when you have a pesky app that is refusing to let you reboot using normal methods.
RenameMaster - Extremely handy no install program that will let you bulk rename files. It has all sorts of fancy ways you can rename, including adding numbers to the beginning of files. I find that very handy before creating MP3 CDs so I can get the play order like I want.
Brainy Blogs
Intellectual Hedonism - Carl Franklin goes way back, in many ways our paths paralelled. We've worked with many of the same tools (anyone remember Ethan Winer's Crescent Software?). Only Carl is a lot smarter than I, as he know owns several companies and I'm an anonymous blogger. Buy hey, no jealousy here!
Computer Zen - Scott Hanselman's Log, I just recently discovered this, but good info here. He also does a podcast called Hansel Minutes which is worth a listen.
Rory Blyth - Rory's an insomniac with a twisted sense of humor. My kind of guy! (Now where'd I put my Jolt cola?)
Richard Campbell - The Toy Boy has some fascinating reading on his sight. His water cooled systems sound interesting. How does he get all those neat toys?
Mark Miller - OK, imagine Robin Williams, Einstein, and a space alien got together and had a baby. OK, don't imagine so hard, or you'll give yourself a brain zit. But if they did, it'd be Mark Miller. The dude is a genius with the computer, I first saw him in a presentation at VS Live in Orlando last year. He's largely responsible for my favorite tool, Code Rush. They say genius borders on insanity, and Miller continually wavers back and forth across the line. I've decided he's now my diety of choice. I figure why wait, avoid the rush and start a cult now.
Well there you go...
My short list of favorites. These are the tools I use on a regular basis. A few I haven't seen in other blogs, so hopefully you found something new here that will help you in your daily existance.
Programming Toys
Code Rush - Without a doubt, this is THE coding tool you need if you are a Visual Studio developer. I will NEVER code without it again. It combines nifty code templates with refactoring tools and visual coding aids. Plus the support for this thing is unparalleled. The site hosts short, 5 to 15 minute training videos that will get you started. The newsgroups are regularly browsed by the guys who write and use it.
Visual Studio 2005 - Yeah, I know, all you Microsoft bashers out there are ready to start picking at MS. I've been using their development tools since Basic Compiler 1.0 (yeah I'm an old fart). I even recall VB for MSDOS! So VS2005 is really a great development environment. I don't know of any tool that is as complete as this one. You can knock MS all you want, but their tools have kept me employed since the 80's.
DPack - From USysWare is a nifty but overlooked little set of free utilities for VS 2003/5. The "surround with" feature is especially useful.
General Use Toys
UltraEdit - No one should be without this powerful text editor. This is the best tool I have ever downloaded, period. It's a text editor, so what makes it better than notepad? Oh how do I count the ways.
It has a Column mode, for cutting and pasting columns of text. It has View As templates for Syntax Highlighting. Included are C#, VB (6 and .Net), Java, XML, HTML and more. You can also download additional templates for Perl, PHP, and more. Can't find one? You can make your own too!
Big Files? Oh yeah. Using it's built in FTP capabilities I downloaded a 1.2 GIG log file from the server. Took a while to download, but once to my laptop it flew through it with no problems. Has a built in macro language, search and replace (can use regular expressions!). So go look at it already, you won't be disappointed. This is the one tool I use every day without fail.
PS Hot Launch - This handy little tool will let you create a custom menu for your system. Then you can tie it to a set of custom defined hot keys to bring up the menu, or items in the menu. For example, I use Win+Alt+Z to pop up the menu. In the menu I created shortcuts for each of my hard disks. Now I can get to them either through Win+Alt+Z and picking the drive in the menu, or hitting Win+Ctrl+C for drive C, etc. It's free, and quite handy if you are a keyboard junkie.
SlickRun - Cool little utility, puts a command line anywhere you want on the desktop. Single line, you can key in any command you want. Additionally, you can define shortcuts of your own. vs, for example now brings up visual studio for me. And it's free!
FreeRamXP Pro - Handy little memory monitor and compactor. Sits in the system tray and gives constant updates to the amount of free ram. At predetermined times, it will compact memory, free up much needed space. Very handy. It also has a nifty menu option to Force Shutdown or Force Restart, when you have a pesky app that is refusing to let you reboot using normal methods.
RenameMaster - Extremely handy no install program that will let you bulk rename files. It has all sorts of fancy ways you can rename, including adding numbers to the beginning of files. I find that very handy before creating MP3 CDs so I can get the play order like I want.
Brainy Blogs
Intellectual Hedonism - Carl Franklin goes way back, in many ways our paths paralelled. We've worked with many of the same tools (anyone remember Ethan Winer's Crescent Software?). Only Carl is a lot smarter than I, as he know owns several companies and I'm an anonymous blogger. Buy hey, no jealousy here!
Computer Zen - Scott Hanselman's Log, I just recently discovered this, but good info here. He also does a podcast called Hansel Minutes which is worth a listen.
Rory Blyth - Rory's an insomniac with a twisted sense of humor. My kind of guy! (Now where'd I put my Jolt cola?)
Richard Campbell - The Toy Boy has some fascinating reading on his sight. His water cooled systems sound interesting. How does he get all those neat toys?
Mark Miller - OK, imagine Robin Williams, Einstein, and a space alien got together and had a baby. OK, don't imagine so hard, or you'll give yourself a brain zit. But if they did, it'd be Mark Miller. The dude is a genius with the computer, I first saw him in a presentation at VS Live in Orlando last year. He's largely responsible for my favorite tool, Code Rush. They say genius borders on insanity, and Miller continually wavers back and forth across the line. I've decided he's now my diety of choice. I figure why wait, avoid the rush and start a cult now.
Well there you go...
My short list of favorites. These are the tools I use on a regular basis. A few I haven't seen in other blogs, so hopefully you found something new here that will help you in your daily existance.
