The tools I like to use
A number of people have pestered me about blogging, so here I go. I don’t know how often I’ll blog, but I guess well see.
Just a smidge about me, if you don’t recognize my name, I’ve written www.123aspx.com and www.kbAlertz.com , and I’m also an INETA speaker. I actually just spoke at the Boulder .NET usergroup, where I got to meet Joe from ORM. Super nice guy. If you need a data modeling/code generation tool, you need to check these guys out.
Well, I was trying to figure what I wanted to blog about, and I got to thinking about all of my INETA presentations. All of them eventually turn to the tools and resources I use to help me write code. So I thought I would share some of them with you here.
Tools I Like to use:
Anikrino
This is a must have for any developer. If you don’t have this tool in your arsenal, then set that browser process on "HIGH" and scream over and grab this gem. If you’ve ever wanted to see how the framework was built, then this is the tool to do that.
Demeanor
Demeanor stops people from using Anikrino on your code. Yes, there are cheaper obfuscators, but I must say Brent has done a superb job with it, and it simply rocks. Worth it for any serious developer who needs to publish production code.
Rotor Source Code
When Anikrino isn’t working properly then I try and go to the source. Rotor Source. Last year some time I found myself going over and over the source code, but I wished I had a browser for it. So I wrote a web based interface that categorizes rotor’s namespaces and classes.
Alex Lowe’s Super Duper C# Translator
Have you ever wanted to know what that C# code looks like in VB? Well, then this is the code to do that. Since I write in C#, my VB is pretty rusty. But when someone asks me for a VB code snippet, I’ll just pull up this page, enter the code in the TEXTAREA, and translate. Need to check this out.
BTW, Alex, if you read this, when are you going to add a "Email this code to someone" button on that page?
Reflector
If you like Anikrino, then you may also like Reflector. Lutz has incorporated a decompiler in his browser tool, and it decompiles down to C# or VB. (Anikrio only does C#)
ILDASM
When Reflector and Anikrino don’t work, and it’s not listed in rotor, then it’s time to look at some good ‘ol IL. ILDASM to the rescue.
Resources that Keep me up to date
I subscribe to tons of newsletters. If I had to subscribe to any two that would keep me up to date they would be:
www.123aspx.com Daily Newsletter
This is my little newsletter that I try to publish every day. It contains all the new resources I just added to 123aspx.com. It keeps you on top of the new products, tutorials, applications and resources you might be missing. Yes, it’s a plug for myself, but if you really want something new in your inbox every day, you need to subscribe.
www.dotnetwire.com
.NET Wire is the only other .NET newsletter I like. It seems to catch some of those resources I end up missing.
These are the basic tools I use. There are a few others but these are the main ones that I use just about anytime I’m coding.
Am I missing any? Lets hear ‘em. C’mon, share with the rest of us.
Cheers!
Dave