LiberKey
One of the very first things I always install on a PC I use is LiberKey. This is a free tool to manage your tools. It comes with a massive (at the moment of writing this) 309 applications in 10 main categories, ranging from office tools to system utilities and anything in between. Applications like Notepad++, Paint.NET, and HxD are all included.
The cool thing about LiberKey is that you don’t have to actually install anything to your hard disk. All the software just works, whenever you have LiberKey active, including full OS integration things, like Explorer integration. It also deals with keeping all these applications up to date, and new tools are added often.
Check it out at http://www.liberkey.com/.
NuGet
If you haven’t heard about NuGet, you should check it out. This is basically an extension for Visual Studio 2010 that allows you to search for Open Source libraries and then immediately install them and add them to your Visual Studio projects.
What makes this so useful is that you no longer have to and find a download source for these libraries, find out how to install them and then add them to your projects. You need a framework for Dependency Injection? Right-click your project file and click “Add Library Package Reference…”, type dependency injection in the search box, and it will come up with Open Source libraries for that. Choose one, click Install, and you’re ready to go.
Check it out at nuget.codeplex.com.
Fiddler
If you’re going to do some work involving HTTP, this tool rocks. It allows you to follow HTTP and HTTPS traffic as long as the client runs on your machine. You can inspect messages going back and forward, look at time lines, and even create your own messages.
Check it out at http://www.fiddler2.com/.
XMind
I’m a fan of mind mapping. I use the technique for organizing my thoughts when working on complex problems and also for certain types of meetings to make notes. XMind is a great tool for making digital mind maps. It has great keyboard support, which makes me very productive without distracting from the thought process.
Check it out at http://www.xmind.net/.
smtp4dev
As a developer, I frequently need to write code which sends out emails. As you may be aware, testing code like that against an actual SMTP server in production is a hazardous operation. Not only that, it also tends to clutter your inbox with test emails. In some environments it can actually present security issues as well, where virus scanners block unknown processes which send emails, in order to prevent malware attacks.
To actually have a way of testing code that sends emails, I use this great Open Source tool called smtp4dev. It runs like an actual application, but it also functions as an SMTP server on your machine. It has a UI that allows you to easily configure and manage it. The UI also allows you to inspect any email received by its SMTP server. Furthermore, it doesn’t relay any emails, so you can’t accidentally send out emails.
Check it out at smtp4dev.codeplex.com.
The Regulator and Regulazy
Two great tools (by the same developer) for people who need to do work with Regular Expressions. Regulazy allows you to quickly create a Regular Expression from a piece of text through a UI. Although it is limited in what you can do, it does usually provide you with a good basis to extend on.
The Regulator is a more comprehensive tool, which allows for better analysis and testing of Regular E.
Check both of them out at osherove.com/tools/.
LinqPad
If you work on a project that uses LINQ and/or Entity Framework, LinqPad is the tool for you. This tool allows you to run LINQ queries against your own Entity Framework model on the fly. This makes it a great tool for testing LINQ queries without actually having to compile and run your application every time. For the TDD evangelists out there who will tell you that you should never have to run your application to test such a thing, not having to compile can be a great advantage as well.
Check it out at http://www.linqpad.net/.
One of the very first things I always install on a PC I use is LiberKey. This is a free tool to manage your tools. It comes with a massive (at the moment of writing this) 309 applications in 10 main categories, ranging from office tools to system utilities and anything in between. Applications like Notepad++, Paint.NET, and HxD are all included.
The cool thing about LiberKey is that you don’t have to actually install anything to your hard disk. All the software just works, whenever you have LiberKey active, including full OS integration things, like Explorer integration. It also deals with keeping all these applications up to date, and new tools are added often.
Check it out at http://www.liberkey.com/.
NuGet
If you haven’t heard about NuGet, you should check it out. This is basically an extension for Visual Studio 2010 that allows you to search for Open Source libraries and then immediately install them and add them to your Visual Studio projects.
What makes this so useful is that you no longer have to and find a download source for these libraries, find out how to install them and then add them to your projects. You need a framework for Dependency Injection? Right-click your project file and click “Add Library Package Reference…”, type dependency injection in the search box, and it will come up with Open Source libraries for that. Choose one, click Install, and you’re ready to go.
Check it out at nuget.codeplex.com.
Fiddler
If you’re going to do some work involving HTTP, this tool rocks. It allows you to follow HTTP and HTTPS traffic as long as the client runs on your machine. You can inspect messages going back and forward, look at time lines, and even create your own messages.
Check it out at http://www.fiddler2.com/.
XMind
I’m a fan of mind mapping. I use the technique for organizing my thoughts when working on complex problems and also for certain types of meetings to make notes. XMind is a great tool for making digital mind maps. It has great keyboard support, which makes me very productive without distracting from the thought process.
Check it out at http://www.xmind.net/.
smtp4dev
As a developer, I frequently need to write code which sends out emails. As you may be aware, testing code like that against an actual SMTP server in production is a hazardous operation. Not only that, it also tends to clutter your inbox with test emails. In some environments it can actually present security issues as well, where virus scanners block unknown processes which send emails, in order to prevent malware attacks.
To actually have a way of testing code that sends emails, I use this great Open Source tool called smtp4dev. It runs like an actual application, but it also functions as an SMTP server on your machine. It has a UI that allows you to easily configure and manage it. The UI also allows you to inspect any email received by its SMTP server. Furthermore, it doesn’t relay any emails, so you can’t accidentally send out emails.
Check it out at smtp4dev.codeplex.com.
The Regulator and Regulazy
Two great tools (by the same developer) for people who need to do work with Regular Expressions. Regulazy allows you to quickly create a Regular Expression from a piece of text through a UI. Although it is limited in what you can do, it does usually provide you with a good basis to extend on.
The Regulator is a more comprehensive tool, which allows for better analysis and testing of Regular E.
Check both of them out at osherove.com/tools/.
LinqPad
If you work on a project that uses LINQ and/or Entity Framework, LinqPad is the tool for you. This tool allows you to run LINQ queries against your own Entity Framework model on the fly. This makes it a great tool for testing LINQ queries without actually having to compile and run your application every time. For the TDD evangelists out there who will tell you that you should never have to run your application to test such a thing, not having to compile can be a great advantage as well.
Check it out at http://www.linqpad.net/.
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