This is my list of must-have software. Most are freeware; some are paid; some are my own CleanCode tools.
Last updated 2014.01.12.
| Documentation Generators |
| Java |
javadoc: A standard Java utility to convert Javadoc comments to HTML and generate a complete HTML documentation set for a Java library.
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| Perl |
pod2html: A standard Perl utility to convert POD comments into HTML.
pod2htmltree: A CleanCode Perl utility, leveraging pod2html, to generate a complete HTML documentation set for a Perl library.
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| Power Shell |
DocTreeGenerator: A CleanCode PowerShell utility to generate a complete HTML documentation set for a PowerShell library.
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| XML |
XmlTransform: A CleanCode C# utility to generate a complete HTML documentation set from arbitrary XML files.
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| Editors and Development Tools |
| IDEs and Editors |
Visual Studio: an IDE for .NET.
PowerShell: Everything .NET from the command-line or ISE GUI.
Eclipse: an IDE for Java (and others).
LINQPad: C# scratchpad and LINQ visualizer/editor.
XmlSpy: an IDE for XML, XSLT, and Schema
Vim: The Unix (and Windows!) vi text editor with syntax highlighting (for virtually any language), extensibility, and macro capability.
Html-Kit: an html editor/previewer with the Html-Tidy validator from W3C built-in.
Expresso: an IDE for regular expressions--great for the beginner or the expert, this provides a designer for building regexs, an evaluator for testing them, and lots more!
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| VS Plugins |
VsVim: Vim inside Visual Studio!
Resharper: An amazing VS extension providing support for code-writing, refactoring, testing, and more.
TestDriven: Run NUnit tests inside Visual Studio when you do *not* have Resharper.
NCrunch: Amazing Visual Studio extension for continuous testing and code coverage.
Visual Studio Spell Checker: The name says it all.
NuGet Package Manager: Makes adding libraries to your projects quick and easy.
IntelliCommand: Handy tool for multi-chord key sequences in Visual Studio.
Net Reflector: A .NET class and documentation browser.
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| Other |
InnoSetup: An installer-generator for .NET--much simpler than WiX but still fairly flexible.
NUnit: A unit test framework for .NET. Still better than the VS-integrated MSTest due to richer attributes and fluent assertions.
PowerShell Community Extensions: Useful additional PowerShell commands.
VirtualBox: Powerful and popular virtual machine manager.
Keystroke Sandbox: A CleanCode utility to help you understand and analyze how to intercept and process keystrokes in a WinForm application.
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| File & Resource Management |
| Source
Control |
Subversion: The pre-eminent open-source, source-control system for personal or enterprise use. Includes branching, tagging, network and multi-user support, file annotation (i.e. who is responsible for each and every line in a file), version graphing, and more.
TortoiseSVN: TortoiseSVN is the separate UI for SubVersion under Windows; simply amazing.
AnkhSVN: A Subversion plugin for Visual Studio.
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| Syncing |
WinMerge: File and directory comparisons--and merge capability!
Filesync: Another easy-to-use directory comparison and synchronization tool.
SyncBack: A very handy, personal backup tool. Also comes in a paid version, but the free one is very good.
WinSCP: A Windows Explorer-like file viewer for a remote server over a secure SSH channel. WinSCP provides the capability to both explore the remote server and copy files easily between your local machine and the remote server.
TeraCopy: Still an improvement over Windows Explorer file copier.
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| Cleaning |
WinDirStat: Provides a visual display of your hard disk space, arranging file blocks by relative file sizes. I had been using SpaceMonger until recently but it is no longer free.
EnvMan: Environment variable manager.
ShortcutsMan: Shortcut manager.
CCleaner: Windows cleaner.
RevoUninstaller: Clean up leftover registery entries and files bettern than a standard uninstall.
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| Drives |
IMDisk: Create RAM disks for speeding up your applications.
TrueCrypt: Secure file and volume manager.
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| Search |
BareGrep: Powerful string searcher; also allows adding regex subexpression results to the output.
BareTail: Monitor files actively being appended--with nifty color-coding.
Select-StringAligned: A PowerShell utility, this enhances the standard Select-String to provide aligned and colorized matches.
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| Other |
FreeCommander: A useful file manager due in large part to: built-in quick-viewer, favorites list, transparency of zip files, dual-pane viewing, filtering, mirroring, and more.
Putty: A terminal emulator.
HashCalc: For verifying those large binary downloads, this calculator will generator MD5, SHA-1, and many more checksums.
Ditto: An enhanced clipboard manager.
Evernote: Cross-platform, networked notes manager.
WinPatrol: Very handy system security monitor.
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| Image and Media |
| Image Editors and Capture |
Paint.NET: An excellent step-up from Windows basic Paint program; a worthy rival to Photoshop.
IrfanView: Another good image program, though I prefer the user experience with Paint.Net. IrfanView offers one vital feature that Paint.Net does not, however, the ability to save icon files (.ico).
Snagit: Screen capture with many bells and whistles, including the classic torn-page effect.
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| Presen-tation |
Camtasia Studio: Screen recording and video editing suite.
ActivePresenter: A free alternative to Camtasia that does a respectable job as well.
ZoomIt: Screen zoomer/annotator for presentations.
Sizer: Window sizer when you want to get your window to a specific size for testing or for recording.
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| PDF |
PDF reDirect: A clean, easy-to-use, well-supported tool for generating PDF files from any program.
PDF Xchange: Small, fast alternative to Adobe Reader.
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| Database |
| Compare |
SQL Diff Framework: Visual differencing engine for comparing dissimilar data sources--works with any combination of SQL Server, Oracle, MySql, or ODBC data sources (Access, Excel, CSV files, etc.). Compare like-named or dissimilar tables or fields--now you can compare apples to oranges!
SQL Data Compare: Working within SQL Server, Oracle, or MySql individually, SQL Compare outshines my own SqlDiffFramework with its outstanding capabilities.
SQL Compare: For SQL Server, Oracle, or MySql individually, SQL Compare provides amazing power to examine differences in your database schemas.
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| Intelli- sense |
Sql Prompt: Provides valuable time-savers including keyword completion, macro substitution and more. Integrates with SQL Server Mgmt Studio.
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| Other Resources |
| Sitemap globe |
The icon for the sitemap on every page
is a modified version of the original from
GraphicMaps.com.
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| Logo font |
The font is Bubble 1 (file name gfscus1d.ttf) available from GRSites.com.
GRSites.com is a distributor, not a creator, of free fonts. Unfortunately,
they do not have any information about the author of this illustrious font.
If anyone knows of its origin, please let me know so I can issue the appropriate credit here.
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| Favelets |
The handy draggable buttons used for validation, window sizing, etc. (sprinkled throughout the web guidelines section)
come from tantek.com.
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