Development Software I Use Now
By Thomas Krehbiel
· Krehbiel Tech · Saturday, Feb 28, 2009, 9:55 PM · 257 words · 10 comments · 
I’ve setup a new development PC, so I thought it was time once again to review the software I normally install and use for development (I last did this in December 2007).
I find that most of these kinds of lists are pointless, but every now and then I run across a handy tool I’ve never seen before, so in the hope that someone else might find something useful, here’s my current list of PHP and .NET development essentials.
- Apache - web server
- CopyAsHtml Addin - copy from Visual Studio to HTML
- Fiddler - view HTTP requests and responses
- FileZilla - ftp client
- FxCop* – code analysis from Microsoft
- Ghostdoc Addin – simplify repetitive commenting
- Hyper Addin – format and word-wrap comments
- MySQL 5.1 – database engine
- MySQL Connector/Net - .NET adapter for MySQL
- MySQL GUI Tools – query and administration
- NAnt – automated build tool
- NUnit – unit testing framework
- Paint.NET – image processing
- PHP 5.2.x – web development
- RegexBuddy ($) – regular expression builder
- Smart Paster Addin (2008 here) – paste text as comments
- StyleCop* – code analysis from Microsoft
- Subversion – remote version control
- TextPad – text editor
- TortoiseSVN – subversion client integrated with Windows explorer
- TreeComp – file comparison and synchronization
- Visual SourceSafe – local version control
- Visual Studio 2008 – you know, the IDE
- Wireshark – packet analyzer
Note that I get along just fine without Resharper or any ORM, Mocking or Dependency Injection frameworks. That’s just how I roll.
* I don’t consider these essential, but they are instructive.
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1. Sean/Red said,
Maybe an interesting note: Its been about 5 months since I've come back to the world of dotNet. And I can't convey enough about how disappointed I am with Visual Studio. VS use to be the best IDE, maybe that was due to my lack of exposure at the time, but now I find the thing bloated, slow, and useless. I'd rather use note pad. I can't wait for the day Eclipse has a working dotNet plug-in. ReSharper goes a long way in making VS usable, but not quite far enough.
Saturday, Mar 14, 2009, 2:09 PM
2. Tom said,
It's definitely getting more bloated and slow with each new version (developing for WPF in VS2008 is painful). I've never seen Resharper.. price tag is way too steep for me. I just downloaded Eclipse to try it out for PHP actually... it'll be interesting to compare.
Saturday, Mar 14, 2009, 6:37 PM
3. Sean/Red said,
The best thing about Eclipse (for Java at least) CTRL+SHIFT+R Such a time saver!
Saturday, Mar 14, 2009, 6:52 PM
4. Tom said,
Hrm ctrl+shift+r isn't doing anything for PHP except open an empty "Open Resource" window.
Sunday, Mar 15, 2009, 8:44 AM
5. Sean/Red said,
Hmm, thats a key element to ctrl+shift+r, actually having data in the resource window.
Sunday, Mar 15, 2009, 3:59 PM
6. Sean/Red said,
BTW, I'd love to hear your overall comments of Eclipse, maybe in a separate blog post. Also, keep in mind that it is written in 100% Java.
Sunday, Mar 15, 2009, 4:00 PM
7. Sean/Red said,
Oh, come to think of it, you may need to start to type in the "Open Resource" window for it to work. Don't recall any more.
Sunday, Mar 15, 2009, 4:13 PM
8. Tom said,
Oooh.. I see how the ctrl+shift+r works now. That's pretty cool actually.
Sunday, Mar 15, 2009, 10:38 PM
9. Tom said,
Working on a post about Eclipse btw.
Monday, Mar 16, 2009, 10:52 PM
10. Sean/Red said,
CTRL+O was another good feature to use in the Java Editor. It was basically a similar function to CTRL+SHIFT+R but used to navigate to a method in the currently open java class. Couldn't live without these two features. Well, I guess I AM living without them now. At least until my ReSharper license comes in.
Monday, Mar 16, 2009, 10:55 PM