A friend of mine asked me the other day about the tools I am using while developing applications and it took me a good few minutes to tell him all of things I used. I figured I should put it online just in case someone ask again in the future since it was a lot to talk about. So here it goes:

Microsoft Visual Studio – My development best friend.
NetBeans – C++/Java/PHP development IDE. I used to use if for Ruby too but support has since been dropped.
Eclipse – For my Android obsession. I used this for Java as well but not as much compared to Netbeans.
Xcode – Emergency relief when I’m bored with Android and C#.
CodeRush – Code Refactoring add-on for Microsoft Visual studio that doesn’t suck. I love ReSharper too but I haven’t found a reason that would make me switch.
WCF Storm – Web Services tester that is way better than the standard WCF Test client from Microsoft
Fiddler – Web debugging too for HTTP testing. This thing rocks. Trust me.
StyleCop – Code analysis tool ti make sure you are following a set of coding guidelines(style).
LinqPad – More than just a LINQ expression builder. A good way to test expressions before loading them to your actual code.
JsFiddle – Javascript, HTML and CSS tester that helps you isolate bugs
BrowserShots – A nice site that shows you how your site looks like in multiple browsers.
JsLint – Javascript code evaluator that tells you if your code sucks.
JetBrains dotPeek – Free .NET code decompiler from JetBrains. A replacement for Reflector.
BitBucket – For my private source code repositories. GitHub for my not so private code repositories
SourceTree – Mercurial, Git and Subervision(SVN) repository manager for Mac. I use TortoiseSVN for Subversion and TortoiseHG for Mercurial repository management access in Windows
Evernote – Notes and more notes. I used this as repository for ideas, meeting notes and anything else that I need to remember.
Skitch – Screenshot tool from the makers of Evernote for the Mac
Balsamiq – My preferred wire framing tool. SketchFlow comes second.
OmniGraffle – Microsoft Visio replacement for Macs. Can be used for wire framing too.
LinkChecker – Link validator for websites. Scans websites for broken links and generates a report on what they are.
Console2 – Probably the best Windows Command prompt replacement. This thing is glued with awesomeness.
PixResizer – A free batch picture resizer for Windows that doesn’t kill your machine’s resources.
7zip – a free Winzip replacement.
Notepad++ – Best notepad replacement in Windows. Notepad2 is also nice. I use TextWrangler when I’m on a Mac.
WinMerge – a free Document comparison and merging tool
Dropbox – the must have Cloud-based storage system
Trello – Task Management made easy. Real-time collaboration with notifications. Works on your phone too!
RegExr – Simple yet elegant Regular Expression(RegEx) testing tool

Here’s some Firefox Add-Ons that i can’t live without.
Firebug – Must have add-on for testing and debugging pages in Firefox. Enables you to modify HTML, CSS and Javascript on the fly to see how they render in the browser
Web Developer – Get this compliment to FireBug.
ColorZilla – Color Picker and Gradient Generator. Also try Rainbow Color Tools
Pixlr Grabber – Image grabber. Allows you to save images on a web page.
ShowIP – A really neat tool that allows users to see the IP address of the current web page in their status bar.
fontinfo – Tells the user which font are used on the current page
YSlow – A tool that helps analyze why pages are slow

There’s probably more things that I forgot to list (like development frameworks e.g Ninject and Moq) so I promise I’ll create a new post in the next few days talking about those frameworks.

How about you? What tools/applications are you using in your day to day life as a developer/architect/programmer?

Cheers!

Keith Rull