Small tools/scripts that help you so much?

Question

On top of my head, especially for C/Linux developer:

• ack
• git-bz
• colorgcc
• colordiff
• moap and prepare-ChangeLog

Is there some tool/script you couldn't work without, but that you feel others don't know so much?

For instance, I just found:

• cppcheck

Answer 1

I don't use it that often, but the tool with the highest ratio of awesomeness to being little known has to be dot, which is the tool for drawing directed graphs that is part of the AT&T Graph Visualization suite. A nice example output is their Unix family tree.

Answer 2

On Windows or Linux:

1. grep, without a doubt
2. tail
3. vim

On Windows (and Linux, Solaris), XMLStarlet

I realize that grep and tail are well-known, but it amazes me how many people think it's magic when you use either one of them. Same thing with Vim. I'm hardly a power user, but I can open it up and have a small document complete before MS Word would even open.

Answer 3

Vim http://www.straw-dogs.co.uk/wp-content/vim_logo.png

Vim, my favorite editor

Answer 4

• StackOverflow
• Google

And my other two favourites are too large to be considered small :P

• Visual Studio
• The Internet