Which is a development tool?
Development tools can be of many forms like linkers, compilers, code editors, GUI designer, assemblers, debugger, performance analysis tools etc. There are certain factors to be considered while selecting the corresponding development tool, based on the type of the project.
Let me be general [then specific]:
- Your IDE of choice [Visual Studio 2008 here]
- Your debugger [It is usually part of your IDE, but sometimes WinDbg is needed]
- Its plugins for refactoring and source control [ReSharper 4+ and Ankh SVN 2+]
- Your OS's addons for source control [TortoiseSVN]
- A better Diff and Merge Tool to plug into the above SCM tools [WinMerge]
- A fast loading text editor for when your IDE is too much [Vim, Notepad++]
- If you're doing web development, get tools for that [Firefox 3 with Add-ons: Web Developer, Firebug, TamperData, Poster, Firecookie, FireFTP, FirePHP, Rainbow for Firebug, ReloadEvery, Selenium IDE]
- Requisite tools for working with text [GNU TextUtils, via Cygwin or gnuwin32.sf.net]
- Scripting tools [Perl, Python, Z shell, all those GNU base packages in Cygwin]
- A regular expression testing tool for when your eyes hurt [Expresso and RegexBuddy]
For Java I swap out 1 and 3 with Eclipse, and its plugins for Maven and SVN. I haven't found a refactoring plug in... you'd think I'd use IntelliJ IDEA, but I never started using it.
Notepad++ for sure
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Winamp (I love coding with music playing in the background)
- Coffee
In no particular order (I'm a .NET web developer if you can't tell from the list):
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ReSharper - Keeps my code slim and clean!
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.NET Reflector - Every now and then you need to figure out how the heck something is working in the .NET library.
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Firebug - Every web developer has this installed because it makes markup and CSS debugging so much easier.
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TortoiseSVN - By far the best version control system I have ever used. Absolutely no complaints about it.
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NUnit - Unit testing that doesn't get in your way. Plus it integrates nicely with ReSharper!
- Notepad - For whatever reason, I can't shake the nostalgic feeling I get using this. It is still my go-to application for several things (to-do lists, quick side notes, quick and dirty clipboard, etc.).
Scott Hanselman has a great list of tools: Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows. It is updated every year or two.
Beyond Compare: a diff tool is always a must.
For Windows work:
Beyond Compare - great diffing tool, works well with files and folders.
Launchy - lets me start programs without moving my hands from the keyboard.
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