Useful additional development and support tools

[ArneOrtlinghaus]

I have attached a list of free programs me and some of my colleagues are using regularly for our work.
Arne Ortlinghaus

[wriedmann]

Hi Arne,

thank you very much!

I had to add a few more:
WinDiff.exe from Windows SDK to compare source code files
DebugView++ to catch the DebOut() output ( https://debugviewpp.wordpress.com/ )
Database.NET, a database manager for many databases ( https://www.fishcodelib.com/Database.htm ). I have a licensed version on my PC, but often download the exe to customers machines. Runs without installation

Wolfgang

[robert]

Wolfgang, Arne

Don't forget ILSpy (or Reflector) if you are coding for .Net, so you can see what the compiler is doing with your code.

Robert

[wriedmann]

Hi Robert,

I forgot that since I'm using a (paid) license for Redgate Reflector (that I had buyed before ILSpy was usable).
But you are right: one of these tools is absolutely neccessary to work in .NET, not only for X# code, but also to understand foreign libraries and learn how to use them.

Wolfgang

[MathiasHakansson]

About database clients...

I used to copy QueryExpress (http://www.albahari.com/queryexpress.aspx) to client computers when I needed an sql client, but nowadays I use sqlcmd instead. sqlcmd is included in microsofts sql server installation, also in the free express variant. The most common scenario is that you want to backup the customers database to examine it on your own computer. This is easily done with this command;

sqlcmd -S localhostInstanceName -U username -P password -d DatabaseName -Q "backup database DatabaseName to disk = 'c:tempDatabaseName.bak' with format, medianame = 'DatabaseName', name = 'DatabaseName';"

You can do anything you want that can be done with sql-statements, which is just about anything.

/MathiasH