Test Driven Developer - List of Tools for Developers

Monday, August 04, 2008

I have been asked recently about tools I prefer to use in my every-day development. Here is a list of tools, and where to get them.

Visual Studio 2008      Development IDE                   Microsoft
TestDriven.net         Test Runner                         TestDriven.net
WinMerge                  Diff / Merge tool                   WinMerge.org integrates with VS and Tortoise too!
nUnit                        Unit Testing Framework          nUnit.org     Also see mbUnit and Gallio
Selenium                   UI test framework               OpenQA       Also see WatiN
ReSharper                  Integrated toolkit for VS      JetBrains     (OK I don't actually use it but it's good.)
Tortoise SVN            Shell Integration with SVN      Tigris
Ankh SVN                  Visual Studio Plugin for SVN   CollabNet
Subversion (Server)     Version Control System          VisualSVN
Cruise Control.net    CI system                            ThoughtWorks
RhinoMocks                Mock Object System              Ayende
nAnt                         .NET Build Tool                     nAnt
Fitnesse                  Acceptance Test Tool            Fitnesse
STIQ                         Story Test Tool                    Solutions IQ
GIMP                         GNU Image Manipulation Prog. SourceForge
Notepad++               Smart Text Editor               SourceForge UK when Visual Studio just won't do...

Not development tools exactly, but extremely handy:
Process Explorer          Smarter Task Manager         SysInternals
FileZilla                      Upload/FTP client                  FileZilla
DivX                        Decoder                              DivX         Because sometimes we need to watch movies...

That's all I can think of at the moment, but am probably missing some things. I'm sure you'll all (please) chime in with what I forgot... :-)

Monday, August 04, 2008 9:29:38 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Comments [6] |

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 11:20:38 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I found your list to be almost identical to mine.

Diff/Merge: Beyond Compare by Scooter Software. It has a more elegant interface which I find useful when managing ugly merges, though I haven't tried it's 3-way merge feature. It's one of the few not-free development tools I have.

VS+SVN: VisualSVN. I left Ankh about a year and a half ago when it's performance was less than stellar. Instead, I paid for VisualSVN which is extremely elegant, handles moves and renames perfectly, and performs excellent. Perhaps Ankh has caught up since I switched.

Thanks for publishing your list, I am going to look into STIQ.

Ed Chapel

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 11:25:50 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Agreed on both counts. Beyond Compare is, well, beyond compare. It is a bit better product, but I personally am too cheap to shell out the bux. Same with VisualSVN. I tried it. I liked it. It expired. I uninstalled it and went with Ankh. If you need the best, and are willing to pay for them, there they are. Same with ReSharper... I don't use it because I am too cheap to shell out the bux. And if I did, I'd definitely become dependent on its rich feature set.

Thanks for your input!

John Boal

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 12:49:02 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Its funny how cheap we (programmers) are. $50 for a top of the line tool? Cheap! VisualSVN is definately worth the money if you use SVN, I'm glad I have a copy. Same with ReSharper. I like WinMerge, but I'm going to try out BeyondCompare... I like the best tools whether they are free or not. We spend so much time in front of the computer why not make it a little easier or more enjoyable even if costs a little $?

I updated my list of tools today: Tools I Use

Sneal

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 1:03:28 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

True... but did I mention that I'm a CHEAP bastard...

I did forget two tools:

Fiddler2 http-level manipulation and recording tool fiddler

WireShark network protocol analyzer WireShark

John Boal

Thursday, August 07, 2008 3:20:41 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Also forgot some more:

FireBug

IE Developer Toolbar

John Boal

Monday, August 11, 2008 10:05:02 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

We've just released Cruise, the latest edition of CruiseControl.

Cruise is the new CC.NET. ;-)

http://www.thoughtworks.com/cruise