The document provides a comprehensive list of recommended resources, tools, and utilities for .NET development, including links to regular expression tools, text editors, profilers, IDEs, code generation tools, and documentation aids. It covers both free and commercial options, highlighting features and use cases for each. The document also includes references to design patterns and various programming websites, enhancing developers' understanding and efficiency in their work.

1. .NET Recommend Resources Tools, Utilities and References You Can Use Presented by: Greg Sohl Additional Contributors by: Chris Sutton, Jason Brunken © 2006, Gregory M. Sohl

2. Agenda Tools and Utilities Web Sites Other Suggestions from the Group Discussion

3. Tools and Utilities – Regular Expressions Roy Osherove’s “The Regulator 2.0” http://regex.osherove.com Eric Gunnerson’s “Regular Expression Workbench 2.0” http://blogs.msdn.com/ericgu/archive/2003/07/07/52362.aspx RegEx 101 Blog Series http://blogs.msdn.com/ericgu/archive/category/11323.aspx Chris Sells’ RegExDesigner.NET http://www.sellsbrothers.com/tools/ The first, but now less functional than the above

4. Web Sites – Regular Expressions Regular Expression Library http://regexlib.com/ Great source for help with developing regular expressions Roy Osherove’s “The Regulator 2.0” includes integrated search for it

5. Tools and Utilities – Text Editors Notepad2 http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html Basic idea is that it looks a lot like notepad, but it has color coding xml, html, c# etc. It also lets you change stuff like the font size. Its simple like Notepad, but much more powerful and useful. (Chris Sutton) Notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm Open source notepad, with syntax highlighting and lots of features. Based on the Scintilla edit component, which is also open source.

6. Tools and Utilities – Profilers Compuware’s DevPartner Profiler Community Edition http://www.compuware.com/products/devpartner/default.htm - click on link to fill in registration form for free download Provides timing and execution counts of code. Integrates with Visual Studio

7. Tools and Utilities – Profilers .NET Memory Profiler http://memprofiler.com/ Traces memory usage in .NET programs Full support for analyzing the GC Heap Snapshots of memory usage at any point Finds undisposed IDisposables Easy to use, must understand GC to gain full benefits

8. Tools and Utilities – IDE and Compilers Microsoft Express Tools http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx C#, C++, VB.NET, J# Free, lightweight and easy-to-use SQL Server 2005 Express too! #develop http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/ Free IDE for C#, VB.NET Open source

9. Tools and Utilities - IDE and Compilers Snippet Compiler http://www.sliver.com/dotnet/SnippetCompiler/ Quick-n-dirty testing of code. Type, compile, run. No fuss, no muss, no VS projects

10. Tools and Utilities – Code Generation MyGeneration (free) http://www.mygenerationsoftware.com Generates any type of text file. Useful for generating repetitive code that can be created based upon some metadata. For example, data access layers, business objects, any type of patterned template for your team to follow. ASP.NET-like template syntax Ton’s of user-contributed templates Can create a user interface for use during template execution

11. Tools and Utilities – Code Generation CodeSmith (commercial) http://www.codesmithtools.com Generates any type of text file. Useful for generating repetitive code that can be created based upon some metadata. For example, data access layers, business objects, any type of patterned template for your team to follow. ASP.NET-like template syntax Ton’s of user-contributed templates Buy the full studio – it’s worth it.

12. Tools and Utilities – ASP.NET ASP.NET Version Switcher http://www.denisbauer.com/NETTools/ASPNETVersionSwitcher.aspx For those working with ASP.NET with multiple .NET versions.

13. Tools and Utilities - Assemblies Reflector – THE tool for browsing assemblies http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/ Add-Ins - http://www.codeplex.com/reflectoraddins

14. Tools and Utilities - Documentation nDoc – XML Doc Formatter http://ndoc.sourceforge.net/ NDoc generates class library documentation from .NET assemblies and the XML documentation files generated by the C# compiler Comment your code with XML markup. Build outputing the XML. Use nDoc on it. Enough said. Produces CHM, HTML in many styles

15. Tools and Utilities - Documentation GhostDoc – Code Comment Template Generator http://www.roland-weigelt.de/ghostdoc/ Intelligently inserts a template of XML documentation for your method Highly configurable Big timesaver for those making good use of XML comments

16. Tools and Utilities - Documentation FreeMind – Mind mapper, brainstorming tool http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Open source (it’s Java) Great for putting together ideas, task dependency lists, etc.

17. Tools and Utilities - Documentation CodePlotter – ASCII Diagramming Tool http://www.codeproject.com/tools/codeplotterremoded.asp For drawing diagrams and rendering them in ascii. Automatically puts diagram in commented lines that can be inserted directly into code. Its open source! Note – it starts in the system tray //{{DIAGRAM_START // //: Class Diagram // // .----------. .---------------. // |Base Class<-----<IWidgetReader | // | | | | // ·^---------· ·---------------· // | // | // .^--------------. // |Derived Class | // | | // ·---------------· //}}DIAGRAM_END

18. Tools and Utilities - Documentation Highlight http://www.andre-simon.de/ Pretty-prints source code to HTML, XHTML, RTF, TeX, LaTeX and XML formats Support 100+ programming languages

19. Tools and Utilities - SQL Red Gate SQL Comparison Tools http://www.red-gate.com/solutions/sql/index.htm

20. Tools and Utilities – Source Metrics Source Monitor http://www.campwoodsw.com/ Lots of detail and charting. Very fast. Multi-language. USysWare’s DPack – Solution Statistics module http://www.usysware.com/dpack/Stats.aspx Integrated with VS. Can do metrics on a loaded solution.

21. Tools and Utilities – File Comparison Scooter Software’s Beyond Compare http://www.scootersoftware.com Still the best. Since Win 3.1 Cheap! Actively maintained and updated Files and FTP It is my workhorse for site management Fast, flexible comparison methods Plugins for images, hex Use it as your VSS differencing tool in VSS 2005

22. Tools and Utilities - Other AW Icons http://www.awicons.com Lite version free for home use

23. Tools and Utilities - System SysInternals.com Now at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx FileMon – File activity monitor RegMon – Registry activity monitor ProcessExplorer – Task manager on steroids AutoRuns – See everything that starts up with your OS and disable/delete selectively Much more. Everything they have is useful and FREE! (Chris Sutton)

24. Tools and Utilities - Organization Microsoft OneNote – No more paper notes! http://office.microsoft.com/onenote Desktop Search Engines Windows Desktop Search http://toolbar.msn.com Google Desktop http://desktop.google.com Copernic Desktop Search http://www.copernic.com TimeSnapper – Record your work and play it back http://www.timesnapper.com

25. Tools and Utilities - Installation Inno Setup http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php Free installation creator with companion GUI tools.

26. Tools and Utilities – Log Files Microsoft’s Log Parser 2.2 http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/tools/logparser/default.mspx http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=2&subtabid=29#LogParser Allows querying of XML, CSV log files, Event Logs, Registry, File System and Active Directory Great for mining data from web log files I use it daily to pull HTTP 404 and 500 errors out Part of the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit but can be used independently.

27. Tools and Utilities - HTTP Microsoft WFetch http://support.microsoft.com/?id=840671 Part of the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit, but can be used against any HTTP/S host An HTTP client with a GUI that allows easily sending requests and examining the results. Download and install it. Low learning curve.

28. Tools and Utilities – Tool Listings Scott Hanselman’s 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2005UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersToolList.aspx MadGeek’s Sharp Toolbox http://sharptoolbox.com/

29. Web Sites – Design Patterns Data and Object Factory http://www.dofactory.com/Patterns/Patterns.aspx Code Project http://www.codeproject.com/gen/design/#Design+Patterns Microsoft Patterns and Practices http://msdn.microsoft.com/practices

30. Web Sites – ASP.NET 4 Guys from Rolla http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/ Thorough and well-written articles on a range of ASP.NET topics and other .NET subjects of interest to ASP.NET developers. ASP.NET Resource Index http://www.411asp.net Great source for components and code samples (Jason Brunken)

31. Web Sites - Interop Pinvoke.net http://www.pinvoke.net All about doing interop with .NET (.NET to COM, .NET to Win32) Features signatures of interop calls to many DLLs Wiki allows reader contribution

32. Web Site Articles - Threading An Introduction to Programming with C# Threads http://research.microsoft.com/~birrell/papers/ThreadsCSharp.pdf What Every Dev Must Know About Multithreaded Apps http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/08/Concurrency/ Understand the Impact of Low-Lock Techniques in Multithreaded Apps http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/10/MemoryModels/

33. Web Casts MSDN WebCasts http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/ondemand.mspx MSDN TV http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/ .NET Rocks http://msdn.microsoft.com/dotnetrocks/ Videos on Channel9 http://channel9.msdn.com/

34. Web Sites – Other Programming Reference ASCII Chart – http://www.asciitable.com