As a .NET developer, you must have thorough knowledge about the various tools that come handy and for free. Here is a list of some of the most widely used tools that most of the .NET developers are using today.
- SharpDevelop
An Integrated Development Environment or IDE for .NET applications. SharpDevelop supports the development of applications that are written in Visual Basic.NET, C#, Boo and IronPython. It is an open-source tool that is available for free usage. The tool is written in C#. SharpDevelop provides several features that are required from a modern IDE, such as project templates, code completion, an integrated debugger and even a forms designer. The cherry on the cake is the fact that it has good compatibility with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio Express.
- Visual Studio 2017
Visual Studio 2017 comes with a customized installer that is developed for WPF, ASP.NET, WinForms, Universal Windows Platform, Android, Win32, iOS, and many other platforms. It helps code fast thereby improving performance with languages such as C/C++, Visual Basic, F#, C#, and Python. It has improved productivity as code editing, debugging, and navigation and debugging have been simplified with features like XAML Edit & Continue, enhanced code refactoring, improved IntelliSense, and live code analysis. With Visual Studio 2017 the developer can tap into modern web development with ASP.NET, Python, and JavaScript.
- TortoiseSVN
It is a categorically easy to use Revision control, version control, and source control software, especially for Windows. It is based on Apache™ Subversion (SVN)®. TortoiseSVN offers a convenient-to-use user interface for Subversion. It is a free tool that comes with no restriction which means the developer can create his own version if he wishes to.
- .NET Reflector
By simply looking inside any .NET code, you can debug the application, understand the intricacies, and understand APIs. You can debug the application by finding the issue which may be in your code or components or third-party libraries. With .NET reflector, you can comprehend the documentation and comments of any inherited application. Thereby you can fix bugs and understand the APIs.
- Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is an integrated environment. The studio express helps to manage SQL infrastructure, from SQL Server to SQL Database in any project. SSMS offers tools to organize, observe, and manage instances of SQL. With SSMS developers can deploy, analyze, and upgrade the data-tier components, queries, and scripts that are being used by your application. SSMS has helped improve compatibility with previous versions of SQL Server.
- Quest Comparison Suite for SQL Server
The Simplified SQL Server management helps in monitoring, analyzing and creating backups. It has helped in improving productivity, reducing costs, and protecting data. It has also helped in enabling database administrators to reduce their workload by 80%. In this manner, the SQL server can focus on adding value to the business. It helps in managing performance, accelerating backup and recovery, centralizing administration, managing, and examining single and multiple database platforms, promoting collaboration across teams, ensure SQL environment is up and running, and effectively supporting and securing data.
- XYplorer
It is an excellent file manager for Windows. It comes loaded with amazing features such as tabbed browsing, powerful file search, a versatile preview, customizable interface, and a dual pane that is optional to use. These large arrays of unique features help in efficiently automating frequently occurring or recurring tasks. The tool is fast, portable, and light.
There are several other tools that come handy for .NET developers and they also come for free or are open source such as Nant, Snippet Compiler, Convert C# to VB.NET, Nant Add-In, and NUnit Add-In but the ones mentioned in the list above are the popular ones.
