Tools
This page contains development tools that I find useful.
SSMS
“SSMS Tools Pack is an Add-In for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (Express).
It contains a few upgrades to the IDE that I thought were missing from it.”
http://www.ssmstoolspack.com/
Bayden MezerTools
A simple toolkit for UI designers & programmers.
http://www.bayden.com/mezer/
<oXygen/> XML Editor
<oXygen/> is the best XML editor available, with a large number of users ranging from beginners to XML experts. It is the only XML tool that supports all the XML schema languages. The XSLT and XQuery support is enhanced with powerful debuggers and performance profilers. You can use <oXygen/> to work with all XML-based technologies including XML databases, XProc pipelines and web services.
http://www.oxygenxml.com/
kaxaml
Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a “split view” so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content (kind of like XamlPad but without the gigabyte of SDK). Kaxaml is a hobby and was created to be shared, so it’s free! Feel free to download and try it out. If you don’t like it, it cleans up nicely. It’s a good XamlPad alternative.
Snoop
A random utility made to simplify visual debugging of WPF applications at runtime. It’s basically a collection of things that may have seemed useful at one time or another with the common goal of making it easier to track down bugs in WPF applications. Get more details about snoop here: http://mattserbinski.com/blog/helpful-wpf-tools-pistachio-snoop-and-mole
MVVM Framework
An excellent framework of classes to use when working with WPF and using MVVM pattern.
http://mvvmfoundation.codeplex.com/
Xaml Power Toys
Xaml Power Toys is an integrated, productivity enhancing, code generation (modification) tool for Visual Studio that allows for you to select pieces of Xaml and preform various actions like put it in a container (border, dock panel, ect…) or clean up a grid by removing margins, ect… It’s a cool one.
http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/xaml-power-toys/
WPF LOB Form Layout
A library by Karl that allows you to easily layout LOB forms in WPF and is style driven so you can also easily change the layout via style updates after it’s been created.
WPF Perforator
Perforator is a performance profiling tool for analyzing rendering behavior. The Perforator main window displays a set of options that allow you to analyze very specific rendering behavior in parts of your application.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa969767.aspx#perforator
Notepad2
A fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system’s registry.
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
Fiddler
Fiddler is a Web Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP(S) traffic, set breakpoints, and “fiddle” with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler includes a powerful event-based scripting subsystem, and can be extended using any .NET language.
Fiddler is freeware and can debug traffic from virtually any application, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and thousands more.
http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/
EventBehavior for WPF
A pattern for attaching commands to events in WPF.
http://blog.functionalfun.net/2008/09/hooking-up-commands-to-events-in-wpf.html
WPF Toolkit
The WPF Toolkit is a collection of WPF features and components that are being made available outside of the normal .NET Framework ship cycle. The WPF Toolkit not only allows users to get new functionality more quickly, but allows an efficient means for giving feedback to the product team. Many of the features will be released with full source code as well.
Virtual CD
Allows for mounting .iso files.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa948864.aspx
CR_Documentor
A visual studio plugin that displays a preview generated help file content for XML comments.
http://code.google.com/p/cr-documentor/
Sandcastle Help File Builder
A tool that generates help files from XML comments.
PowerCommands
PowerCommands 1.1 is a set of useful extensions for the Visual Studio 2008 adding additional functionality to various areas of the IDE.
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/PowerCommands
MagicISO
Mounts ISO images