Every skilled craftsman has his preferred tools (which sometimes make him appear more skilled than he really is). And a software developer is no exception. During the years I have found several tools (most of them, software) that have made my life much easier and helped me produce better quality, more consistent, results.
For my day-to-day development, I use mainly Visual Studio 2005 (with C#) and SQL Server 2005. However, I still use Visual Studio 2003 for one project we maintain.
For source control, we use a Subversion server with TortoiseSVN as a client. I have used source control integrated in the IDE, but TortoiseSVN integrates with the file system (Explorer). I like it better with the file system, because a repository usually contains much more things than Visual Studio project files (documents, image sources, to name a few).
We use CruiseControl.NET to manage our automated builds, so that we can be sure that every commit builds fine and passes the smoke tests. But also an automated build process is a great way for simplifying deployments: you don’t have to remember all steps of building a deployable build; all builds are deployable.
Of course, NUnit is our tool for unit testing. Our automated build process runs all the unit tests, but I use TestDriven.NET to more easily run the tests from Visual Studio.
I also like using FxCop to verify my code against .NET Framework conventions, but I am still working on convincing everyone at the office on the usefulness of it.
Sometimes I use Inno Setup, an excellent, freeware tool for creating installations.
For bug tracking and helpdesk software, we use Fog Creek’s excellent FogBugz. We use it to keep track of bugs and feature requests, but also to sort and respond to customer support emails. One part of it we don’t use yet but are planning to is the discussion forum support.
I recently set up a wiki for all the company’s internal documentation (project specs, deployment instructions, and many other things that need to be documented) and it has had great success among everyone. For that, we use ScrewTurn Wiki.
Although we only have one physical server in Intelectix’s LAN (which hosts the wiki and Subversion repositories), we use Microsoft Virtual Server to host two build servers and a SQL Server for unit testing. I am planning on adding more RAM to the machine so we can add more Virtual Servers.
We also have a dedicated server rented with 1-800 Hosting. We rent a part of it to a customer for his application, but we also host our FogBugz installation there. Recently I found about PerfectDisk, and after Rex’s great review I decided to give it a try. It was the last day of a big offer ($99 instead of regular $239) so I decided to buy it right away. I just installed it on our dedicated server. Let’s see how it performs.
And last but not least, I have found a great online resource in The Code Project. Whether I have a development-related question, or just want to relax with some smart people, you can find me there.
And that’s it. There probably are a few more tools I use every now and then, but the ones I described above are the ones I use on a day-to-day basis. They really make my job much easier!
Feel free to post a comment on these or other tools you use.