What is your favorite software development tool?

Jun 7, 2011 // by Leslie Weller // Blog // 3 Comments

I recently asked this question to some of our engineering folks here at Fairway Technologies.

More importantly, I wanted to know WHY each of their fave’s was top of mind.

Not too surprisingly, most of the tools they mentioned helped them work more efficiently. Our favorite tools help improve automation and simplify the software development process.

Some tools make it easier to get things done. Most help reduce software development time.

This is consistent with a recent analyst study by Gartner that predicted “by 2015, tools and automation will eliminate 25% of labor hours associated with IT services.” (source: Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2011 and Beyond, December 2010)

So, what are some of our favorite tools? And why?

Here is a sampling of the responses.

For Java, IntelliJ is cool because the IDE has a bunch of wizards that get you up and running quickly; it also has a rich plug in library.
.NET Reflector is a cool tool to ‘decompile’ and inspect code. You get to see how the innards of the Microsoft .NET stack are coded.
vi is a text editor that is widely available on every operating system, it is very difficult to learn, but very powerful.
I love the tool hosted on this site. I think it is clever and I use it, or want to use it, almost every day.
Firebug. It makes working with html and CSS a million times better than without it. And it makes you hate IE that much more.
ReSharper. Makes my code just that much better.
TeamCity. Let’s everyone know when I broke the build.
Beyond Compare is a comparison tool that allows me to quickly see the differences between two files or two directories and allows me to then merge the differences between files. This proves invaluable when verifying that software installations across machines are identical.
Winmerge is a great tool for comparing files and folders. Good for figuring out changes between different version of a code file.

Yes, I feel privileged to work with smart and witty people, who keep IT real.

For an even longer list, you are welcome to read our Tools page in the Services section of our website.

Now it’s your turn.

What’s your favorite software development tool you’ve been using lately? And why?

3 Comments

unicode June 29, 2011 at 9:31 pm

perhaps firebug and netbeans
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Software Outsource Development July 29, 2011 at 2:42 am

Thank you for writing about useful tips.

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Custom Sofware Development August 14, 2011 at 7:47 am

Its very interesting tips, keep its up

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