My Toolbox column in the November 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine is avaiable online. The November issue examines:
- DayPilot - DayPilot is an AJAX-enabled calendar and scheduling ASP.NET Web control that offers functionality not unlike what you find in Outlook and other desktop-based calendar applications. Plus there's a free, open-source Lite version.
- Blogs of Note - Jeff Smith - Jeff's blog contains great posts on T-SQL syntax, queries, and tips and tricks for getting the most out of Microsoft SQL Server.
- RegexBuddy - with its terse syntax and mix of special characters, regular expressions are usually hard to read, understand, and enhance when using the naked eye. However, with a tool like RegexBuddy, regular expressions are much easier to grok. RegexBuddy is a desktop application with features that assist in building, testing, and editing regular expressions. RegexBuddy includes a regular expression debugger and wizards for turning your regular expressions into C# or VB code.
For The Bookshelf section I reviewed The Productive Programmer
, by Neal Ford. An excerpt from the review follows:
In the Productive Programmer (O'Reilly, 2008), Neal Ford shares proven techniques that will help any developer improve his or her productivity. The first part of the book explores behaviors and tools for boosting developer productivity; the second part looks at software development practices that help contribute to a more streamlined development process. He espouses the Don't Repeat Yourself tenet for improving productivity and provides examples of how to avoid needless repetition in areas from version control to technical documentation. Poor software development practices can quickly swallow up those productivity gains, Neal notes. Adding unnecessary features, insufficiently testing your code, and failing to correctly encapsulate your objects are all practices that lead to bugs and unmaintainable code. The willingness to question the status quo is another important aspect in developer productivity. Too often developers get into a rut and use a particular design pattern or coding technique because that's the way it's always been done, overlooking or turning down alternatives that may be more efficient.
Enjoy! - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd148647.aspx
As always, if you have any suggestions for products, blogs, or books to review for the Toolbox column, please send them to toolsmm@microsoft.com.