Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now

I was exploring the areas where Visual Studio Express had lesser features than its bigger cousin - the Std and enterprise editions, when i spotted this article that is quite self explanatory. Thought i'd discuss this particular tool that could be used for coders who blog called CopySourceas HTML.


CopySourceAsHTML
Normally, when you try to post a cool code snippet to your blog it ends up being plain old text, which isn't the easiest thing to read. This is where the CopySourceAsHTML add-in comes in to play. This add-in allows you to copy code as HTML, meaning you can easily post it to your blog or Web site and retain the coloring applied through Visual Studio.

After installing the CopySourceAsHTML add-in, simply select the code you want to copy and then select the Copy Source as HTML command from the right-click menu. After you select Copy As HTML and configure the HTML to include line numbers, this code will look like Figure 12 in the browser. Anything that makes it easier to share and understand code benefits all of us as it means more people will go to the trouble of sharing knowledge and learning from each other.Get it here

My other favourites in this list include :
WSContractFirst makes it easier to write your WSDL file, and will generate client-side and server-side code for you, based on that WSDL file. You get the best of both worlds: control over your contract and the rapid development you are used to from Visual Studio style services development.

PInvoke.NET
PInvoke.NET is a wiki that can be used to document the correct P/Invoke signatures to be used when calling unmanaged Win32 APIs. A wiki is a collaborative Web site that anyone can edit, which means there are thousands of signatures, examples, and notes about using P/Invoke. Since the wiki can be edited by anyone, you can contribute as well as make use of the information there.

CodeKeep
CodeKeep is a Web application that provides a place for people to create and share snippets of code in any language. The true usefulness of CodeKeep is its Visual Studio add-in, which allows you to search quickly through the CodeKeep database, as well as submit your own snippets.

I laso liked the ingenuine,yet simple vision behind the Smartpaster and TestDriven.NET as well.

Read more from the Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now -- MSDN Magazine, December 2005: "

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