My Toolbox column in the May 2007 issue of MSDN Magazine is now avaiable online. The May issue examines three products:
- NDepend - a program for graphically exploring the interdependencies among methods, classes, and assemblies in a .NET application.
- ApexSQL Edit - a rich SQL editor with IntelliSense, source control, and other interesting features. Like SQL Query Analyzer on steriods!
- Cropper - a free screen capture utility; written in C# with the source code available.
This month's issue reviewed How to Code .NET, by Christian Gross. Here is an excerpt from the review:
Most successful computer trade books either focus on a very specific subset of a technology or provide a broad overview of the entire technology. How to Code .NET, by Christian Gross (Apress, 2006), doesn’t fall into either of these categories. While its title implies that the book is a weighty tome on creating .NET applications, its mere 232 pages indicate otherwise. It neither focuses on a specific subset of .NET nor does it provide a sweeping overview. Instead, it provides 30-50 pages each on four disparate topics: Test Driven Development (TDD), low-level .NET runtime and framework information, text-processing tips, and C# coding tricks.
...
At 232 pages, How to Code .NET does not cover any topic in great detail and therefore is not intended for the reader who wants to explore these topics in great depth. But the book provides a well-written, informative look at a smattering of topics. Most intermediate .NET developers would benefit from reading How to Code .NET as it provides a number of useful tips and serves as a good starting point for exploring some of the more advanced .NET concepts.
As always, if you have any suggestions for products or books to review for the Toolbox column, please send them into toolsmm@microsoft.com.