Favorite Development Tools?
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How about tools for backing up source code? I'm working with another developer on a Visual Interdev web project (in local mode). Unfortunately the server doesn't have SourceSafe attached to it so there's no easy way to do version control on the files that get released. So what I do is that every night before I go home, I backup the files. How? I use a tool called InstallerVISE. It's a pretty nice tool for creating single-file installation programs. I've found it easier to work with than InstallShield and the best thing is that it requires no scripting! So I just open the project in InstallerVISE, hit the "Build" button (just like in VC++), give it a file name, and that's it! I get a quick and painless backup of my source files into one EXE file. Anyone have a similar scheme? Alvar
Alvaro, I hear what you're saying about InstallShield. I've found it pretty complicated, and overkill for most of the projects I've worked on. I've thought about tools like WiseInstall and I've seen ads for InstallerVISE, but haven't really invested the time to see what benefit they offer. Funny how when you get familiar with something you sort of just stick with it. Well, that's why I asked the question! How is InstallerVISE for dealing with non-standard installs? Although I haven't had to do it, I understand that you can make custom DLLs that hook into InstallShield. Does InstallerVISE offer something like this? And
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Alvaro, I hear what you're saying about InstallShield. I've found it pretty complicated, and overkill for most of the projects I've worked on. I've thought about tools like WiseInstall and I've seen ads for InstallerVISE, but haven't really invested the time to see what benefit they offer. Funny how when you get familiar with something you sort of just stick with it. Well, that's why I asked the question! How is InstallerVISE for dealing with non-standard installs? Although I haven't had to do it, I understand that you can make custom DLLs that hook into InstallShield. Does InstallerVISE offer something like this? And
Andy, InstallerVISE is pretty cool! It has just about every feature you can think of, including custom DLLs like you mentioned. I even used it to remove and then install an NT Service once. It also comes with a dialog editor you can use to add your own custom dialog boxes -- and it's all script-less! When you get a chance you should download an evaluation version of it. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. I just wish I could get compensated for promoting this product so much. ;-) Regards, Alvaro
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Ok, I'll kick this off! (great idea btw Chris) I've been thinking that might be time for me to upgrade some the tools I use here at work, and I'm wondering what others use, and what they like and don't like. Most of my development is still in MFC (yeah, I know, I'm learning the new stuff), but I don't see MFC fading from my job any time soon. Anyway, I currently use Visual Studio (of course), BoundsChecker, Robohelp, I've got the Dundas DevSuite, the Stingray Grid, oh, and Install Shield. I'm interested in what people think about things like Codewright (editor), BugTrapper, CodeWizard, etc. This stuff looks interesting, but is it worth spending money on? Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I've been thinking about Macromedia's new UltraDev as an alternative to InterDev too. Any comments? And
I use BoundsChecker as it's great for finding resource leaks AND Purify because this does a much better job at finding memory leaks and, more importantly, memory overwrites, etc. I couldn't do without both of these tools. BugTrapper. We bought this about 18 months ago, and I have to say that I am NOT impressed. I think I have only had one instance where the users bug has been caught using this product. Many times I have seen the BugTrapper "agent" hang, especially on Win9x systems. Usually, the information generated by the agent is pretty useless. I am back to getting users to run DrWatson on Win9x systems and hanging onto copies of my map file for various releases. This is a pretty basic and sometimes frustrating way to find bugs, but I have had more luck with this than using BugTrapper... I think the idea of BugTrapper is good, but the whole concept of creating "trace files", etc. is time consuming and downright painful at times! I really hope they succeed in making this product more reliable, because when it DOES works it gets you to the source of the problem with no fuss. I use the Wise installation system, as we looked at InstallShield many years ago and it wasn't up to the job (I couldn't comment now however). The Wise Installation system has always been excellent, and I have never come across any serious problems with it - and some of our product installation scripts are pretty complicated. A couple of times I have had to write some basic DLLs to use with Wise in order to access some Windows info that Wise cannot handle, but on the whole it is a very stable and usable product. That's my two penneth worth. Anyone else out there think BugTrapper is actually any good
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Ok, I'll kick this off! (great idea btw Chris) I've been thinking that might be time for me to upgrade some the tools I use here at work, and I'm wondering what others use, and what they like and don't like. Most of my development is still in MFC (yeah, I know, I'm learning the new stuff), but I don't see MFC fading from my job any time soon. Anyway, I currently use Visual Studio (of course), BoundsChecker, Robohelp, I've got the Dundas DevSuite, the Stingray Grid, oh, and Install Shield. I'm interested in what people think about things like Codewright (editor), BugTrapper, CodeWizard, etc. This stuff looks interesting, but is it worth spending money on? Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I've been thinking about Macromedia's new UltraDev as an alternative to InterDev too. Any comments? And
>Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I am using a whole bunch of Addins for DevStudio, some of them can really improve the work! Take a look at these: WndTabs (www.wndtabs.com), WorkspaceWhiz! (www.workspacewhiz.com), There is also a new kid in town - WorkspaceEx (www.codeveloper.com) -- you must see to believe! More expensive, but worth every penny is Visual Assist (www.wholetomato.com) and amaizing RadVC (www.capitolsoft.com) - it will make your VC++ looking and coding in the VB style! There is one more addin I use the most, but I will not mention it as I am developing it myself. I'll just say that it has to do with CVS - version control system :
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How about tools for backing up source code? I'm working with another developer on a Visual Interdev web project (in local mode). Unfortunately the server doesn't have SourceSafe attached to it so there's no easy way to do version control on the files that get released. So what I do is that every night before I go home, I backup the files. How? I use a tool called InstallerVISE. It's a pretty nice tool for creating single-file installation programs. I've found it easier to work with than InstallShield and the best thing is that it requires no scripting! So I just open the project in InstallerVISE, hit the "Build" button (just like in VC++), give it a file name, and that's it! I get a quick and painless backup of my source files into one EXE file. Anyone have a similar scheme? Alvar
You could have use CVS (WinCvs) for version control - it can work as Client-Server and locally as well. Try the www.wincvs.org.
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>Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I am using a whole bunch of Addins for DevStudio, some of them can really improve the work! Take a look at these: WndTabs (www.wndtabs.com), WorkspaceWhiz! (www.workspacewhiz.com), There is also a new kid in town - WorkspaceEx (www.codeveloper.com) -- you must see to believe! More expensive, but worth every penny is Visual Assist (www.wholetomato.com) and amaizing RadVC (www.capitolsoft.com) - it will make your VC++ looking and coding in the VB style! There is one more addin I use the most, but I will not mention it as I am developing it myself. I'll just say that it has to do with CVS - version control system :
George -- thanks for plugging WorkspaceEx. I'm glad you like it :) But you didn't give the link to your own site! Everyone interested in using CVS with Visual C++ should check out http://www.geocities.com/kaczoroj/CvsIn/
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I use BoundsChecker as it's great for finding resource leaks AND Purify because this does a much better job at finding memory leaks and, more importantly, memory overwrites, etc. I couldn't do without both of these tools. BugTrapper. We bought this about 18 months ago, and I have to say that I am NOT impressed. I think I have only had one instance where the users bug has been caught using this product. Many times I have seen the BugTrapper "agent" hang, especially on Win9x systems. Usually, the information generated by the agent is pretty useless. I am back to getting users to run DrWatson on Win9x systems and hanging onto copies of my map file for various releases. This is a pretty basic and sometimes frustrating way to find bugs, but I have had more luck with this than using BugTrapper... I think the idea of BugTrapper is good, but the whole concept of creating "trace files", etc. is time consuming and downright painful at times! I really hope they succeed in making this product more reliable, because when it DOES works it gets you to the source of the problem with no fuss. I use the Wise installation system, as we looked at InstallShield many years ago and it wasn't up to the job (I couldn't comment now however). The Wise Installation system has always been excellent, and I have never come across any serious problems with it - and some of our product installation scripts are pretty complicated. A couple of times I have had to write some basic DLLs to use with Wise in order to access some Windows info that Wise cannot handle, but on the whole it is a very stable and usable product. That's my two penneth worth. Anyone else out there think BugTrapper is actually any good
Thanks, that's a great summary. BugTrapper was one of the key tools I was looking at :( Invariably I run into situations where I'm debugging code on the client's machine, remotely, to remedy a bug that can't be replicated in our environment. It was my hope the BugTrapper would eliminate the need for that. But if it introduces problems, that's a big strike. I use BoundsChecker, but not Purify. I'd always felt there was a great deal of overlap. Should I be using both
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>Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I am using a whole bunch of Addins for DevStudio, some of them can really improve the work! Take a look at these: WndTabs (www.wndtabs.com), WorkspaceWhiz! (www.workspacewhiz.com), There is also a new kid in town - WorkspaceEx (www.codeveloper.com) -- you must see to believe! More expensive, but worth every penny is Visual Assist (www.wholetomato.com) and amaizing RadVC (www.capitolsoft.com) - it will make your VC++ looking and coding in the VB style! There is one more addin I use the most, but I will not mention it as I am developing it myself. I'll just say that it has to do with CVS - version control system :
Wasn't there a company a few years ago that had a VC rad tool? They had a yellow pig in their adverts in MSJ. I tried a demo out and wasn't very impressed. I'm drawing a total blank on the name... Is RadVC better? my previous experience kinda put me off the idea
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Thanks, that's a great summary. BugTrapper was one of the key tools I was looking at :( Invariably I run into situations where I'm debugging code on the client's machine, remotely, to remedy a bug that can't be replicated in our environment. It was my hope the BugTrapper would eliminate the need for that. But if it introduces problems, that's a big strike. I use BoundsChecker, but not Purify. I'd always felt there was a great deal of overlap. Should I be using both
BugTrapper has no doubt been updated since we started out with it, but seeing as they wanted us to pay money for an upgrade when the version we had (2.x) was basically a waste of time, we declined! It is better behaved on NT, but on Win9x (our main "problem" platform) it ran sooo slow and was so unreliable, I just don't bother with it anymore. Maybe they have addressed the problems I have seen, but my experience with it so far has been negative. I had PurifyNT before BoundsChecker, and would of stuck with Purify alone if it picked up resource leaks (it doesn't seem to bother with these at all). But its memory usage analysis is second to none. Here is a good example of a problem I faced just yesterday. A Win95 user is moaning that my app is crashing (it's an email client) when he enters a certain folder. He sends me his data. I cannot get it to crash on NT and BC++ says "A-OK". I run Purify, and it spotted that I was inserting a really long text into a CListCtrl column and overwriting a few hundred bytes of memory. Fixed it and sure enough, it now works a treat. So I would recommend both products... even though neither of them come cheap ..
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Ok, I'll kick this off! (great idea btw Chris) I've been thinking that might be time for me to upgrade some the tools I use here at work, and I'm wondering what others use, and what they like and don't like. Most of my development is still in MFC (yeah, I know, I'm learning the new stuff), but I don't see MFC fading from my job any time soon. Anyway, I currently use Visual Studio (of course), BoundsChecker, Robohelp, I've got the Dundas DevSuite, the Stingray Grid, oh, and Install Shield. I'm interested in what people think about things like Codewright (editor), BugTrapper, CodeWizard, etc. This stuff looks interesting, but is it worth spending money on? Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I've been thinking about Macromedia's new UltraDev as an alternative to InterDev too. Any comments? And
I just a top fan of the VC++ IDE , if you've every used VB IDE - it sucks. With .NET I'm just hoping M$ don't compromise some of the features of VC++ IDE for the other languages. I think the tools your using at the moment are the best around I'm a big fan of having code you can buy as well as free :) (Thanx to Chris) This is what makes codeproject suck a cool site. When C# does take off, I'm sure the'll be a myriad of new tools on offer. (Maybe a good time to thing so we can all make some money). Nor
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George -- thanks for plugging WorkspaceEx. I'm glad you like it :) But you didn't give the link to your own site! Everyone interested in using CVS with Visual C++ should check out http://www.geocities.com/kaczoroj/CvsIn/
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I use BoundsChecker as it's great for finding resource leaks AND Purify because this does a much better job at finding memory leaks and, more importantly, memory overwrites, etc. I couldn't do without both of these tools. BugTrapper. We bought this about 18 months ago, and I have to say that I am NOT impressed. I think I have only had one instance where the users bug has been caught using this product. Many times I have seen the BugTrapper "agent" hang, especially on Win9x systems. Usually, the information generated by the agent is pretty useless. I am back to getting users to run DrWatson on Win9x systems and hanging onto copies of my map file for various releases. This is a pretty basic and sometimes frustrating way to find bugs, but I have had more luck with this than using BugTrapper... I think the idea of BugTrapper is good, but the whole concept of creating "trace files", etc. is time consuming and downright painful at times! I really hope they succeed in making this product more reliable, because when it DOES works it gets you to the source of the problem with no fuss. I use the Wise installation system, as we looked at InstallShield many years ago and it wasn't up to the job (I couldn't comment now however). The Wise Installation system has always been excellent, and I have never come across any serious problems with it - and some of our product installation scripts are pretty complicated. A couple of times I have had to write some basic DLLs to use with Wise in order to access some Windows info that Wise cannot handle, but on the whole it is a very stable and usable product. That's my two penneth worth. Anyone else out there think BugTrapper is actually any good
I have benefitted greatly from BugTrapper. We haven't handed the agent to any clients, yet -- in-house is where we use it (mostly on NT). This handy tool keeps me from having to install a debugger on many systems I test. Also, it prevents the need for remote debugging when you want to see what's going on inside a GUI drawing section of the code. One great example was that I had a thread-locking problem. I knew it was there, but had no idea how it was happening. (It involved a few re-entered message loops and 3 threads.)The debugger wasn't giving me enough information (the stack doesn't trace between threads), so I set up a BugTrapper trace file. Now, I could step through the execution of multiple threads as though they were one thread (a great boon). After a little looking, I located the lockup and fixed it! Anyway, trying out BugTrapper is the best way to find out if it will be useful in your own work environment. Joh
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I have benefitted greatly from BugTrapper. We haven't handed the agent to any clients, yet -- in-house is where we use it (mostly on NT). This handy tool keeps me from having to install a debugger on many systems I test. Also, it prevents the need for remote debugging when you want to see what's going on inside a GUI drawing section of the code. One great example was that I had a thread-locking problem. I knew it was there, but had no idea how it was happening. (It involved a few re-entered message loops and 3 threads.)The debugger wasn't giving me enough information (the stack doesn't trace between threads), so I set up a BugTrapper trace file. Now, I could step through the execution of multiple threads as though they were one thread (a great boon). After a little looking, I located the lockup and fixed it! Anyway, trying out BugTrapper is the best way to find out if it will be useful in your own work environment. Joh
One of the problems with the product is the trace file - if you have no idea where in the code a problem is occurring, or you need a generic trace file that covers all your code, things start to get complicated. When it works, it's great, but when our products were running out in the real world, usually on Win9x, I certainly found it a painful exercise in debugging! On the rare occasions the product didn't hang the clients PC, the log file produced was next to useless. Often it would indicate the program had indeed died but gave no indication of where in the code the crash occurred! I agree that in-house, and on NT it can be useful, as long as the trace file is carefully created so it doesn't log 10,000 OnUpdateCmdUI or GetMessageMap calls! ;') Hopefully the product has come some way since we last tried it (it has been at least a year), but we paid nearly 1,000 pounds for something that we have had to throw in the bin..
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>Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I am using a whole bunch of Addins for DevStudio, some of them can really improve the work! Take a look at these: WndTabs (www.wndtabs.com), WorkspaceWhiz! (www.workspacewhiz.com), There is also a new kid in town - WorkspaceEx (www.codeveloper.com) -- you must see to believe! More expensive, but worth every penny is Visual Assist (www.wholetomato.com) and amaizing RadVC (www.capitolsoft.com) - it will make your VC++ looking and coding in the VB style! There is one more addin I use the most, but I will not mention it as I am developing it myself. I'll just say that it has to do with CVS - version control system :
I 2nd the recommendation on Visual Assist and WorkspaceWhiz. I can't believe how addicting VA is. If you at all like Intellisense, VA is the stuff. They have a demo, and it's worth trying. I use WorkspaceWhiz for the ctags interface, and it's pretty easy to setup, and dirt cheap to boot. ^_^
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Ok, I'll kick this off! (great idea btw Chris) I've been thinking that might be time for me to upgrade some the tools I use here at work, and I'm wondering what others use, and what they like and don't like. Most of my development is still in MFC (yeah, I know, I'm learning the new stuff), but I don't see MFC fading from my job any time soon. Anyway, I currently use Visual Studio (of course), BoundsChecker, Robohelp, I've got the Dundas DevSuite, the Stingray Grid, oh, and Install Shield. I'm interested in what people think about things like Codewright (editor), BugTrapper, CodeWizard, etc. This stuff looks interesting, but is it worth spending money on? Also are there cool things I haven't listed? I've been thinking about Macromedia's new UltraDev as an alternative to InterDev too. Any comments? And
While it's not so much a shrinkwrap tool, it's every bit as useful, I recommend getting John Robbins' book "Debugging Applications" It's largely a collection of his excellent Bugslayer MSJ articles, but it's handy to have all in one place. Rebasing your dll's, and using the provided code, you can make your field debugging tasks a *lot* easier.