Title: In the Toolbox – Live!
(Alt Title: Tools of the Trade)
Type: Tutorial
Duration: 90 minutes
Speaker: Chris Oldwood
Location: Godmanchester,
As a general rule we should strive to use the right tool for the job. If you find yourself installing an IDE on a production server just to search your log files for a particular piece of text, then you’ve probably chosen the wrong tool.
The modern IDE can be an excellent tool for day-to-day developer duties, but we do not solely write code; we also have to do analysis, testing, support, etc. For these we should be looking at more focused tools, and occasionally we may need to build our own. Sometimes the right tool is not readily accessible and we have to weigh up whether (ab)using the wrong tool may in fact be the more efficient choice.
This session takes a look at a variety of both command-line and GUI tools that have proved to be useful to the speaker time-and-time again. Most of the examples will come from the areas of build automation, testing and support with a few wildcards thrown in for good measure. Text editors will not be discussed for obvious reasons.
Readers already familiar with the C Vu column “In the Toolbox” should find familiarity in the subject matter without an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
Chris is a freelance developer who started out as a bedroom coder in the 80’s writing assembler on 8-bit micros; these days it’s C++ and C# in plush corporate offices. He also commentates on the Godmanchester duck race and can be contacted via gort@cix.co.uk or @chrisoldwood.