What development tools are important to you?

Every professional has the proper tools to get the job done. What tools couldn't you live without?

Written by Jonathan "JD" Danylko • Last Updated: • Develop •

Different types of wrenches

DCS (Danylko Consulting Services) Media (as in 'news') was originally meant for my clients to keep them up to date with what's going on in the technology industry and explain a few technologies that may elude them. Using a blog to show them what's happening with technology would provide a way for them to integrate that new technology into their business and (hopefully) allow them to become more profitable.

Rewind back to 2005! What better way to show new technology than to create a blogging engine that includes some of that technology.

So I started to build my own blogging engine. After everything was completed, I launched it in January of 2006.

I know what you're thinking...WHAT? Why put the time in to build a blogging engine?

  1. Over my career of over 20 years of programming, I've accumulated a large number of helpful routines from classroom management to managing downloads and ecommerce applications. I've also wrote a number of blog routines. Why not just start managing your library and using one code base instead of mutiple routines that were cut and pasted?
     
  2. It gives you a "showcase" of what you are capable of building.
     
  3. Sometimes even the most craziest idea has the greatest potential.
     
  4. Someone else thought it was a good idea to build a blog as well (Nice job, Rob!).

Tools to 'Git 'er done!

Now, what tools did I use for this? Well, in any profession, if you don't have the right tools to get the job done, it won't be done right...or on time...or under budget. Eh...you get the picture.

The biggest tool I've used for my framework has been ASP.NET MVC. If you haven't started looking into this framework, by all means, definitely start moving towards it. It is creating quite a following and it was the missing piece that complemented my data access layer.

The list of standard tools/frameworks I'm using are listed below:

  • ASP.NET MVC
  • MVCContrib
  • jQuery
  • T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit)
  • ReSharper (CANNOT live without this utility)
  • Custom Entity Framework
  • and my Custom CMS (Content Management System) called Backstage.

So as you can see...I'm definitely of the Microsoft camp. I even built an entire social network based on ASP.NET MVC.

What tools are critical for you?

Back to the audience. If you could only use one tool, what would it be?

Post your comments below about what tools are the most important to you in your development?

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Picture of Jonathan "JD" Danylko

Jonathan Danylko is a web architect and entrepreneur who's been programming for over 25 years. He's developed websites for small, medium, and Fortune 500 companies since 1996.

He currently works at Insight Enterprises as an Principal Software Engineer Architect.

When asked what he likes to do in his spare time, he replies, "I like to write and I like to code. I also like to write about code."

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