Millions of developers use .Net framework every day to build a wide range of applications. This has given rise to a large number of third-party tools, each claiming to be useful and valuable. For the business owners and web application development companies, it requires deep research to pick the right tools for their web application development project.
To help them decide the best .Net developers’ tools for their application development project, we have created this list of most common yet advanced and efficient tools, which are widely favored by the .Net Developers.
Let’s take a look at the list.
Top 10 Incredible tools for .Net Developers
The list includes various useful .Net tools offered by vendors and developer community. Since the .Net and Asp. Net community is large, there are many free tools available which have been authored by small tech companies or individual developers with multiple contributors. You can pick the tool after analyzing your project requirements, which is useful and also easy on your pocket.
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- Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code
It seems a no-brainer to put Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code in the top of this list, but then you just cannot overlook the benefits of this Microsoft product.
For the .Net app developers, it is still one of the most popular tools with an advanced environment for .Net applications.
Microsoft Visual Studio is used for developing a wide range of computer programing such as websites, web services, web apps, and mobile apps. It has world-class tools to write and debug code with ease and .Net developers to collaborate efficiently.
The only problem is that it is very heavy. But Microsoft has come up with a solution in the form of Visual Studio Code. It is a lightweight, open source, and 100% free tool. Visual Studio comes with IntelliSense that provides smart completions based on function definitions, variable types, and imported modules. Besides, it has in-built Git commands and numerous extensions for customization.
Developed by JetBrains, this Visual Studio Extension helps .Net developers to perform on-the-fly code analysis, provides hundreds of quick-fixes, and has automated solution-wide code refactoring. It has 60+ refactoring and more than 450 context actions.
It’s a great tool for the .Net developers who want to quickly complete their .Net development project. It is even good for the beginners at it has multiple code editing helpers for instant code transformations, rearrangement of code and display of documentation, and auto-importing namespaces.
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- Chocolatey
This Windows package manager is gradually gaining grounds in the .Net application development. The good thing about this tool is that it works with all the existing software installation technologies such as NSIS, MSI, and InnoSetup along with runtime binaries and zip archives.
Although not every developer prefers working with MSI database files used by Windows Installer, it is highly recommended for installation on Windows.
Chocolatey has advanced PowerShell to provide automated software management instruction and in-built module to complete complex task instantly. Many .Net Development companies use the tool for creating and hosting their packages in a reliable and repeatable mode.
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- NCrunch
NCrunch allows developers to run their tests as they write the code. This type of automated concurrent testing in Visual Studio helps developers set up quality metrics while writing the code. The tool provides crucial information about the tested code so that developers can improve the quality right at the moment.
NCrunch is preferred for its Intelligent test execution and inline exception details. However, it is a paid tool, but it has features that truly worth the investment.
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- StyleCop.Analyzers
Every developer writes code in their own unique way. Since writing style of no two developers is same, agreeing upon one style of code is difficult. StyleCop comes to rescue at this stage for its static source code analysis.
In Visual Studio 2017, the best practice for using StyleCop is to use the Roslyn-based analyzer. In every particular .Net application development project, guidelines for writing the code may differ. Using StyleCop.Analyzers, a standard guideline can be created, ranging from whitespace rules to member naming.
It provides numerous code formatting recommendations to help developers adopt best practices.
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- LINQPad
Any .Net application development company would vouch for the efficacy of LINQPad. The tool enables the .Net programmers to test any snippet of program instantly and query databases in LINQ or SQL. It is preferred for its rich output formatting, integrated debugging, and optional autocompletion. The tool enables the .Net programmers to script and automate in any .Net language like C#, F#, or Visual Basic.
LINQPad is lightweight (single 15 MB is executable) and free (only standard edition) with no expiry.
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- JSON Formatter
Although most of the IDEs are capable of formatting JSON files, this tool simply makes it much easier. The problem with the JSON is that it is quite difficult to read.
JSON Formatter solves the problem by formatting JavaScript Object Notation in a readable format, which is ultimately easier to debug. This tool validates, formats, and presents a well-structured JSON output to make it easier for the .NET programmers.
This tool enables the .Net developers to manage storage from various platforms: Windows, Linux, and MacOS. Developed by Microsoft, it provides to access multiple accounts and subscriptions across Azure, Azure Stack, and Cloud.
Programmers can create, edit, view, and delete storage based on their needs. They can browse blob, queue, table, and file storage instantly into the application.
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- Notepad++
This free source code editor supports syntax highlighting for a comprehensive range of programming languages.
It contains powerful editing components Scintilla which has powerful features for source code editing and debugging. Runs on MS Windows environment, Notepad++ ensures smaller program size and high execution speed.
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- GitHub Desktop
GitHub delivers a unified cross-platform experience as it works with any Git repository and not just similar to GitHub. It comes with many features ranging from expanded image diff support, extensive editor and shell integrations, and strong community support.
Although, you can meet your .Net development needs in Visual Studio, the kind of features and visualization GitHub Desktop offers is truly exclusive.
Summing Up
You may be using multiple tools for your .Net application development project. Depending on the quality of the tool and requirement of your project, you can use as many developer tools you want, but make sure that it helps you complete the project on time and without errors.
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