Tool Limits

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  • I am a software developer working primarily in the Microsoft stack. Therefore, the tool I work in every day is Visual Studio. My employer purchases for all developers Visual Studio Enterprise with a MSDN license. Very nice. At home I use Visual Studio Community Edition (the free version of Visual Studio) which is nice, but there are features that only come with VS Enterprise that I miss when doing my personal development at home.

    Secondly, I really love Visual Studio Code (CS Code or just Code). It's free also and the huge community that contributes add-ons to VS Code is awesome. I might be tempted to switch entirely to Code, except for the fact that a lot of the development I do at work is for Windows, which Code doesn't support as well as Visual Studio.

    Rod

  • As a Data Architect I'm primarily focused on ETL in a MS stack.  Official tools are pretty much just our 2 main ETL tools, we don't use SSIS, and some SQL Server interface so either SSMS or Azure Studio.  Other than that it's pretty much up to each person what tools they choose to use.  Personally I use a lot of powershell for lots of things some of it directly part of ETL some of it just doing admin tasks, notepad++ is a must, so is postman for web service work, sometimes soapui but postman is just generally better.  Occasionally Wireshark(useful if you need to know the port of a named instance and one of our etl tools connects via port not through the name...) and hexedit for those nasty non ascii files.

  • As an infrastructure guy and former consultant, one universal truth that I've observed over the years is the tendency for useful tools that are controlled locally to be replaced with less-useful tools that are controlled elsewhere.

  • The one tool that I like to use but is normally prohibited in workplaces is Slickrun, a nice freeware program launcher that I've used for years. Being a keyboard jockey, I launch everything via just a few keystrokes and it increases my productivity immensely. I can accomplish the same thing with batch files, but Slickrun is easier to maintain.

  • I have subscribed to Microsoft Visual Studio Enterprise for my personal use for many years.  I initially subscribed at a level lower than MSDN Enterprise, but Microsoft dropped some levels as well as renaming the subscription. The initial price is high, but the renewals are a value for what it provides.

    Also, I do a lot of photography. In 2011, I bought the standalone Adobe Lightroom to manage my photos.  Even though I was still shooting film at the time, I like the database aspect of Lightroom for managing and cataloging my phots. I never thought that I could afford Adobe Photoshop. But then Adobe introduced the subscription model and I get Photoshop and Lightroom as part of their photographers subscription.

  • The worst part about the tools is licensing.  That is such a pain in the butt.  MSDN (visual studio subscription I think is the new name) is a GREAT example (as is office 365).  The license/subscription is licensed to the individual if I read the docs right.  As such, if I install an MSDN version of a tool on my WORK machine, all users who can log into that machine need to have an MSDN license.  To install an MSDN tool on a machine, you need an MSDN license.  Same thing with Office 365.  At my workplace, I got an O365 license before IT did.  IT was not licensed to install it on my computer, so they just provided me the link and I did it myself.

    Now on the other hand, O365 is licensed to me and I can have it installed on up to 5 machines that I use.  It is tied to my Microsoft account and NOT to my physical computer.  So I can use my work purchased Office for personal stuff on my personal laptop as long as I don't exceed the 5 machine limit.

    but as for tools that I use regularly, SQL Prompt, SSMS (2008 through 18), visual studio pro, notepad++, gitlab, git, remote desktop manager free, sql monitor, jira, database health monitor.  Now tools that help me work that are not exactly work related - equalizer APO, OBS Studio, Stereo Tool.  There is something to be said about listening to music while you work that just sounds right in your headphones and having equalizer APO and Stereo tool (both free, but I recommend paying for stereo tool to remove the trial "beeps").

    The above is all just my opinion on what you should do. 
    As with all advice you find on a random internet forum - you shouldn't blindly follow it.  Always test on a test server to see if there is negative side effects before making changes to live!
    I recommend you NEVER run "random code" you found online on any system you care about UNLESS you understand and can verify the code OR you don't care if the code trashes your system.

  • pwhoyt wrote:

    As an infrastructure guy and former consultant, one universal truth that I've observed over the years is the tendency for useful tools that are controlled locally to be replaced with less-useful tools that are controlled elsewhere.

    Heh... Spot on!  This is why one of the sayings I find most truthful in this world is "Change is inevitable... change for the better is not". 😀

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • My original thought in response to this article is "It Depends on the 'tool' in the chair!" 😀

    --Jeff Moden


    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.


    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • Mr. Brian Gale wrote:

    Now tools that help me work that are not exactly work related - equalizer APO, OBS Studio, Stereo Tool.  There is something to be said about listening to music while you work that just sounds right in your headphones and having equalizer APO and Stereo tool (both free, but I recommend paying for stereo tool to remove the trial "beeps").

    You may want to look into Foobar2000 for audio...if you haven't already. I use it for high resolution FLAC files.

    Trying to figure out the world of SQL as marketing consultant for SQL Solutions Group https://sqlsolutionsgroup.com/

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