“Code Generation” tools to be more specific. Let me clarify that firstly. I’m not talking about tools that just take away programmer’s jobs - I don’t see anything that would suggest that is currently possible. I’m more interested in tools that just do what we keep repeating. If you haven’t discovered code productivity tools yet then you’ve been living under a rock! It’s time to wake up and get busy. You’re too slow these days without some good tools and so I’ve put a few posts together just for the best tools you could start with.

If you browse around the net these days you’ll find tons of “silver bullets” for the programming problems of today. Time is usually the best test of these things and pretty much all fancy styles, methodologies or techniques have failed or fail to some degree. The bottom line is, there isn’t a magic way to develop software, that will at least guarantee good quality or bug less code. So I think the next best thing is - how do we developer faster? and if we do find something that works well, how can I automate that so the next time I use it, a. I don’t have to rewrite it and b. I don’t re-create any bugs.

As a developer if you can build a library of tools, snippets and templates you’ll definately be headed down the road to more successful software. Now not all my suggestions are for code generation - I’ll talk a little about profilers and other such tools you just have to have!

http://www.typemismatch.com/2007/11/25/tools-productivity-tools-generators/

http://www.typemismatch.com/2007/11/24/tools-net-profilers/

If you do have any tool recommendations please leave a comment and I can see about adding a post for them.

-c