Expert One-on-One™ C# Design and Development

Chapter 29. Microsoft Resources and Tools

Microsoft provides a wealth of resources and tools for you to use. If you're an MSDN subscriber, you receive some of these resources and tools as part of yourregular subscription updates. However, the subscription provides you with the tip of the iceberg — you have access to far more resources online. In fact, you have access to so many resources, it's truly hard to know where to begin — you could spend months checking it all out. Unfortunately, you'll just have to find ways to deal with all the goodies.

One of the problems that this chapter addresses is that Microsoft doesn't place its resources and tools in one place. You might end up looking in several places before you find the tool you need. Consequently, the first part of this chapter discusses some of the things you can do to find the resources and tools you need.

The remainder of the chapter describes some of the tools you might want to check out. I'm not making a recommendation that you use a particular tool to the exclusion of some other tool that you really like better. All that these sections provide is a basic overview of the tool so that you can make up your own mind as to the viability of using the tool to create your next application. In general, these sections describe tools that cost little or nothing, so they're a deal for what they accomplish, but you may find that you need to rely on a shrink-wrapped tool to obtain the level of functionality you require.

I'm always looking ...