20 Useful development tools

In this post I will take a look at 20, mostly free, useful tools which I use during my day-to-day software development. I am not talking about IDE's (I use various ones) here but small useful tools to increase developer productivity. The tools are listed in no particular order.

1. IETester
   IITester can be used to test websites in various versions of Internet Explorer. A lot of website still require IE6 which can be difficult to test under Windows Vista or Windows 7. IETester provides a viable alternative which let you test your website in IE5.5, 6, 7 and 8. IETester can be found here.
2. PuTTY
   PuTTY is an open source terminal emulator which can act as a client for SSH, Telnet and other protocols. Useful tool for the remote management of computers. PuTTY can be found here.
3. Notepad++
   Notepad++ is a free source and text file editor which I use daily for text file editing. I do not use Notpad++ as a source code editor but it does support syntax highlighting for various languages. I find this useful as I sometimes use Notepad++ to look at source files. Notepad++ supports various plugins and does also have a column editing mode. To enable column editing mode just hold the "Alt" key and select the text with your left mouse button. Notepad++ can be found here.
4. ArgoSoft Mail Server
   ArgoSoft mail server is a mail server which you can use on your localhost to sent and receive mails using POP3 en SMTP. This is a very useful tool when testing e-mail functionality in any application. ArgoSoft mail server Freeware edition can be found here.
5. GEDIS Studio
   GEDIS studio is a test data generation tool. They also have a free community edition which you can use to generate test data. The community edition also comes with text files which contains useful testdata which you can use to generate your own test- data/files. GEDIS studio can be found here.
6. FileZilla client
   FileZilla client is a free FTP client which I use a lot to transfer files to other machines using FTP. The FTP client is available for multiple platforms and can be found here.
7. MySQL Workbench
   For some projects I use MySQL. When working with MySQL I usually use the MySQL workbench for SQL development and server administration. The tool can also be used for data modeling. MySQL workbench can be found here.
8. JRebel
   When doing Java development I find the time it takes to reload changes in Java source files to publish back to the server frustratingly slow. JRebel enables the changes you make in Java source files to immediately be reflected in the runtime environment for example Tomcat, JBoss or WebSphere. Although JRebel is not free the money is really worth it. JRebel can be found here.
9. VMWare player
   I mainly develop on Windows 7. Sometimes I need to check something in another operating system, for example Ubuntu. VMWare player is a useful tool to run other operating systems in an easy way. I also use VMWare player when I give workshops. Instead of installing the prerequisites on every client machine, I distribute a VMWare image which participants use during the workshop. This saves me a lot of setup time and frustration. VMWare player can be found here.
10. Paint.NET/Gimp
    Although graphic design is not my primary expertise I sometimes have the need to edit images for my web projects. I use Paint.NET and Gimp for this depending on what I need to do. Paint.NET can be found here and Gimp can be found here.
11. SQLite Administrator
    SQLite Administrator is a powerful tool if you easily want to create, design or administrate SQLite database files. I use SQLite Administrator for example when I use SQLite with Adobe Air. SQLite Administrator can be found here.
12. Selenium IDE/iMacro
    When testing certain functionality during web application development you often must perform a sequence of steps before you can test the actual functionality. Selenium and iMacro let you record these steps and automate this process. This saves you a lot of time when testing the same functionality several times. SeleniumIDE can be found here and iMacro can be found here.
13. Firebug
    Firebug is useful tool when doing web application development. This Firefox plugin enables you to inspect the HTML and modify it in real time and analyze network traffic. Firebug also has a JavaScript debugger. Firebug can be found in the Firefox add-on window.
14. Chrome
    Chome also has a lot of useful tools when doing web application development. The tools in Chrome I use most are the element inspector, JavaScript debugger and network analysis tool.
15. YSlow
    YSlow is a Firebug extension which analyzes a web application based on client side performance indicators developed by Yahoo. YSlow makes suggestions in how to optimize the client side performance of your web application. YSlow can be found in the Firefox add-on window.
16. PageSpeed
    PageSpeed is a similar tool as YSlow but PageSpeed is developed by Google. I use both YSlow and PageSpeed. PageSpeed can be found here.
17. SoapUI
    SoapUI is a Java based tool for testing web services. SoapUI has a basic version for free which can be found here.
18. Tamper data
    Tamper data is Firefox plugin to view and modify HTTP/HTTPS header and modify POST parameters. I use this tool for inspecting traffic sent from the browser to the server and for testing the security of web applications. Tamper data can be found here.
19. REST Client
    REST Client is a Firefox plugin to easily test REST services and can be found here.
20. Fiddler
    Fiddler is a web debugging proxy which can be used inspect the traffic sent from your browser over the Internet. I use this tool a lot in analyzing the traffic between the web application under development and the backend. It also supports HTTPS. Fiddler can be found here.

 This list is not exhaustive so I would like to know which tools you use?