Welcome to the ToolTracker Blog
Welcome to the ToolTracker blog at Visual Studio Magazine. Starting this month, we're going to be doing a lot of interesting things in this space.
First, this blog is an opportunity for me to provide more background on the tools we review in the VS Toolbox section of Visual Studio Magazine. Unfortunately, we've got a limited amount of space to work with in print, and there's always great information that we are forced to leave out as a result. The ToolTracker blog enables me to post observations and thoughts as I'm developing each the review. This has two benefits: the fun of watching me shoot myself in the foot while working with a new product, and the insight readers gain as they learn what we look for in a product.
Second, this blog gives us space to talk about the tools industry in general. I'm opinionated enough to want to share my view on the tools available to me as a developer, but I'm also curious enough to want to know more. We're going to be use this blog to bring you interviews with participants in the tools industry, as well as analysts who observe the dev space. I'll also provide news about what's happening with the tools you use.
Third, this blog is an opportunity to get what you want from Visual Studio Magazine. Who should we be talking to and who would you like to hear from? What tools are you interested in seeing reviewed? What are the issues you want discussed in a review? Where did we go wrong in a previous review? I'm planning to use this blog to help me go back and update earlier reviews, for instance. Your comments and input will make all the difference here.
Fourth (and finally), we offer you a look ahead at what tools we're going to be reviewing. Next up in our review window is Telerik's ASP.NET AJAX RadControls, for instance. What would you want to know about the Telerik package? I'm also planning to review useful freeware tools. What do you use? What are you considering adding to your toolkit but aren't sure about? You can provide your comments below.
-Peter Vogel
Posted by Peter Vogel on 04/01/2010