SQL Pretty Printer is another of those “micro” utilities that I love. If you ever have to work with “generated” SQL you know that it is rarely formatted in a useful way. Even if the SQL was hand coded, often I find the longer blocks tend to become a solid mass rather than a rationally formatted query. Enter SQL Pretty Printer. Just cut and paste a query into the program and press F2 and you now have a well formatted query that can be read without pain.

One of the most annoying “features” of Microsoft Vista is the attempt they made at detecting what type of content a folder has and selecting an appropriate view. There is nothing wrong with the idea itself and the detection usually works. Like most attempts at making the computer smarter than the user though, there is no easy way to correct a view once Vista decides it is full of images because you saved a few pictures along with the other content. What makes this infuriating are two sub-features.

Microsoft’s LINQ isn’t a software package in the traditional sense, but instead a way to extend and enhance software that runs on the Common Language Runtime (more commonly known as “.NET”). I believe that it is one of the most important releases from Microsoft in a long time, despite not being traditional “software”. The reason that I believe this is simple: it puts the power of declarative and functional programming front and center in a highly popular programming environment.

JRuler is a single task utility that does one thing, but does it well. Often when doing development you wonder how much room you have to work with on the screen, but unlike the bad old days when you could just estimate dots (320 x 200 displays are something I remember and don’t miss) this can be difficult if the software you are working in (say, a browser) doesn't provide rulers.

If your team needs to deal with SQL Data (and I’m guessing you do) then you eventually will need to manage the database over time. For us, that means SQL Server and for the most part the tools provided get the job done. There are a couple of holes in the tools that are filled with third party tools and the biggest one is the ability to compare schema’s and data between instances of a database.