Chapter 23. C# Development Tools

The .NET Framework SDK contains many useful programming tools. Here is an alphabetical list of those we have found most useful or necessary for developing C# applications. Unless otherwise noted, the tools in this list can be found either in the \bin directory of your .NET Framework SDK installation or in the %SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\VERSION directory (replace VERSION with the framework version). Once the .NET Framework is installed, you can access these tools from any directory. To use any of these tools, invoke a Command Prompt window and enter the name of the desired tool.

This chapter uses the following conventions:

Italic

Used as a placeholder to indicate an item that should be replaced with an actual value.

[item]

The brackets indicate an optional item. In some cases, [item] is used to indicate that part of a word is optional. For example, /v[erbose] indicates that the options /v and /verbose are equivalent.

(item1 | item2)

The pipe (|) symbol indicates alternation, and the parentheses group the choices together; you must choose one of the specified options.

[item1 | item2]

The pipe (|) symbol indicates alternation, and the brackets indicate that the choice is optional; you may choose one of the specified options. This is often used with the + and - symbols. For example, /verbose[+|-] indicates that you may choose /verbose, /verbose+, or /verbose-. The first two (/verbose and /verbose+) are equivalent.

item1, item2

Comma-separated items indicate equivalent items. For example, the -C and -console options of the ADepends.exe tool are equivalent.