Free Testing Tools
In my opinion the multi-purpose tools that try to do everything can do many things; but usually don't do any one thing very well. Swiss Army knives look cool and have lots of fancy gadgets, but really...how practical is a 2.5" saw, and what would possess someone to put a hoof cleaner on a pocket knife? Did you ever try to eat soup with the spoon on those big honking knives? Don't get me wrong...I have the Alpineer Swiss Army knife with a locking blade, cork screw, and a toothpick. What more does one need on a camping trip? (Oh, it also has tweezers which I have never had cause to use and are quite inadequate in my opinion.)
I am an ardent proponent of light-weight tactical tools designed for a specific purpose. Tactical tools are highly portable, and if well designed and developed perform exactly what they are intended to do and generally do it very well. Along with being portable, tactical tools are also easily discoverable and generally easy to use to help testers achieve a specific desired objective. Also, tactical tools are easier to implement in automated test cases, and many of my tools come packaged with a UI based tool for manual testing and a dynamic link library (DLL) for use in test automation.
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