For some time now, I've started moving away from monolithic and complex GUI tools in favour of more streamlined command line interfaces. While Spriter is a fairly competent product in its own right, for some jobs it is just overkill and so this simple tool (with source available) was created.
We use batch files for... well, pretty much everything. From simple files that simple optimize modified graphics, to the tendril-like files that build our software. For some time now, I've been using `cecho.exe` from a CodeProject article so that I highlight errors and successes. Sadly this tool doesn't output anything if a console window isn't in use (for example from a CI server) and so I created a quick C# version for a direct replacement.
This post is a review (or possibly some long winded rambling) of the book [Essential Algorithms: A Practical Approach to Computer Algorithms](http://www.wiley.com/go/essentialalgorithms) by Rod Stephens and published by Wiley.
The `ColorGrid` control is a fairly useful control for selecting from a predefined list of colours. However, it can take up quite a bit of screen real estate depending on how many colours it contains. This article describes how you can host a `ColorGrid` in a standard `ToolStrip` control, providing access to both the `ColorGrid` and the `ColorPickerDialog`, with some custom painting to show the active colour on the button to round it off.
Following on from [last years](/blog/tools-we-use-2013-edition) post, I'll list again what I'm using and seeing what (if anything) has changed. tl;dr; - it's pretty much the same as last year