Jolt Awards 2013: The Best Programmer Libraries
, March 26, 2013 The best programmer libraries of the past year
Productivity Award: ComponentOne Ultimate
ComponentOne has been a long-time vendor in the third-party tools and SDK market for Windows developers. The company is a perpetual finalist in this (and other) categories due to the quality of implementation of its offerings.
This year's version of ComponentOne Ultimate is no exception. It offers widgets and controls for WinForms, WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, WinRT XAML, WinJS, and the Compact Framework. It also includes components for HTML5 cum JavaScript, ASP.NET WebForms, and the iPhone. Android is the only notable absence.
In addition to these controls, the Ultimate edition includes OLAP data analysis tools (see image). These provide functionality equivalent to Excel pivot tables and pivot charts, which enable you to deliver apps that include analysis the data presentation.
Two utilities round out the package: DocToHelp, which takes documents written in Microsoft Word, HTML, or WinHelp and transforms them in PDF, ePub, SharePoint Wiki markup, WinHelp, or other formats. The other utility is DemoWorks, which enables you to capture screens (either static or video) and save them as Flash, WMV, animated GIF, AVI, or an executable file. The built-in editor enables frame by frame editing, and narration can be added.
— Andrew Binstock