---
title: "[Coding Contest] Most Useful/Innovative VS.Net Add-in/Macro (and some huge prizes)"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/21/coding-contest-most-usefulinnovative-vsnet-add-inmacro-and-s.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/21/coding-contest-most-usefulinnovative-vsnet-add-inmacro-and-s.html"
published: "2004-04-21T15:49:00"
updated: "2004-04-21T15:49:00"
tags: [".Net Original", "Addin Contest"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "So here's the deal. We hold a contest. It will be called Most useful Add-in/macro for visual studio .Net You send me your submissions (including code) and according to who wins, we give out some prizes. The judges :…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# \[Coding Contest\] Most Useful/Innovative VS.Net Add-in/Macro (and some huge prizes)

By Roy Osherove April 21, 2004 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original), [Addin Contest](https://osherove.com/blog/category/addin-contest)

**Historical article** · Originally published April 21, 2004; technical details may be outdated.

So here's the deal. **We hold a contest.**

It will be called **Most useful Add-in/macro for visual studio .Net**

You send me your submissions (including code) and according to who wins, we give out some prizes.

**The judges**: [Mike Gunderloy](http://www.larkware.com/), [Frans Bouma](http://weblogs.asp.net/fbouma), [Rory Blyth](http://www.neopoleon.com/), and myself.

[![](https://osherove.com/img/wb/d3d4203b_royo.is-a-geek.com_pics_contest.gif)](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2004/04/21/117663.aspx) Register for the [contest RSS feed](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/category/4911.aspx/rss)

[Suggest an Add-in idea](http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2004/04/24/119223.aspx)

**Submissions accepted only until the end of June** (June 30th)

**Only new code please**! don't submit something that's already running out there in the wild. this whole contest is about _new stuff_ and not _re-packaged_ stuff, thank you.

the 3 finalists will receive some cool prizes.

Also, all submissions will be released to the public as free source for people to use and enjoy(with due credits).

Code can be C# or VB.Net, your pick.

Mail it over to **\[email removed\]** with all your details (including website links and such)

**Only entries with code are accepted.**

**1st prize:**

- [Essential Suite](http://www.syncfusion.com/products/suite.aspx) by [SyncFusion](http://www.syncfusion.com/) (1,295$ !)
- [C# Refactory](http://www.xtreme-simplicity.net/CSharpRefactory.html) by Xtreme Simplicity(99$)
- [CodeSmart 2003](http://www.axtools.com/) pack by [](http://www.axtools.com/)[AXTools](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/21/www.axtools.com)  (299$)
- [XTra Grid suite](http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/Products/NET/XtraGrid) by [DevExpress](http://www.devexpress.com/) (399$)
- Book: [Coder To Developer](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078214327X/Iserializable-20) by [Mike Gunderloy](http://www.larkware.com/)  (21$)
- Book: [Inside Visual Studio.Net](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735618747/iserializable-20)  signed by One of the authors ([Craig Skibo](http://blogs.msdn.com/craigskibo))  (34$)
- Book: [.NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference Vol 1](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321154894/iserializable-20) (44$)
- Book: [Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .Net](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735619484/iserializable-20) (33$)
- [XDN Pro Membership](http://www.xtras.net/XDN) by [Xtras.Net](http://www.xtras.net/) (99$)
- A tour of MS Offices in Redmond (if you can get there by yourself) (priceless)
- **Total Worth: 2,323$**

**2nd prize:**

- [CodeRush](http://www.devexpress.com/?section=/Products/NET/CodeRush) for VS.Net by [DevExpress](http://www.devexpress.com/) (249$)
- [_LLBLGen Pro_](http://www.llblgen.com/)  - by [Solutions Design](http://www.sd.nl/)  (210$)
- [XDN Pro Membership](http://www.xtras.net/XDN) by [Xtras.Net](http://www.xtras.net/) (99$)
- Book: [Coder To Developer](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078214327X/Iserializable-20) by [Mike Gunderloy](http://www.larkware.com/) (21$)
- Book: [Inside Visual Studio.Net](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735618747/iserializable-20)  signed by One of the authors ([Craig Skibo](http://blogs.msdn.com/craigskibo)) (34$)
- Book: [.NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference Vol 1](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321154894/iserializable-20) (44$)
- Book: [Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .Net](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735619484/iserializable-20)(33$)
- **Total Worth: 690$**

**3rd prize:**

- [XDN Pro Membership](http://www.xtras.net/XDN) by [Xtras.Net](http://www.xtras.net/) (99$)
- Book: [Coder To Developer](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078214327X/Iserializable-20) by [Mike Gunderloy](http://www.larkware.com/) (21$)
- Book: [Inside Visual Studio.Net](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735618747/iserializable-20)  signed by One of the authors ([Craig Skibo](http://blogs.msdn.com/craigskibo)) (34$)
- Book: [.NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference Vol 1](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321154894/iserializable-20)  (44$)
- Book: [Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .Net](https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735619484/iserializable-20)(33$)
- Book:[Build Your own ASP.NET website](http://sitepoint.com/books/aspnet1/) (45$)
- **Total Worth: 276$**

**Bonus:**

the most **crazy and innovative** add-in (not necessarily useful!) will get a special prize from me:

- [CodeSmart 2003](http://www.axtools.com/) for VS.Net by [](http://www.axtools.com/)[AXTools](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/21/www.axtools.com) (189$)
- [XDN Pro Membership](http://www.xtras.net/XDN) by [Xtras.Net](http://www.xtras.net/) (99$)
- Book:[Build Your own ASP.NET website](http://sitepoint.com/books/aspnet1/) (45$)
- **Total Worth: 333$**

Hopefully these prizes will help motivate you a bit :)

Some thoughts for possible add-ins:  Refactorings, color and font themes, chat.... get creative!

Let's see what we can come up with, shall we? Now's your chance to shine!

## More in .Net Original

[All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

- Apr 23, 2004

    ### [Hands on Test Driven Development - class resources needed](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/23/hands-on-test-driven-development-class-resources-needed.html)

- Apr 22, 2004

    ### [VB.Net is diverging from C#. That can't be bad, or can it?](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/22/vbnet-is-diverging-from-c-that-cant-be-bad-or-can-it.html)

- Apr 21, 2004

    ### [Ack! My DataTable magically grew a new data column. Here's why.](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/21/ack-my-datatable-magically-grew-a-new-data-column-heres-why.html)

- Apr 20, 2004

    ### [The Regulator v. 2.01 - now with Intellisense](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/4/20/the-regulator-v-201-now-with-intellisense.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/