While building my weather site, I have been experimenting with code generators. My favorite is Code Smith. CodeSmith is a great tool that allows you to automate the coding process using templates. In its simplest form, code generators are programs that generate text files. CodeSmith goes a lot farther, and provides a robust tool that allows you to generate code in any language, customized your own coding standards.

I downloaded the demo version of CodeSmith (available at http://www.codesmithtools.com) and took it for a spin. Overall, I was very impressed. The templates included allowed me to generate clean data access code and stored prodedures in a matter of minutes... all I had  to do was point them at my database, and I was off and running.

My favorite templates are their Linq to SQL templates called "Plinqo" (http://www.plinqo.com). Essentially, CodeSmith has developed a set of tools that allow you to generate Linq to SQL code quickly and easily, and allows you to regenerate the code on the fly as you design your database. Using your data schema, it builds classes with properties and methods that allow you to interact with your database in a more object oriented way.

If you are a developer that uses Viual Studio to design .net applications, I high recommend that you check out CodeSmith and Plinqo at http://www.plinqo.com. They have great videos and documentation that can get you up and running, and eliminate countless hours of coding boring data access code.