Learn the Basic Tools
Learn the basic tools. Learn them first, and learn them well. Sure, you can find some fancy XSLT tools or text editors. And you can carry them around on a thumb drive and install them on all of your computers, workstations, laptops, and servers. But sometime, some day, you will need to make a change, or fix a problem and you won’t have the fancy tool.
My experience says that this will also happen in the middle of the night when you are under pressure. Knowing the basic tools like VI and Notepad, and any other tools that are a standard part of your systems will allow you to get your integration back up and running quickly and get you back to bed so you can go in and answer the questions about what happened with just that much more sleep.
So at this point you need to get a piece of paper or a blank document and make a list of all of the tools that you use and need. Pay specific attention to any tools that are not available universally. Is there a more basic tool that can do the job? Do you know how to use that tool? If not, now is the time to learn it.
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