I’ve written a lot of utilities over the years. Often, you’ll need to take a chunk of data and manipulate it in some way or you might need to convert graphics to a different format or extract content from an old game so it can be used in a new one.

There’s a lot of reasons why you’ll need to write utils so here’s a few suggestions that might make the process easier…

1. You’ll often find that once you’ve got a util that works, you’ll do multiple variations on it over the years. Always make sure the code is well built and commented so you’re not trying to figure out what’s going on when you do an update.
2. Work in a language that’s going to be around for a while. My suggestion for this (as of Feb ’24) is Flutter (Dart) because it’s a simple language to use, has a LOT of support in terms of plug-ins and it’s not going to go away for a long time. It’s also, as an added bonus, easy to compile for pretty much any target (Windows, Web, Android, iOS, Mac etc)
3. Store dependencies with the source. Sometimes you’ll need to get an app up and running in the future and the deps aren’t available or so heavily updated that the util just won’t run. If you have the original dependency versions then you’re up and running quickly.

Will keep adding to this as I think of more…