The Text Template Transformation Toolkit, aka T4 Templates, is getting some press recently. T4 is a code generation and templating system that is built into VS, but not enough people know about it.

In P&P, we used it for almost all of our code generation in our Software Factories, and it will be an important part of how we do code-gen in Visual Studio Team System Architecture Edition.

This recent article in the Redmond Developer News prompted me to blog this, and it is a nice overview of what T4 is all about with quotes from many of the key people involved in the development of the toolkit.

Here are some more recent posts about T4:

• T4 Code Generation - Best Kept Visual Studio Secret - Scott Hanselman’s Uber Post about T4. Tons of good info here.
• Clarius T4 Editor – written by my good friends and former colleagues at Clarius Consulting in Argentina
• Fun with T4 Templates and Dynamic Data

Enjoy!