I will tell a bit about the software I am using myself. I am not an expert in all mentioned software, but all of them in the list are helping me doing my daily work. The list can be read in random order.
- PSPAD Editor
- Netbeans Editor
- Balsamiq Studios Mockups
- Firefox (standard), Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari
- Microsoft Office (although I also think that Open Office is a great “free-of-charge” alternative)
- Adobe Acrobat Reader (Foxit PDF reader is a fine alternative)
- Ruler for Windows (freeware, hard to do without when developing websites)
- Mediawiki (Dokuwiki is a fine alternative)
- Deepburner (for burning of ISO images/CD’s/DVD’s), free and good
- Screenhunter (for making screen captures), free and good
- ColorPic
1. PSPAD Editor
This editor needs no introduction. Once installed on your PC, this editor reacts almost everytime on a right-click context menu for opening a text file. This program is free of charge (although a small donation would be nice). It holds many code highlighters for a lot of languages. It is also possible to open HTML/PHP directly from the editor. Big advantage of PSPAD: it is quick, small and reliable. www.pspad.com
2. Netbeans Editor
Netbeans is much more than an editor. Mostly it is a workbench (whatever it is) for your projects for developing for the web or in Java. Whenever you want to modify a file quickly you use PSPAD, but for projects I prefer this editor. It is also free of charge and one of the sponsors is Sun. Everything that you might require is on board and one of the few big disadvantages is that it is consuming a lot of internal memory. So beware of this if you don’t have so much of it. Alternatives to this software is for example Aptana Studio or Eclipse, but for me Netbeans feels just fine. www.netbeans.org
3. Balsamiq Studio Mockups
This software is not for free, but it is one of my favorites. It’s meant to be used for making mockups (sketches) of user interfaces for software (on pc, mac or i-phone). You just have to try it to believe it. And that is possible at the supplier, directly within your browser. www.balsamiq.com
4. Firefox and other webbrowsers
Without browser no internet development. Just a bit about taste: Opera web browser is getting better all the time and also Apple Safari is a very nice browser. Firefox still stays a big memory consumer.
5. Microsoft Office / Open Office
Lately I was really annoyed about the way that Microsoft Office has a lot of self thinking on board. It is so shameless that I have to know so much about switching things off in software. Just things which I was not expecting to have anyway in my software. Microsoft thinks to often that their users are ignorant. I am no fan of Microsoft, producer of the most beautiful useless and often unused functionality.
And Open Office? Well, it’s only 350Mb in size after installation. It’s time for “slimware” or rather, “software shaping", which in fact is no more than software that starts in it’s most minimal form and grows with the users’ experience or demand. SOFTWARE SHAPING (I should register it).
6. Acrobat Reader
I am reading a lot of PDF files (books and so). I think that the I-Pad will not be a hype (maybe in the beginning), but will grow to become a revolution. Let’s wait untill the first (sponsored) doctor recommends that it is better for the backs of childeren to have an I-Pad kind of device, rather than those heavy school bags. That electronic bookshelf weighs nothing, can do a lot more and even the teacher can have a lighter job, checking homework.
Back to Acrobat Reader. Useful, but it is so over the top. It takes a lot of time to load and in the end just shows primarily a PDF file. The Reader from Foxit does this too, but loads very quick.
7. Ruler for Windows
What can I say. Less than 1 Mb in size, produced in Canada and does what it should do. It shows a ruler on the display, including pixel notation and red guideline. It is ideal for web development and for modifications in a photo modification program. Is this the only one in the market (free of charge)? No, there are a lot more, but this one is already with me for almost 2 years. www.arulerforwindows.com
8. Mediawiki/ Dokuwiki
Wiki’s are fun and most often useful. The mother of all wiki’s is WikiPedia, but it is also very nice to have one of your own. My experience comes in 2 flavours. First there is Mediawiki, which is looking very much on the “mother”, but requires a Mysql server to save it’s information. Dokuwiki on the contrary is fully based on text files. Looks as good as the other one (after installing another template) and is for most purposes more than sufficient. I have used this one for a customer to build a cross reference of IBM ISeries (AS/400) software. After conversion to a Dokuwiki, it was still very fast responding. The syntax is so simple. www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki and www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki
9. Deepburner
Rigid, free of charge and one of many CD/DVD pyromaniacs. Although I have to admit that I am not burning a lot on CD/DVD. http://www.deepburner.com/
10. Screenhunter
Most images on this blog I “cut” with Screenhunter. This is a screen capture program, like there are many around. But this one is free of charge and good. But why then use this one? I don’t know, maybe because I have it too and that it doesn’t disappoint me. Don’t forget to take the free version, because that’s all you need for the basic stuff. Just install it, attach the PS-key (printscreen) to the standby and it always there when you need it. There are many alternatives and I wouldn’t want to start a fight about which one is the best. http://wisdom-soft.com/products/screenhunter_free.htm
11. Colorpic
I am very loyal to my software. Colorpic is one of those programs. Maybe there are 100s of the same kind, but this is one I just like. It is a color grabber. Just find a color to your liking, somewhere on your display, press Ctrl-G and you have added another color on one of the many palettes that you can create. Very useful and small program for a developer or designer. http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/
