cheap tools for the trade
December 3rd, 2004 by boon
I’m quite comfortable in my development seat without the use of pirated tools that are otherwise impossible to afford, due to some of the choiciest GPL-licensed and other free applications available for java + web development. Here’s on my do-without list:
Eclipse IDE – http://www.eclipse.org
Eclipse has a long standing history for providing one of the most robust IDEs around. Its plugin framework makes it highly customizable for many other tasks besides Java development. Personally, I use mine to develop XML, Struts, JSP, debug on Tomcat, edit CSS, and write, compile and debug Java code. Occasionally, I will use the Omondo plugin for UML.
GIMP for Windows – http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32
It may not be as good as Photoshop, but it really packs a lot of features for a graphic tool. Especially useful if your company isn’t willing to give you that licensed Photoshop app for some occasional web graphic development. Now, I won’t have to bug our in-house semi-graphic developer, who is already swamped with work.
Sodipodi – http://www.sodipodi.com
The Sodipodi website makes it seem that all this tool is good for is to draw anime and manga. But I’m starting to use it because it’s to Adobe Illustrator what the Gimp is to Photoshop – a really versatile vector graphic development tool. I’d probably use it mostly to manipulate fonts and play with funny shapes, though.
I’d put Tora (http://www.globecom.net/tora) on this list, but unfortunately, it’s not free to run on Windows. It works just as good as Toad, and for a lot less. Hopefully it’ll stay that way, since Quest Software has recently purchased Tora, hence the not-so freely distributable Tora for Windows.