Subject: Software not painful to use
Subject_short: painless software
Topic: /misc/coolsw
Archive: no
Date: Nov 20 2006
Order: -9.5
inMenu: true


### General ###

* *Operating System* : [Mac OS X][switch]: heaven, after the purgatory of Linux 
  and the hell of Windows.
* *Browser*: [Firefox][firefox]. On a Mac, [Camino][camino].
* *Email*: [GMail][gmail], "search, don't sort" really works.
* *Text Editor*: [TextMate][textmate], you have to buy it, but it's worth every
  penny. There are rumours that it's been converting (recovering) Emacs
  users (addicts). Unfortunately, it's Mac only. An alternative is
  [jedit][jedit] (GPL, Java).

### Development ###

* *Build system*: [cmake][cmake], throw the [autotools][autotools] away.
* *Source code control system*: ditch CVS for [subversion][subversion].
* *Project management*: [Trac][trac] tracks everything.
* *Scripting language*: [Ruby][ruby] is Japanese pragmatism (and has a [poignant][poignant] guide). 
   Python, you say? Python is too academic and snob:

      $ python       
      Python 2.4.1 (\#1, Jun  4 2005, 00:54:33) 
      Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
      >>> exit
      'Use Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit.'
      >>> quit
      'Use Ctrl-D (i.e. EOF) to exit.'

* *Java IDE*: [JBuilder][jbuilder] is great software and has a free version (IMHO better than Eclipse). Java
 is not a pain anymore since it gained [generics][java-generics] and got opensourced.
* *Mark-up language*: HTML is so 2001, why don't you take at look at [Markdown][markdown]? [Look at the source of this page](data/misc_markdown.png).
* *C++ libraries*: 
    * [QT][qt] for GUIs.
    * [GSL][gsl] for math.
    * [Magick++][magick] for manipulating images.
    * [Cairo][cairo] for creating PDFs.
    * [Boost][boost] for just about everything else.


### Research ###

* *Writing papers*: [LaTeX][latex]
* *Writing papers & enjoying the process*: [LyX][lyx]
* *Handsome figures in your papers*: [xfig][xfig] or, better, [jfig][jfig].
* *The occasional presentation with many graphical content*: 
  [OpenOffice Impress][impress] (using the [OOOlatex plugin][ooolatex]); 
  the alternative is PowerPoint with the [TexPoint][texpoint] plugin.
* *Managing BibTeX*: [jabref][jabref]: multi-platform, for all your bibtex needs.
* *IEEExplore and BibTeX*: convert citations using [BibConverter][bibconverter].

### Cool websites ###

* *Best site in the wwworld*: [Wikipedia][wikipedia]
* [Mutopia][mutopia] for sheet music; [the Gutenberg Project][gutenberg] for books; [LiberLiber][liberliber] for books in italian.
* *Blogs*: [Bloglines][bloglines]
* *Sharing photos*: [flickr][flickr] exposes an API you can use.


[firefox]:   http://getfirefox.com/
[gmail]:     http://gmail.com/
[bloglines]: http://bloglines.com/
[wikipedia]: http://en.wikipedia.org/
[ruby]:      http://www.ruby-lang.org/
[poignant]:  http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
[webgen]:    http://webgen.rubyforge.org/
[markdown]:  http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
[latex]:     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX
[lyx]:       http://www.lyx.org
[impress]:   http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html
[ooolatex]:  http://ooolatex.sourceforge.net/
[texpoint]:  http://texpoint.necula.org/
[jabref]:    http://jabref.sourceforge.net/
[camino]:    http://www.caminobrowser.org/
[switch]:    http://www.apple.com/getamac/
[textmate]:  http://www.apple.com/getamac/
[cmake]:     http://www.cmake.org/
[xfig]:      http://www.xfig.org/
[jfig]:         http://tams-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/applets/jfig/
[subversion]:   http://subversion.tigris.org
[jbuilder]:     http://www.borland.com/us/products/jbuilder/index.html
[flickr]:       http://www.flickr.com/
[myflickr]:     http://www.flickr.com/photos/censi
[bibconverter]: http://www.bibconverter.net/ieeexplore/
[autotools]:    http://sources.redhat.com/autobook/
[jedit]:        http://www.jedit.org/
[qt]:           http://www.trolltech.no/
[gsl]:          http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/
[magick]:       http://www.imagemagick.org/Magick++/
[cairo]:        http://cairographics.org/
[boost]:        http://www.boost.org/
[markdown]:     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
[trac]:         http://trac.edgewall.org/
[mutopia]:      http://www.mutopiaproject.org/
[liberliber]:   http://www.liberliber.it/
[gutenberg]:    http://www.gutenberg.org/
[java-generics]: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/generics.html

