Software

[Zren]

What software/frameworks/tools over the years that you've been coding has helped you out?
To start it off:

• RapidEE
  In Windows, setting the path variable each time I installed something was fairly annoying as I don't think it was ever designed for a list of >10 paths. So when I found rapidEE, installing and trying out misc sdks became way easier.
  
  
• Ninite
  Skip all the usual crap you regular install when reformatting.
  
  
• Java Decompiler (jd-GUI)
  While not strictly legal, it's good to know you can decompile a released jar when the developer vanishes and no source was provided. Sometimes you might even need to do this for code you yourself wrote and lost the source for. *cough* The official source seems to be down due to a false positive (probably an intended one); linky, but there are plenty of mirrors.
  

[Tony]

Zren @ Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:30 pm wrote:

...Decompiler ...
While not strictly legal...

[citation needed]

e.g. U.S.'s DMCA expressly permits reverse engineering of software. Even EU allows reverse engineering (although with more limitations). Presumably Canada is somewhat similar.

[Zren]

Tony @ Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:38 pm wrote:

Zren @ Sun Jul 01, 2012 8:30 pm wrote:

...Decompiler ...
While not strictly legal...

[citation needed]

e.g. U.S.'s DMCA expressly permits reverse engineering of software. Even EU allows reverse engineering (although with more limitations). Presumably Canada is somewhat similar.

The act of decompiling is probably legal (you'd know more on that), but in the example I used is decompiling binaries to use it's source. Sorry for false/misleading information in that regard. Anyways, I decided to research the legality of my first example, as the second one is obviously legal as it's your own source code.

The first example used decompiling a public domain (assumably) binaries. I assume GNU knows what's what when it comes to licensing.

Quote:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.en.html

... ?If it's not source, it's not software.? This is a simplified description; ...

Public domain software
...
In some cases, an executable program can be in the public domain but the source code is not available. This is not free software, because free software requires accessibility of source code. Meanwhile, most free software is not in the public domain; it is copyrighted, and the copyright holders have legally given permission for everyone to use it in freedom, using a free software license.

I figured this would also be a good place to put this other link I found about the types of software licensing.

Quote:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/04/pick-a-license-any-license.html

... Because I did not explicitly indicate a license, I declared an implicit copyright without explaining how others could use my code. Since the code is unlicensed, I could theoretically assert copyright at any time and demand that people stop using my code.

[Tony]

GNU quote is on the philosophy of FOSS (Free _and_ Open Source Software).

Coding Horror does give a good introduction to the nightmare that is software licensing.

Though the statement of "implicit copyright" does bring up the eternal debate of "copyright vs. patent of software". The copyright typically covers exact reproduction of works. E.g. it would protect a Harry Potter book from being photocopied and sold, but it wouldn't prevent me from writing my own story about a group of children going to a magic school (although that could be a trademark issue).

A decompiler does not produce the exact copy of the original source (variable names are gone, compiler optimizations are baked in). It's an interesting legal question to figure out just how applicable copyright is for derivative works.

That being said, for the cases of "original developer has disappeared", the discussion might be moot. Even if the action was illegal, there might be no IP holder to start a legal action against you.

And just for lolz (anime/manga works would often subtly alter international trademarks in an attempt to avoid having to deal with corporate lawyers. Sometimes to a comedic degree)

[Sur_real]

haha, well to be fair, I won't be surprised if there was an actual 'sudohbucks coffee' in China

[Amarylis]

[chrisbrown]

Sorry guys, I hate to bring this back on topic, but I want to share.
Though not strictly related to coding, these are some of the lesser-known programs I use regularly:

Synergy
Share your mouse and keyboard across two or more machines.

LogMeIn
Remote desktop from your browser.

Hamachi
High-level VPN - no network configuration required.

f.lux
Makes nighttime computing more comfortable by increasing the colour temperature of your screens at night. It looks a little unusual at first but once you adjust, but it really does help.

Link Shell Extension
Create symbolic links from the context menu.

FolderSize
Locate large folders (and the large files contained therein). Great for reclaiming disk space.

DSynchronize (scroll down)
Quick and easy file sync utility.

[Tony]

chrisbrown @ Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:48 pm wrote:

f.lux
Makes nighttime computing more comfortable by increasing the colour temperature of your screens at night. It looks a little unusual at first but once you adjust, but it really does help.

+1 for f.lux. I use it on all my computers and it does wonders for my eyesight.

[btiffin]

~/.bashrc
~/.vimrc
Customized shell and editor

~/.kde/share/config/konsolerc
Inside a nice console

Fossil SCM
Web enabled command line version control, tickets and wiki

Cheers

[mirhagk]

Treesize:
Shows folder sizes in a tree diagram, awesome for showing where all the space on your drive went (hint, it's all in steam lol).

Steamtool:
Moves steam games to alternate hard drives, and creates symbolic links for them. Basically if you have an SSD/HDD set up, you need this (so skyrim still has minimal load times, but the rest of your games don't hog space)

Everything (maybe Search Everything):
A database of all the files on your computer. It allows you to find any file you want instantly. Supports wildcards and regular expressions. (Really recommend this one, it makes finding things so much easier, and the results really do come back instantly)

Terracopy:

Copies things faster, but mostly just gives you useful tools like the ability to see what files have copied over, pause copying etc. I've had it crash on me lately, so I am looking for a replacement, but this is definitely a useful tool.

[miami405]

I need a operating software for my PC.Everyone suggest me for Windows operating software.But i am confuse which version is better for my PC.Configure of my PC is 520 HDD,2GB RAM,750 Graphics card,core i3 processor.Can anyone tell me which one should i get?

[mirhagk]

You should definitely get more ram, it's cheap and is usually what makes computers lag. If you aren't using an OS to learn, windows is your best choice, but you should dual boot with linux so that you can learn how to use it.

[brookehandiman]

Glad I came across this one.


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