Remember Virginia TechDr. Peter J. DePasquale

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, TCNJ

Software I Use

This section is provided as a aid for my students looking to explore software application that can help them in a variety of ways.  I use each of these packages listed below, but will not provide help on their use.

Source Code Development

Yes, I still develop applications.  Usually this is in support of a classroom example, or supporting material for a textbook.  Here are a few of the applications that I routinely use in doing my development.

  • Notepad++ - Notepad++ is a generic source code editor (it tries to be anyway) and Notepad replacement written in C++ with the Win32 API. The aim of Notepad++ is to offer a slim and efficient binary with a totally customizable GUI.
  • SmartCVS - SmartCVS is an innovative multi-platform CVS client. It has powerful features, like built-in File Compare/Merge, Transaction display or List Repository Files, and still is easy and intuitive to use. SmartCVS focuses on your day-to-day tasks and usability and is not limited to the available CVS command set.
  • Smart SVN - SmartSVN is an innovative multi-platform client for Subversion, the designated successor of CVS. SmartSVN has powerful features like the built-in File Compare/Merge, Conflict Solver and Tag and Branch handling which make your daily work with Subversion as easy as possible.
  • ArgoUML - ArgoUML is the leading open source UML modeling tool and includes support for all standard UML 1.4 diagrams. It runs on any Java platform.
  • Checkstyle - Checkstyle is a development tool to help programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard. It automates the process of checking Java code to spare humans of this boring (but important) task. This makes it ideal for projects that want to enforce a coding standard.
  • Ant - Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, but without Make's wrinkles.
  • Trac - Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management.

PDF Generators

I constantly have a need to create PDF files.  Did you know there are several freely available options to do so?  Outside of using my MacBook Pro (which can print to PDF files natively), I use the following options on my Windows machine.

  • pdf24 - With pdf24 you can convert current documents into PDF-files. You can do this with pdf24-email.converter very easily online. No installation needed! Or you can download pdf24-creator for free.
  • Neevia document converter (on-line only) - Neevia Document Converter eXpress makes it possible for anyone to instantly convert their files to PDF or Image without the need of installing special software.  There is a 1 MB file size limitation so make sure you do not upload files that are over this limit.

Virus and Spyware

Need to purchase anti-virus and anti-spyware tools?  Not me.  I use

  • AVG - Grisoft's free versions of their anti-virus and anti-spyware tools on my Windows-based system.  Get 'em, run 'em and keep 'em updated.

Presentation Creation

  • Wink - Wink is a tutorial and presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.  Wink produces Flash movies.