Archives For software

Recently, and I can’t remember why, I came across Yahoo!’s Design Pattern Library. Just like a programming design pattern describes, in code, an accepted way of handling a specific task, this library has almost 60 (at this time) examples for how to layout and handle common visual elements.

The patterns are organized by category: layout, navigation, selection, rich interaction, and social. For example, there’s a pattern for showing the availability of a person (like you’d see in IM) and another for how breadcrumbs should be used. Mostly the patterns are descriptions of what you should do, based upon what’s best for the end user. Many of the patterns do have links to code examples, although those will often make use of the Yahoo! User Interface library.

Part of the design pattern library is a stencil kit, available for OmniGraffle (the program I use), Adobe Illustrator, Visio, and other applications. Using this kit you can quickly create a mock-up of the user interface. And being Yahoo!, all of this is available for free.

Recently, and I can’t remember why, I came across Yahoo!’s Design Pattern Library. Just like a programming design pattern describes, in code, an accepted way of handling a specific task, this library has almost 60 (at this time) examples for how to layout and handle common visual elements.

The patterns are organized by category: layout, navigation, selection, rich interaction, and social. For example, there’s a pattern for showing the availability of a person (like you’d see in IM) and another for how breadcrumbs should be used. Mostly the patterns are descriptions of what you should do, based upon what’s best for the end user. Many of the patterns do have links to code examples, although those will often make use of the Yahoo! User Interface library.

Part of the design pattern library is a stencil kit, available for OmniGraffle (the program I use), Adobe Illustrator, Visio, and other applications. Using this kit you can quickly create a mock-up of the user interface. And being Yahoo!, all of this is available for free.

I recently StumbledUpon an article on Really Useful Tools For PHP Developers at W3Avenue. The article doesn’t go into too many details, let alone provide specific instructions for any of the tools, but it’s nicely organized and presents a good list of useful PHP-related tools. The list ranges from development software to security utilities to packages that will simply format your PHP code in a definitive style. Check it out if you’re a PHP developer; there are always new ways to make your work easier and the output better.

C++ Development Tools

April 4, 2010

When I wrote my C++ Programming: Visual QuickStart Guide book back in 2005 (with co-auth0r Andreas Signer), I had to decide what software to recommend for C++ beginners. As with most languages, full-time experienced programmers may like serious, complete tools, or commercial products, but I often find that software on that level can provide too much of a learning curve for someone simultaneously trying to learn a programming language. What I like to recommend in my books is software that’s approachable, reliable, and, preferably, free. So, for the C++ book, I recommend Bloodshed’s Dev-C++ for Windows.

At that time, Dev-C++ was more or less a standard for beginners (and it was free). I used either version 4 or the beta of version 5 for the book and for years readers seemed to be fine with Dev-C++. Now it seems that either Dev-C++ is no more or just not a good enough option. The Dev-C++ Web site is down, although I don’t know yet if the site is down for good. You can still download Dev-++ from Sourceforge, but it’s the five-year old version.

In searching for good alternatives to Dev-C++ (I don’t use Windows regularly, so couldn’t make a recommend on that myself), I came across a post about why you shouldn’t use Dev-C++. That writer recommended Programmer’s Notepad, Code::Blocks (which also runs on Mac OS X and Linux), and the free edition of Microsoft’s Visual Studio.  I haven’t used any of these, so I can’t personally recommend them, although I have used the full version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio (years ago for C# programming in ASP.NET), and can attest to how good it is as an IDE. In the comments to that post, some readers still say that Dev-C++ is so much easier to learn with than the others, so I wouldn’t rule that out entirely.

I recently StumbledUpon BumpTop, a commercial product that greatly changes (dare I say “revolutionizes”?) how you use your computer’s desktop. It runs on both Windows and Mac OS X and is quite reasonably priced. The best way to get a sense of BumpTop is to watch the videos available at their site. It’s just cool.