Software David Uses

A list of software I use and/or recommend, and where to get it. (Woefully incomplete at the moment).

updated 2002-01-02.

see also

multi-platform software

I prefer multi-platform software. Why should I be tied down to one substrate?

old stuff

The following stuff hasn't been updated since 2002 or earlier. [FIXME: review] ------------------------------------------------------

Electrical Engineering Software

(All these tools run under Linux )

...

  • `rpm -U -vv --hash netatalk-1.4.99-0.20001108mdk.src.rpm' which installed the file `/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/netatalk-1.4.99.tar.bz2'
  • `cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/'
  • `tar --extract -v --bzip -f netatalk-1.4.99.tar.bz2'
  • `cd netatalk'
  • `./autogen.sh' (which runs autoconf)
  • `./configure'
  • `make'
  • `make check'
  • `make install'
  • [not neccessary for me to edit /etc/services , since default Red Hat already set it up properly]
  • `ln --symbolic /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/netatalk/ /usr/local/atalk' (I'm not sure this is necessary ... I think this is fixing something I broke elsewhere).
  • `rpm -U -vv --hash netatalk-1.5pre3-1mdk.src.rpm' which installed the file `/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/netatalk-1.5pre3.tar.bz2'
  • `cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/'
  • `tar --extract -v --bzip -f netatalk-1.5pre3.tar.bz2'
  • `ln --symbolic /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/netatalk-release/ /usr/local/atalk' (there's probably an easier way to do this ...).
  • `cd netatalk-release'
  • `./autogen.sh' (which runs autoconf) gives the error: ``automake: Makefile.am: installing `./INSTALL'; error while making link: File exists''. I ignore that error and
  • `./configure --enable-redhat' (DAV: it took me forever to figure this out)
  • `make' (which, among other things, creates the appropriate `atalk' file. On my Red Hat system, it converts /usr/local/atalk/distrib/initscripts/rc.atalk.redhat.templ into a `atalk' executable in the same directory).
  • `make check'
  • `make install' (which installs the `atalk' file created in previous steps into `/etc/rc.d/init.d/atalk', and puts a copy of all the configuration files (afpd.conf, etc.) into `/etc/atalk/'.

    Linux Software

    nedit 5.1.1 from http://www.nedit.org/ ( DAV first tried nedit when it was available on http://www-pat.fnal.gov/nirvana/nedit.html from http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/contrib/libc6/i386/nedit-5.02-2.i386.html . ) The nedit Wiki is called Niki: http://www.nr.no/~joachim/Niki/

    Windows Software

    (roughtly in frequency of use; some of these are down in the "tried it a couple of times" category) Among many other things,

    Macintosh Software

    for my Macintosh hardware_david_uses.html#computer Among many other things, Pointers to more Macintosh information:

    vi

    I might as well admit it. I'm a vi user. [FIXME: can the rest of this info be moved to http://texteditors.org/ ? ]

    misc

    Many of these files came from http://www.winfiles.com/

    TreeSize Professional 2.0: a nifty utility that shows you where all your hard drive space went. Similar to the Unix utility "du", plus bar-chart graphics to show relative sizes of the folders on your disk. from http://www.winfiles.com/

    GCC b19 for Windows: the Windows version of the famous C++ compiler from the closest (Texas) mirror: ftp://ftp.deninc.com/pub/gnu-win32/ (the home documentation page is http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/ ).

    Netscape Navigator http://www.netscape.com/ a web browser

    http://cgi.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/extensions/info.cgi?application/x-tex led me to IBM's techexplorer Hypermedia Browser is a Netscape Navigator plug-in that processes TEX/LATEX http://www.ics.raleigh.ibm.com/ics/techexp.htm (see linux.html#tex ) and also led me to http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/formula/techexplorer the official techexplorer home page http://www.software.ibm.com/enetwork/techexplorer/.

    http://www.ee.mu.oz.au/linux/programming/ ???

    PKZIP for Windows from PKWARE Inc. http://www.pkware.com/

    Aladdin Expander 5.0 from Aladdin Systems, Inc. http://www.aladdinsys.com/ for Windows and Mac.

    Internet Explorer for UNIX http://www.microsoft.com/unix/ie/ (Solaris and HP-UX)

    2002-04-10:DAV: I just set up this filter in Eudora: ``Filtering SPAM By Checking Who The Message Is Addressed To'' Concept By Anthony Greene http://wso.williams.edu/~eudora/eudora-3-0-spam-filter2.html

    2002-06-02:DAV: installed FileZilla http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/

    2002-05-29:DAV: installed freeware antivirus software from http://www.f-prot.com/

    Installing Microsoft Visual Studio (Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0):

    2002-09-29:DAV: When I start Microsoft Visual Studio (Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0), http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/ | http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/ it opens a window *without* any toolbars (not even the "File Edit" menu bar). How do I get them back ? This happened before ... right-clicking your mouse over the toolbar area ... hidden toolbar ... also see ``Unanswered questions about Microsoft Visual Studio and InfoViewer'' by Katy Mulvey http://mulvey.dyndns.com/~katy/VisualC/vstudio.html | mirror http://www.mulveyfamily.com/Katy/VisualC/vstudio.html ... OK, when I hit F1, I still get the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 6.0 ... ... I keep hearing ``Click Customize on the Tools menu.'', but that Tools menu is exactly what I want but don't have.. ...

    Aha. Choose ``Start | Programs | Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0'' (i.e., open MSVC without any document), right-click on the grey background, choose ``Customize...'', then under the Toolbars tab check ``Menu Bar''. Voila.

    To toggle "visible whitespace", you can do: -- (assuming the "" toolbar is turned on) click the a·b button -- Edit | Advanced | View Whitespace -- control-shift-8

    [FIXME: #secure programming ??? _Writing Secure Code_ book by Michael Howard and David LeBlanc http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/5612.asp who also wrote http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsecure/html/strsafe.asp ]

    [FIXME: music software http://www.vivaldistudio.com/ http://www.mulveyfamily.com/Katy/Music/Notation/index.html ]

    [??? Pareto distribution ... scale-free (or Zipf-like) topology. ... ]

    [FIXME: unknowns http://www.mulveyfamily.com/Katy/vacation1999.html ]

    [FIXME: CCD#astronomy: Cookbook CCD Camera http://www.mulveyfamily.com/Rich/cookbook/cookbook_construction.html ]

    [FIXME: #virtual_chocolate# ``Food for Programmers'' by Katy Mulvey http://www.mulveyfamily.com/Katy/Computers/food.html ]

    [FIXME: video_game.html when I hit F1, I still get the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 6.0 ... Moving Your Game to Windows, Part I: Tools, Game Loop, Keyboard Input, and Timing Peter Donnelly Microsoft Developer Network Technology Group September 26, 1996 Recording and Playing Waveform Audio Nigel Thompson Microsoft Developer Network Technology Group Created: July 27, 1994 Revised: October 30, 1995 ]

    [FIXME: dlls when I hit F1, I still get the MSDN Library for Visual Studio 6.0 ... Article 2. Libraries Made Too Easy Bruce McKinney April 18, 1996 ]

    When I don't have the latest version of Word or Excel or Visio installed on some machine, but I need to open files created by those applications, I use one of the freeware ``viewer'' applications from http://microsoft.com/office/downloads/ .

    2002-11-02:DAV: Today every time I try to start Wordpad, I get this message: 

     Wordpad
 (X) This program has performed an illegal operation
 and will be shut down.
 If the problem persists, contact the program
 vendor.
 [Close]
 [Debug]
 [Details>>]

    If I hit [Details>>], I get the message that 

     WORDPAD caused an invalid page fault in
 module MFC42.DLL ...

    Weird. Wordpad was working fine yesterday.

    What's the right way to fix this ? I randomly flailed. First I thought about downloading MFC42.DLL from http://www.webattack.com/help/missingfiles.html

    Is this the same problem reported by Henri Leboeuf http://www.generation.net/~hleboeuf/erwrdpad.htm#ERRMFC42.DLL ? He points to a Microsoft web page that suggests uninstalling WordPad and Paint, deleting the associated registry keys, then re-installing WordPad and Paint.

    http://www.techadvice.com/w98/M/mfc42_dll.htm

    More information on what exactly MFC42.dll does: Alan Robinson http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/fortune/570/mfc42.html /* was http://dllzone.home.ml.org */

    ``Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add / Remove Programs'', then hit the ``Windows Setup'' tab. Then hit ``Acessories | Details'' and uncheck ``WordPad'' and ``Paint''. OK.

    Then I went throught the same steps again, turning WordPad and Paint back on. It spun my Windows CD and rebooted my PC, ... the WordPad icon came back, but when I click it I still get the ``illegal operation'' error.

    Then I more carefully went through the steps at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q218632 .

    1. Back up the registry.
    2. ``Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add / Remove Programs'', then hit the ``Windows Setup'' tab.
    3. Then hit ``Acessories | Details'' and uncheck ``WordPad'' and ``Paint''. OK. OK.
    4. ``Start | Run | regedit''
    5. deleted the following registry keys and then restarted my computer: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Applets\Wordpad (I was going to also delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Applets\Paint but I couldn't find it) .
    6. Repeat step 2
    7. Then hit ``Acessories | Details'' and turn ``WordPad'' and ``Paint'' back on. OK. OK.
    8. Wait for Windows CD to stop spinning.
    9. ``Start | Programs | Acessories | Wordpad''.
    10. Wordpad starts right up now. WooHoo !

    superbot from http://www.sparkleware.com/ DAV is using the command line 

    C:\PROGRA~1\SUPERBOT\SUPERBOT.EXE http://www.census.gov/geo/tiger99/ /savedir="\\Phagan\d\maps\tiger99" /autoquit /location=dir /maxdepth=2 /takenaps
    although this doesn't seem to handle the proxy properly.

    What other "must-have software" do you know about ?

    Started: 1997-07-28.
    Original Author: David Cary.
    Current maintainer: David Cary.
    Send comments, suggestions, bug reports to

    David Cary
    d.cary@ieee.org.

    Return to index

    end http://david.carybros.com/html/software_david_uses.html