Recommended Software
By Toby Allen
Friday, December 12, 2003
I've decided to produce a small list of products that I can wholeheartedly recommend. This list is not complete, and I will try to add to it from time to time. This list includes Commercial, Shareware and free software that I use. I have tried to break it up into a number of categories.
- Development
- Delphi Components
- Utilities
- Web Services
Development Software
Delphi - Need I say more, I think this is one of the most productive IDE development tools about.
PHPEdit - PHPEdit is a free piece of software for editing primarily PHP scripts, but if you wish can be used for editing any type of text file. For php it is fabulous, high quality and lots of great unique features as well as the main stays such as code completion, intellisense etc.
Delphi Components.
JEDI Code library - I've been banging on about this recently. If you are planning on doing any kind of development with Delphi, go and download this free code library, it has a huge number of functions and components for infinitely less than its competition. Many of the components are pretty simple, but often prevent you writing a lot of code.
PHP4Delphi - IF you use both Delphi and PHP and fancy a way of using one with the other, or would like to write php extensions using Delphi this is the component for you. Its free. I've even written an article for PHPArchitect on its use with delphi
Embedded Web Browser - This is an extended Webbrowser component, which uses the IE engine. It has a number of benefits just using the component that comes with delphi, and again is free.
Utilities
CoodClip - First on my list of utilities has to be this brilliant and simple clipboard manager. You can download it from my site, which I think is the only place on the web you can do so, as the authors origional site has disappeared. It keeps track of everything that you copy to the clipboard and keeps a copy of it, so you can cut 5 things from a document, and not worry about losing them. I could not live without this.
Component Software RCS - You can download a free single user edition of this great source code manager from their website. Using a source code manager (and versioner) with only a single user may seem a bit stupid, but when you make a number of changes to your code, and then want to go back having each version logged is essential. Its simple to use, and has a great diff tool that visually shows you what has changed with your code. Every few days they pop up a message asking you to spread the news, so thats what I'm doing.
Textpad - Anyone who uses this will understand. This is simply the only notepad replacement you will ever need.
SmartFTP - Simple and easy to use, the only FTP client thats ever made any sense to me.
Web Services
123-reg - Domain name registration service. UK based, provides very cheap domain name registration, Allows full control over your .com, .net,.org .co.uk and many other domain names. Provides tools for email and web forwarding, DNS servers and much more. You can also purchase a pop3 mailbox off them if you wish.
Webfusion - These are my webhosts. Although I've had a number of difficulties with my hosting from time to time, its always been sorted out to my satisfaction. My websites are never (well as close to never as doesnt matter) down and they provide php, mysql, lots of pop stuff like that. I even provide hosting if anyones interested at €120.00 per year. Email me at hosting at toflidium.com if your interested.