Programming Tools: PHP, C++ and FLTK

In order to work effectively, any craftsman needs a tool box with quality tools. Since there are many places to find comparisons between the individual programs, I will only concentrate on the ones I use regularly.

Workspace

Since I still use W2K I have been using CygWin as my developement environment. For my needs, I have found it to be robust and *nix like enough to give me access to GNU tools. Past that it’s all gravy.

Compiler

The CygWin version of gcc and g++ work very well for me. It is easy enough to compile/link using the cygwin.dll or msvcrt.dll. Overall, I am very happy to have taken the time to learn how to use this from the command line. When the command line starts getting long I just make a batch file or Makefile. I have had good success using this installation with IDEs as well.

IDE

Currently, I haven’t been using an IDE much. When I do, I have been using Code::Blocks. It is very easy to set up, it’s written in C++ and is licenced under the GPLv2. Last time I looked, they were at a release candidate and development was active.

Editor

I have been using ConText for quite some time now. It is unforunately, Win only though. It has a good flexible syntax highligher for pretty much anything you might want. It handles Win or *nix line endings well. Overall, a very nice package.

Console

Bash took some getting used to but once I started customizing it a little I got to like it. Reminds me of being back in high school. I use a directory navigation script and a handful of minor helpers.

Links

One of my favorite tools these days is a FireFox tab. Just so handy to have all my links in one place. I always seem to have php docs, fltk docs and c++ reference open and the tab groups do the job most excellently.

Books

Nothing helps me more than a good books when learning something new. Between Ebay and Amazon’s used book sellers it is much easier to find what you are looking for. I will give a basic review of the ones I have used and liked.