Software I Use

Below are some opinions and links to the homepages on some of the software that I use for common jobs in my research work. If you know of any better software for these tasks then please tell me about them!


Creating Diagrams

Vector Diagram Editors:

Open Office Draw - I've had my reservations about Open Office (and its predecessor "Star Office") in the past. However, the latest version included with RedHat 8.0 (and 9.0) answers of all my previous qualms. The font rendering is now effectively perfect, and many of the bugs and display issues have apparently all been solved, they've even written and excellent on-line help system. All that remains is for the developers to include more "Apply" buttons, especially to object position editor dialogs! Also some kind of postscript importing would be beneficial.

Tips:

Programming

Compilers:

Intel C++ Compiler - Free for non-commercial use without support, this optimising compiler can make your C++ programs run up to ten times faster on Intel computer systems.

Tips:

IDE:

KDevelop - Great for writing KDE applications, but with a bit of fiddling you can use it to write your own console based apps in a very efficient manner.


Internet

Web Browser and Mail:

Mozilla

Tips:

Office Software

Word Processing:

LaTeX

Tips:

Misc

Desktop:

KDE

Tips:

Distribution:

Redhat 9

Tips: Kernel Upgrade process: