Programming Links
HTML guides, icons...
Free Code sites
- SourceForge. Good place to find open source project code - no point reinventing the wheel.
- BerliOS. Good German code site.
- Freshmeat. Another good place to look.
- CodeGuru. Can be good for samples of Win32 code (hell it pays the rent).
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C++ Virtual Library. C++ code and resources.
Dynamic creation of image files
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GD Graphics Library
A free ANSI C library for the dynamic creation of images.
GD creates PNG and JPEG images, among other formats.
I use this at work for plotting graphs from a web server in JPEG format,
generated on demand without using a disk file.
NB: GD lets you plot pixels, draw lines, fill areas etc, but doesn't
offer numerical graphing directly. See "Ploticus", "GdChart" or "JpGraph" below for a layer
that builds on top of GD to add graphing functionality. Alternatively
you can use GD directly from PHP, but more code will be needed.
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MRTG.
Another free way to plot graphs into a web page. Uses Perl, text files, and the GD library.
Originally intended for plotting data from SNMP-enabled devices like routers.
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Ploticus I use this for plotting charts from a weather station.
Very flexible and easy to use. Runs on Linux, BSD, MacOsX and Win32.
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JpGraph OO Graph Library for PHP. Looks good. Again based on GD.
It's free for non-commercial use only, but a single server license is fairly cheap.
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GdChart C Graphing Library based on GD. Free and unencumbered.
Free Tools for Code/Change Management
- CVS Concurrent Version System: the open standard for version control.
- Mantis Bugtracker "Mantis is a php/MySQL/web based bugtracking system."
- DotProject "PHP web-based project management framework that includes modules for companies, projects, tasks (with Gantt charts), forums, files, calendar, contacts, tickets/helpdesk, multi-language support, user/module permissions and themes."
- TUTOS - "The Ultimate Team Organisation Software". Another web-based system, looks good.
- Bugzilla is still under active development too.
- phpBugTracker Clean and simple, just does bug tracking.
- Scarab - yet another one.
- Alexandria. The open-source version of the engine which powers SourceForge.net.
SourceForge itself now uses a later engine which is offered
only as a commercial product.
Free Relational Databases (RDBMS)
- PostgreSQL.org "The most advanced Open Source database system in the world". (Oracle replacement?).
The proper admin interface to PostgreSQL is via the command-line, but if
you want a pointy-clicky GUI, then try these free addons:
- phpPgAdmin "phpPgAdmin is a Web-Based administration
tool for PostgreSQL. It is perfect for PostgreSQL DBAs, newbies and hosting services."
- pgAdmin3 - cross-platform administration
GUI tool for PostgreSQL. Runs on Windows, Linux, BSD (i.e. it's a full-fat GUI, not a web server).
- pgAccess - Similar. Runs on Windows, MacOs, Linux, BSD.
- mysql.com "The world's most popular open source database". More lightweight than PostgreSQL, so perhaps more suited to less critical applications. (MS-Access replacement?)
- MaxDB. Formerly SAP. Free for non-commercial use.
- firebirdsql.org Don't know much about this one. Based around released source code of Interbase.
- php.net PHP is a "Hypertext Processor".
PHP statements can be embedded in web pages, to be expanded on the server side
when the page is invoked. Quick, easy and powerful: many dynamic websites
are based on PHP.
More Free Software projects
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PFE. Programmer's File Editor. (Freeware). Backup copy here.
- awstats.org Comprehensive web stats analyser. Works with most web servers.
- PDF Creator Free Windows "printer driver" to create Adobe PDF files. Similar to Acrobat without the high price tag.
- PopFile A self-learning Email Classifier for intelligent spam filtering and
mail classification into different folders. Works on Windows and Linux. Contains a local POP3 redirection server
so that it can work with any mail client; plus a local web server for easy configuration and monitoring. Awesome.
- NTPTime for Windows.
A good reliable NTP client for all versions of MS Windows. Much more reliable than the Internet time client
built into XP. Configurable using a handy control panel applet. "If you have a Windows computer
and you want to keep its clock set accurately from time servers on the internet,
you have come to the right place. NTPTime is a simple time setting client that runs
on Windows NT/2000/XP as a service and Windows 95/98/ME as a hidden program.
Both the executable and the source code are freely available."
- TightVNC Free alternative to pcAnywhere, this client/server package
lets you access your desktop remotely. Works on Windows and Linux.
- RDesktop Free RDP client for Linux. I use this to access Windows XP Remote Desktop Sharing
from Linux. Also works with Windows Terminal Server, without needing expensive add-on software like Citrix ICA.
(Note: Win-XP "Home" lacks the RDP server found in Win-XP "Professional".)
Free Class libraries etc
- FLTK. "Fast Light ToolKit" for multiplatform
GUI development. Sounds worth a look...
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WXWindows. A free C++ framework for cross-platform programming
Misc