Software Freedom Day Talk

September 21st, 2009


Well, as those of you who were there most likely noticed, I never made it to Software Freedom Day this year. Instead I was busy being ill, which I’m pretty disappointed about.

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If anyone is interested, I’ve uploaded the slides from my talk on Free Software for Students which I was intending to present. They probably don’t make much sense without me talking over the top, and there are a few applications I would like to have mentioned but cut out for timing reasons, so I’ll try to write up a blog post on the topic.

The aim was to cover the types of software I find helpful, for example personal wikis and to do checklists that other students might not make use of yet, as well as suggesting open source alternatives for common applications such as Office. The one thing I really struggled to find was a good referencing tool – everything I tested was either limited to one platform, hard to use, or so difficult to get hold of and install that I wouldn’t have felt comfortable recommending it to anyone else. If you have any suggestions on that front, I’d love to hear it.

Anyway, apologies again for missing the day; I hope that everyone that took part had a really great time.

Photo thanks to AGoK on flickr.

Software Freedom Day 2009

September 12th, 2009


Just a quick note that the Abertay Linux Society and Tayside Linux User Group will be hosting a Software Freedom Day event in Dundee again, following on from hosting the largest event in the UK last year.

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The event, which takes place on Saturday the 19th of September in the Hannah Maclure Center, will feature a range of talks and ongoing demonstrations and is a great opportunity to celebrate and learn more about software freedom.

Personally, I’ll be talking about software for students – discussing the benefits of choosing free software and sharing some great organisation, study and entertainment packages.

If you’re in Dundee, please stop by and say hello!

Software Freedom Day Dundee Homepage (there’s also a swish information hotline if you call 01382 848 950)

SFD Dundee Twitter Feed

Software Freedom Day Homepage

Umbrello on Windows

February 13th, 2009


Sick of Argo UML’s lack of an undo function and feeling too poor and studently to pay for UML editor software (or use demos which won’t last right through my project), I figured I’d try getting Umbrello (a KDE application) working under Windows. The results? Fantastic.

Umbrello is a pretty simple UML editor though it does support a range of different views and diagrams. It makes it as easy as possible to draw a simple diagram, then lets you alter and add to it as your design is refined. Everything seems to work fine under Linux with the exception of exporting to an image.

The instructions you need to follow to install Umbrello – and a range of other KDE 4 applications such as my favourite text editor Kate – under Windows can be found on this wiki page.

If you give it a try let me know whether the install works for you. I hate having to learn to use a different piece of software for each platform I work on.

UML Editors

January 13th, 2009


I’ve been a fan of creating UML diagrams for my software projects for about a while now (after previously being a fan of scribbling incomprehensible charts in my notepad), and I think I’m starting to the stage where drawing class diagrams is almost automatic; I can focus completely on the design at hand.

That said, the area where I’m really struggling is finding a decent UML editor. Under Linux the best solution I’ve found is Umbrello: it’s easy to use, and has a lot of great functionality. However, it isn’t altogether stable – I’ve found it can’t cope with complex diagrams and crashes every hour or so – and since QT4 for Windows isn’t quite up to scratch, it isn’t much use when I need to to Windows/Direct X development work.

Recently I’ve been using ArgoUML. As a Java application it will run on practically any platform, so I can share diagrams between my Windows and Linux installs. It has a good range of features such as critiquing your designs and a clear and simple graphical user interface, however it also has its stability issues. Occasionally it uses up a huge amount of memory before grinding to a complete halt, requiring the application to be restarted in order to continue. Changes to the application’s settings seem to only take effect as and when they feel like it. Also, layouts seem to change when a diagram is saved, losing a lot of formatting information.

Overall, ArgoUML is usable. The user interface is great, and the feature set is definitely heading in the right direction. At the same time though, for applications relating to my coursework I’d take stability over an increased features set in a heartbeat.

Does anyone have any recommendations for an open source (or, if necessary, freeware) UML Editor?
How do you design your projects and software?

Vital Free Software For Computing Students

September 1st, 2008


With universities soon to start back, I’ve been focussing on student software a lot these past couple of weeks. First I suggested some freeware and open source software that all students will find useful. Next I looked at how Open Source software can benefit computing students and why they should try Linux. Today I’m going to suggest some Open Source software which will be particularly beneficial to computing students.

 

The Text Editor

You weren’t planning on writing code in Notepad were you? When a full featured IDE is too much for the task at hand, these text editors will give you all the features you need without too much bulk. Each of them lets you have multiple files open at once, has syntax highlighting and search and replace functions, and a whole lot more.

Kate (Linux)

gEdit (Linux)

Notepad++ (Windows)

 

The IDE

Asside from being expensive, Microsoft Visual Studio is closed source, and only runs under Windows. Whether you want something a little lighter, something tailored to your language or just something free, there’s an open source option available. Here are some great choices for a range of platforms.

Eclipse (Cross-Platform)

KDevelop (Linux)

Anjuta (Linux)

Dev-C++ (Windows)

 

The UML Editor

I’ve looked before at the importance of planning. UML modelling tools make it easy to put together a visual representation of a solution, and to modify it as you work.

Gaphor (Multi Platform)

ArgoUML (Multi Platform)

Umbrello (Linux)

StarUML (Windows

 

The Mind Mapper

Some times you need do some planning without the constraints of something formal like UML. When you just need to get ideas onto paper (or screen as the case may be), mind mapping can be ideal. These applications help you make maps quickly and easily, and unlike writing them in a notepad, they’re easy to edit later on.

Freemind (Multi Plaform)

Whilst not open source, this online tool can also be useful:

Bubbl.us (Online)

 

The Source Manager

Whether you’re working alone or as part of a group, losing all of your work is never fun. Source code repositories make it easy to store your code in a seperate location, access it from multiple computers, and revert to older versions when something goes wrong. Several of the IDEs I listed above have support for repositories either natively or through plugins, plus I have listed some stand alone tools below.

CVS

Tortoise CVS (Windows)

Cervisia (Linux)

Subversion

Tortoise SVN (Windows)

KDE SVN (Linux)

Git

 

The LiveCD

This might seem like an odd choice if you’re not normally a Linux user, however it can be a lifesaver if you experience computer problems. A Live CD can be great for rescuing data before a reinstall if Windows messes up, testing problematic hardware and of course trying out Linux without installing it to your harddrive.
Whilst these distributions might not be the most suitable for long term use, they come with great tools for emergencies.

gParted (Partitioning)

Knoppix (General Purpose)

Backtrack (Security/Pen Testing)

 

Over To You…

I hope you find some of the items on this list useful. If you have any other great pieces of Open Source software computing students might find beneficial, please share it in a comment below.
If you enjoyed this post, I’d encourage you to check out http://blog.padowi.se, which features an expansive overview of software which could be useful to any developer, an in particular to students.