The Global Engineer’s Notebook

Neither my current nor previous employer has ever provided me with software utilities outside of the mandatory ones to do the job, such as Xilinx ISE and ModelSim for FPGA development or TI Code Composter Studio for DSP development.

When it comes to a good terminal application for serial port debugging or file management tools, however, I’ve always had to find free alternatives on the Internet.  I thought I would share the applications that help make my job easier.  All of these tools are available for free–thank you develoeprs!

• Thunderbird – I used Outlook Express for years, but it always felt heavy after I had a significant amount of email.  Two years ago I gave Thunderbird a try and I have been very pleased with it, especially with the plugin architecture.
• Lightning – This is acalendar plug-in for Thunderbird and also has reminders/alarms.  It is nice to have my email and calendar all in the same place.
• Firefox – I’ve been using Firefox for four years now.  I was attracted to it because it was faster than Mozilla and IE, and most importantly, it had tabbed browsing.  I know some don’t like tabbed browsing, but I couldn’t live without it.
• FileZilla – Both my current and former companies had 10 MB limits on email accounts, so when I needed to receive a large file from outside the office, FTP is the only option.  This is a high-quality FTP client with an easy-to-use GUI and upload/download queue support.  There is also a server application available too if needed.
• MozBackup – When I have computer upgrades at work, I use this tool to back-up my Thunderbird email account and my Firefox personal settings.  This application creates a simple archive that can be moved to any computer.  On the new computer, simply install Thunderbird, Firefox and MozBackup, and then open the archive with MozBackup to restore Thunderbird accounts and Firefox personal settings.  This tool is a life-saver!
• Tera Term – This utility is quite old but it is my favorite terminal application for Windows.  Unlike HyperTerminal, which is bundled with Windows, Tera Term has a scrollable buffer that doesn’t get all fowled up.  It also supports wide-characters too.
• WinMerge – This is a great DIFF tool for comparing the contents of files.  I use it quite often when I take memory dumps of an embedded system and compare them to see how registers or data are changing.  Of course it is also helpful if you need to see the difference in two versions of source code as well.
• CDBurnerXP – A free software utility for burning CD/DVDs…because the one that comes to Windows XP lacks almost every feature a person needs…
• RarZilla – In Japan people like to pass around LZH and RAR archives more than ZIP or GZIP archives.  If you just need to unarchive, this tool is perfect for the job.
• PuTTY – Though Tera Term also supports Telnet, I prefer to use PuTTY for Telnet/SSH.  Just a personal preference.
• Notepad++ – I don’t like working in IDEs when I edit source code or HDL.  Each IDE often has a different tab setting and it is a pain to configure it all.  This editor supports syntax high-lighting for a mulititude of programming languages as well as HDL.  The main feature I like about this editor is that it opens each file in a tab, saving me the trouble of looking for different instances of the editor in the taskbar.
• Cygwin – I firsted learned about computers with MS-DOS, and I learned software development on UNIX.  I like using a command line because I type quickly and I also like to automate as much as possible.  I always have a Cygwin window open for browing the file-system or searching for files.  Grep alone is worth it!  I also use Cygwin to compile C++ programs that are not Windows-dependent.
• Active Perl – I hate repetitive tasks, and I automate as much as possible with perl scripts.  Be careful about new-line characters though.  Active Perl replaces “\n” with “\r\n”.  That caused a nasty bug in a embedded CPU firmware generation script that I used to chain tools together and convert output formats.  I would just use Cygwin’s perl interpreter, but Windows Task Scheduler perfers regular Windows apps.
• TortoiseSVN – This is THE subversion utility for Windows users.  It integrates into Windows shell and allows you to perform SVN operations with right-click menu options.  I can’t imagine using another SVN tool on Windows.