"Must have" tools

[Ren]

I’m looking for two things these days that I haven’t had much luck with. A good low cost web site link checker and a folder synchronization tool for windows. If anyone knows of any good options for this please let me know

Tried iFolder, or SyncBack?

PS: Synback is freeware, SyncbackSE has more features and a pricetag.

[G3D]

NuSphere PHPed
Opera
phpMyAdmin
The PHP Manual, well the comments
Internet Explorer

Three Monitors

[DarkAngelBGE]

Why would one need even three monitors?

[G3D]

Really small pe*is

No, I've been using two monitors since around 1999 and just needed more space. Pretty much any card you buy atm has dual head (9700) so shove in a PCI card (or buy a Parhelia) and there you go.

phpMyAdmin/The PHP Manual on one -- phpEd on another -- Opera on the last one.

[sweatje]

Triple headed machines--for people who can't remember the ALT+Tab keystroke combination

[JJM]

Hi...



Why?

yours, Marcus

Ever have a problem when your copying large directory structure from one windows system to another. If you run into something simple like a file lock or permission error, windows stops the copy and you don't know what got moved and what didn't. I'd love a tool that helps make this easier.

Also, I'd like to schedule copying my important data to a backup USB drive.

I've been considdering running rsync on cygwin since windows just seems to fall short here.

[JJM]

Couple of other tools I find very handy

Cygqin - http://www.cygwin.com/ - Allows you to run linux applications and standard shell commands on a windows system. You have to love having ls and grep on a windows box.

VMWare - http://www.vmware.com/ - Virtual systems. This is ideal for testing. You can run several windows and Lynix flavors on your intel system in virtual environments. No better way to test lots of browser versions.

[lastcraft]

Hi...

If you run into something simple like a file lock or permission error, windows stops the copy and you don't know what got moved and what didn't. I'd love a tool that helps make this easier.

Ah, I see. For a second there I thought someone might be using this instead of version control, so I was being a little facetious really .

I agree that VMWare is an excellent tool. I am trying to set it up so that I can simulate a multi server rollout on a test machine.

yours, Marcus

[mikis]

Ever have a problem when your copying large directory structure from one windows system to another. If you run into something simple like a file lock or permission error, windows stops the copy and you don't know what got moved and what didn't. I'd love a tool that helps make this easier.

Total Commander (former Windows Commander) does that, and much, much more. It is #1 app I can't live without

[OfficeOfTheLaw]

Internet Explorer

Important indeed. There's been plenty of times I've designed my user intefrace for web based applications compliant with w3c standards and 503 accessibility, only to discover that it is complete garbage for 90% of web users. I pretty much know IE quirks like the back of my hand, but there are still times I check my layout out in IE and find myself baffled.

http://www.skyzyx.com/downloads/ has some great standalone versions of older IE releases that are good for testing for those clients who insist things look right for those stuck back in the IE4 days, and lynx is pretty good for testing out how google, as well as blind users, see (hear) the page.

Finally, add some good PDA/smartphone emulators into the mix.

http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/emulator
http://developer.openwave.com/dvl/to.../index.htm#sdk

[Tanus]

Ah excellent, those emulators will be very handy, thanks.

[Hobgoblin]

I like things simple:

- Edit Pad (no syntax highlighting - the way I like it)
- php_manual_en.chm
- mysql_manual.chm
- PHP and MySQL *installed* on my machine and running on Apache
- CuteFTP Pro
- Firefox (With Web Developer plugin)
- MSIE (Unfortunately)
- Opera
- Good tunes on Winamp

All I need to get the job done

[Darren Tidmarsh]

Thanks for all the links guys.

[mx2k]

or you can always hack old versions of IE and get them to work side by side on one os. =)

[raps]

or you can always hack old versions of IE and get them to work side by side on one os. =)

How can I do this?

[ghurtado]

For those who don't have money to buy Zend Studio, there is PHP designer 2005. Its free and its super, take my word for it. This little download will never let you down.

http://www.mpsoftware.dk/phpdesigner.php

I downloaded it today and tried it out, and I must say, it did let me down

It seems to me that this software is in very early beta stages, lots of incomplete features (like the integrated FTP or the project manager) and several things just didn't work at all, such as the PHP help or the class browser.

Just one man's opinion

[bigodines]

I downloaded it today and tried it out, and I must say, it did let me down

It seems to me that this software is in very early beta stages, lots of incomplete features (like the integrated FTP or the project manager) and several things just didn't work at all, such as the PHP help or the class browser.

Just one man's opinion

And its quite slow too...

[laidbak]

Ever have a problem when your copying large directory structure from one windows system to another.

xxcopy is my tool of choice in this case. It can do loads of things. You can replace your old xcopy with it as well.

http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

[sike]

Ever have a problem when your copying large directory structure from one windows system to another. If you run into something simple like a file lock or permission error, windows stops the copy and you don't know what got moved and what didn't. I'd love a tool that helps make this easier.

Also, I'd like to schedule copying my important data to a backup USB drive.

I've been considdering running rsync on cygwin since windows just seems to fall short here.

for syncing ftp or network shares i use beyond compare (http://www.scootersoftware.com/). it is not free but it saved me so much time that i think its worth the 30 bucks.

cheers
Chris

[smadeira]

I use Zend Studio, UltraEdit for a text editor, Filzilla, Navicat for MySQL management, Putty for SSH, Photoshop, and Color Wheel Pro for selecting color schemes.

[struesda]

Tried iFolder, or SyncBack?

PS: Synback is freeware, SyncbackSE has more features and a pricetag.

If you are also needing a IDE, Eclipse with the FTP/WEBDAV plug-in has this ability. It's a bit tricky to set up - everything has to be a part of an Eclipse project, but once it is set up it is very easy to use and nicely integrated into the IDE.

In addition to the typical compare/sync cycle, it keeps a list of whatever files you update via Eclipse, and all you have to then is hit the sync button to send the changes over.

[mx2k]

to answer raps question, you can find a tutorial here
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum21/6561.htm

and you can still download old browsers on http://browsers.evolt.org it took me forever to find ie5.0 ( i still had cds that had 5.5 on them but not 5.0 or 4.0, but i currently don't see a reason to support 4.0 browsers for the most part)

[JdL]

I can't believe no one has mentioned jEdit yet. This free, cross-platform, completely customizable tool is incredible.

http://www.jedit.org/

[Dr Livingston]

Dumped Dreamweaver MX the other week, in favour of jEdit which is lighter on my processor (P4 2Ghz), and I like the interface. Best bit.

Cough... You were saying?

[jroll9]

I've gotten a lot our out of WinMerge , to quickly compare differences and resolve conflicts between versions of code, ignoring whitespace and windows ctrl M and the like.