Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) – software that I use…

In an earlier post I commented on how I had installed Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (Amazon Link) on a MacBook Pro (MacBook at Amazon). In fact I had performed a ‘clean install’ and made full use of the opportunity to blow some of the cobwebs out of my application folder…. so what did I put back?

Well, some programs were already in the application folder, courtesy of Apple, namely Address Book, AppleScript, Automator, Calculator, Chess, Dashboard, Dictionary, DVD Player, Expose, Font Book, Front Row, GarageBand, iCal, iChat, iDVD, Image Capture, iMovie, iPhoto, iSync, iTunes, iWeb, Keynote, Mail, Numbers, Pages, Photo Booth, Preview, QuickTime Player, Safari, Spaces, Stickies, TextEdit, Time Machine and Xcode. These programs I left as I do use most of them (OK, I could ditch Garage Band, iDVD, and iMovie and reclaim a lot of disk space from the programs and their support files, but you never know, one day I may have a sudden flash of inspiration and write a movie or a song…).

So, what did I add, and more importantly why….

BBEdit: A text editor. I have used BBEdit for so many years that I can’t remember not having it on my Mac! BBEdit is from Bare Bones and is a great text editor. I use it for a lot of my php/javascript work. It works very well with Fetch (see below) for editing files on remote servers, and for tracking down and editing hidden files in Mac OS X (see earlier post on configuring Apache on Mac OS X 10.5)

CocoaMySQL-SBG: A handy little app that is great for interfacing with, managing and setting up MySQL databases. I would be lost without it. Web Site

Coda: A great tool for writing HTML, PHP and Javascript, with the added bonus of managing websites as a ‘package’. The program has great integration with the websites and allows for selective uploading of only files that have been modified. It can also be used to edit files remotely. Coda is produced by Panic Software

CrossOver: I use Crossover, from Codeweavers, mainly to make sure any website I am working on still looks OK in Internet Explorer.

CSSEdit: This is a great CSSEditing tool from MacRabbit. I must admit that I used to struggle with CSS editing until I used this software. The ‘X-ray’ tool means you can load in a webpage (I usually load from localhost, i.e. the webserver on my Mac), click on the ‘X-ray’ tool and then see which CSS calls are control which sections of the page, and get live updates as I change the CSS. Great! CSSEditing is now easy!

DockStar: OK, so it is not in the Applications folder, but it was still installed. DockStar allows me to control which numbers are shown on the ‘Mail Icon’. The default in Apple Mail is one star that shows all unread messages, however, with DockStar I can control which Mail folders are used to give the count, and where they are displayed on the icon. DockStar can allow up to 5 badges to be shown. DockStar is produced by ecamm networks.

Fetch: Fetch, from Fetch Softworks was the first ftp client I ever used (back when it was owned and produced by Dartmouth College). It gets on and does the job and plays very well with BBEdit (see above) for editing files on remote servers.

Firefox: Well, it does some things better than Safari, can load some pages that still cause Safari to ‘choke’, and has some great plugins and tools that help with editing/de-bugging Javascript. Firefox

Flickr Uploadr: A handy little Mac tool for batch loading photos to flickr.

Google Earth: Fantastic tool for ‘seeing the world’. Also I use Google Earth for checking out kml and kmz files for some programs in development at MMISoftware.

Google Sitemap Automator: A tool produced by RAGE Software that is very handy for producing Google Sitemaps of websites.

GPSBabel+: This program is produced by GPSBabel.org and I use it for downloading GPS data-track files from GPS units.

GraphicConverter: This is another older…. by that I mean I can’t remember not having it on a Mac. GraphicConverter was the first ‘photo’ editing software I ever used on a Mac. The program seems to be capable of opening almost any image file thrown at it, and then converting it to some other format. GraphicConverter is produced by LemkeSoft.

iCalMaker: Produced by MMISoftware, and really handy for editing and manipulation iCal files.

Integrity: This program is a link checker… it checks links in a website to make sure that they actually connect to something! It does exactly what it says on the tin, and it does it well. Integrity is produced by PeacockMedia.

JPEGCleaner: Another MMISoftware program. This one takes JPEG files, removes any meta-data, resizes them, and then pack them off to Mail for emailing. Dead handy.

LaunchBar: This is a recent discovery of mine. It is produced by Objective Development and allows the rapid access to applications, documents, contacts etc.by typing short abbreviations.

MySQL: OK, it is not in the Applications folder, but you have to have a database installed if you are developing websites and apps that use databases! MySQL

MySQL Tools: If you have MySQL installed you need to a nice front end to manage the data! MySQL

NetNewsWire: Yes, I know Mail and Safari do RSS, but I have been using NetNewsWire from before Mail and Safari could do RSS. I just like NetNewsWire… NetNewsWire is produced by Newsgator

OmniGraffle Professional 4: Omni Group’s drawing package. Great for doing diagrams for presentations, handouts etc. (and even business card!). OmniGraffle

Overflow: This was a sort of ‘pre-Stacks’ program. What I don’t like about Stacks in OS X 10.5 is the lack of control I seem to have over what is in the Stack. With Overflow from Stunt Software I can control what is in my ‘Stack’ so I can rapidly access programs etc.

Papers: I get and read a lot of pdfs. In the past I was swamped with pdfs and my computer desktop was completely covered with them. Papers, from mekentosj allows me to organise and track my pdfs…

PhotoGPSEditor: Produced by MMISoftware. I use this to match up GPS track log data with photos so I can add location, latitude and longitude information to the photo’s meta-data.

PhotoInfoEditor: Produced by MMISoftware. I use this to add location, latitude and longitude information to a photo’s meta-data when I know the location a photo was taken, but don’t have a GPS track file.

Skype: We all need to talk to people…. Skype

SpamSieve: A personal Bayesian spam filter from Command-C Software. Another program that does what it says on the tin, it catches spam.

TextExpander: Expands text! With TextExpander from Smile on my Mac I can use short abbreviations for phrases/text. Very handy for using in Mail where I may have to type the same stock phrases/answers multiple times a day…

TextMate: If BBEdit from Bare Bones is so wonderful then why do I have and use TextMate from Macromates. Well, BBEdit is good, and TextMate does some things better than BBEdit, and some things worse. I mainly use TextMate for blogging as it has a great set of included blogging tools (bundles) and it is very easy to add further tools/keyboard shortcuts with the ‘Bundle Editor’.

VirusBarrier X4: There are viruses out there… so why not be protected? VirusBarrier X4 is made by Intego.

Yojimbo: Another Bare Bones product. Yojimbo is a database application that can be synced between Macs. I use the program for storing code snippets, webpages and notes.

One thing is noticeable in the above list. I have not installed any Microsoft software. With TextEdit and Pages I should be able to handle and read Word documents. Numbers will be replacing Excel, and I haven’t used PowerPoint in years, but instead Keynote. It will be interesting to see if I can ‘survive’ without Word, Excel and PowerPoint…