Tools for Development

Developing on Windows? Miss Unix? Here are a few essential tools that will make the Windows environment much more pleasant:

Emacs for Win32
The Emacs editor for Windows. Download the "fullbin" version, which is about 17 megs. Check out the GNU Emacs FAQ for Windows. Also, you will want to install python-mode for Emacs, which you can find here.

Cygwin shell tools
The Cygwin collection of shell tools, including bash, ls, gcc, cvs, vi, diff, and other favorites. Be sure to select ssh from the network category on installation, along with any other convenient packages. The Cygwin tools are built on a POSIX implementation layer, so many standard open source packages will untar, configure, and compile out of the box. Note that if you want to invoke Emacs for Windows from the command line, you'll want to add the path to your emacs installation to the system path.

WinZip
Chances are good you've already got this installed, but if you frequently set up fresh OS installations for development, this is a handy link to have. WinZip can uncompress the gzip and tar files common in the *nix world (as can the Cygwin tools) but gives you a nice GUI.

Python
The interpreted, interactive, object-oriented language, Python.

Twisted
The amazing Twisted network application framework! Access it from CVS to stay on the bleeding edge.

Nebula Device
The Nebula Device 3D Engine, it's cross platform, modular, and fast. Access it from CVS as well.
Note that Nebula also requires:


Tcl/Tk
The Tool Command Language and associated graphical Tk toolkit.

DevIL
The DevIL -- Developer's Image Library.