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Systems and Software Hall of Fame

The purpose of this page is to acknowledge the systems and software used in the creation of this site. Much of this software is freeware, or at least I believe it is.

I currently have Mac OS, Ubuntu(Linux) and RiscOS systems networked together. The G4 iMac is a very ergonomic machine, so is the MacBook. I am very impressed with Ubuntu which runs on an old PC I put together several years ago. At the moment nearly all the web development is carried out on the Ubuntu system. Whilst the iMac is great for web browsing, email, document preparation etc., I don't find it so good for web development. The iWeb software is useless for my purposes and so I use Nvu, gEdit, gFTP and Firefox on Ubuntu. The iMac is used to test the site on current versions of Firefox, Opera and Safari. As I don't have a Windows systems , and have no intention of getting one, then I cannot test my site against IE, so I hope it works. And if it doesn't I blame the software.

Mac OS, Ubuntu and Web Software

As much of the software I use is open source it tends to run on both Mac OS and Linux. If there is a restriction I will note it.

Firefox: For web surfing but on the Mac I occasionally use Safari, Camino and Opera.
Nvu: For creating web pages.

gEdit: For the text files that are reuired for the scrolling web pages.
Javascript applications: The scrolling text and image script is from hypergurl. This has been adapted to allow the HTML text to be loaded from a file, which makes it much more flexible.

Risc OS Software

From time to time I still use my 10 year-old Risc PC that was made by Acorn. It was a great machine and networks wonderfully with the other systems I run. Practically all the original site was created using the following software. If you want to know more about Risc OS a good starting point is RISCOS.org and for news the Drobe Launch Pad. I still use RiscOS for drawing simple vector graphics as it still has better software than any other free software I have seen. It's also very quick to start and access information.


NetSurf: For web surfing on RiscOS, download and more info

Draw, Vector, DrawWorks Millenium: Practically all drawings and illustrations on this site start life as drawfiles. Each of the packages mentioned has different strengths and depending on what is required, I use a particular package. (If only Vector had "Undo", I might use it all the time.) DrawWorks is mainly used for various tricks with objects, colouring and sprite output.
StrongEd: A good text editor which I use to create the HTML pages. Software Download. HTML Mode Definition. In conjunction with StrongEd I also us one of my own applications MyMenu and also the excellent HTML³. MyMenu provides a menu of standard input and other functions, The StrongEd HTML Mode file is modified slightly to integrate with MyMenu and my own personal fold/unfold and search/list icons.
HTML³: HTML code structures and parameters are built up from simple menu choices. Very useful with good documentation. Download software.
Studio_Pro 24: Is used to create and modify many of the images. Paint is also used, usually for clipping an image.
ImageMaster: Is used to scan personal drawings for use as a starting point for new drawings and images. Imagemaster is also used ot scan photographs and modify many of the images.
InterGIF: Is used to create the GIF files from sprites. Download.
ChangeFSI: Is used to manipulate sprites and sometimes to create JEG files from sprites. Jclean and Jcut are sometimes used to tidy jpegs.
Compo: I'm still experimenting with how to get the best out of this application. Still, still, ....