What software development tools, mostly in terms of engineering your apps, do you use? Most UML tools for linux, seem to be outdated and very light on features (please correct me). What do you use to plan your apps before writing the code?
Ask HN: Software development tools
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#2A whiteboard.
Seriously. A whiteboard, post-it notes, and lots of pencils and paper.
I'm a firm believer in UML-as-sketch (vs UML-as-blueprint), and for sketching, nothing I've seen beats the old school.
EDIT: fixed punctuation
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#3Paper and the text editor.
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#4OneNote. Probably the best wiki in the world. Runs only on windows though...
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#5Jira + Confluence + whiteboard
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#6PivotalTracker is good for managing user stories: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#7I used Adobe's Ideas app for the iPad to sketch UI ideas & DB schemas last weekend. I also downloaded 37signals' Draft app but it sucked major monkey balls & I will be hitting them for a refund if they don't fix the bug they have managed to sneak into an app that has a grand total of 4 features.
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#8I used Adobe's Ideas app for the iPad to sketch UI ideas & DB schemas last weekend. I also downloaded 37signals' Draft app but it sucked major monkey balls & I will be hitting them for a refund if they don't fix the bug they have managed to sneak into an app that has a grand total of 4 features.
Didn't you know that 37Signal's philosophy is about keeping the feature count to an absolute minimum?
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#9A whiteboard. Seriously. A whiteboard, post-it notes, and lots of pencils and paper. I'm a firm believer in UML-as-sketch (vs UML-as-blueprint), and for sketching, nothing I've seen beats the old school. EDIT: fixed punctuation
Post-it notes are more powerful tool than most people realize because they:
- Rearrange easily (no copying)
- Support text and diagrams
- Are concurrently editable (as a group)
- Convert virtually useless walls into huge work surfaces
The idea that really hit it home for me is The KJ Method (aka Affinity Diagramming aka Snow Carding). Here's one description: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_86.htm
There's a lot of way of organizing ideas and meetings using them that are really non-obvious. This (short, sweet) book covers some: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1555611427 Coders will get the ideas after the first chapter, but others should find the rest of the book educational as well (plus give some insight into basic data structures).
Re: Ask HN: Software development tools
#10A whiteboard. Seriously. A whiteboard, post-it notes, and lots of pencils and paper. I'm a firm believer in UML-as-sketch (vs UML-as-blueprint), and for sketching, nothing I've seen beats the old school. EDIT: fixed punctuation
Post-it notes are more powerful tool than most people realize because they: - Rearrange easily (no copying) - Support text and diagrams - Are concurrently editable (as a group) - Convert virtually useless walls into huge work surfaces The idea that really hit it home for me is The KJ Method (aka Affinity Diagramming aka Snow Carding). Here's one description: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_86.htm There'…
Diagrams on post-its, are you kidding?