Writing code is easy.

Of course, it is… why wouldn’t it be? Writing code is the same as writing any other sentence. You just type away on the keyboard, who cares if it makes sense or not, right?

Well, coming up with good code to write is something that is gained through experience, research, and some times, painful trial and error. In the mean time, I have some programs that will help you be more efficient when you actually come up with some good code to write or when you’re just typing away.

Launchy

To start off, a good programmer must be able to access to every piece of source code, folder and program in his computer as fast as humanly possible (preferably without leaving the keyboard to grab the mouse). For this, there is Launchy.

Launchy is an open source program inspired by Quicksilver on the Mac. It has a high degree of customizability through plugins and it doesn’t sacrifice ease of use. It is not as powerful as Quicksilver itself, but it is a very good Windows solution.

Don’t take my word for it, try it yourself! its free, as in beer.

VirtuaWin

If you’re like me, you have a Mac at home but a PC at work. You’ve enjoyed the fruits of OSX, like Exposé or Spaces. Now, there is no good, lightweight solution for Exposé (that I know of), but there is something for Spaces. That something is VirtuaWin.

As Launchy, VirtuaWin is a free open source project. It is very lightweight and allows you to change virtual desktops rapidly. This will help you keep a more tidy and organized workspace.

On convenient feature of VirtuaWin that caught my eye is that it lets you hide the taskbar of your other virtual desktops, that way, even if you have a lot of windows open in one virtual desktop, you won’t get the clutter in your other virtual desktops.

Notepad++

Coding in a nice, cozy IDE is very convenient. That code highlighting and multiple file editing in tabs (among other things, of course) is a god send. But sometimes you just want to edit some quick HTML, SQL or C file and don’t want to load up that big ol’ Eclipse or Visual Studio. For this, you use a fast text editor. This is where Notepad++ comes into play.

Notepad++ is a free and open source text editor that has convenient features such as code highlighting and folding for many different languages (extensible through plugins), multiple document editing, console access, macros and a whole other slew of cool features like autocompletion.

This is a must have for any developer. Quick, easy, fast, and easy to use.

That does it for now. If you have any comments on the programs I just mentioned, or have some of your own, leave a comment and make your voice be heard!

Until next time, and may your code be reusable, efficient, and bug free.

To start the blog, I’ll take a minute and introduce myself.

I graduated in December of 07 with a Software Engineering major at ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico. During my studies I had the opportunity of working at several software developing companies, some times as an intern and others as a part time job.

While I was working in these companies I was exposed to very different styles of developing, going from “by the seat of one’s pants”, to the aspiring standards complying company, to working from home. I will be sure to write about those experiences in the future.

Currently, I am employed in the United States with PROS, the world’s leading company in revenue management and optimization software. I am excited to be kicking off my career at such a fine organization.

The main premise of this blog will be documenting my findings. I will post my experiences, comments and some tips I stumble on along the way. I am sure this will help and interest many aspiring, amateur and professional developers.

Thanks, and hope to see you later!