[Runzh-developers] Supplemental tools

[Nathan V. Y. <nat...@gm...>]

I'm a very visual/spatial person so I find making diagrams and graphs and
charts really helps me conceptualize what we're doing in the design phase,
particularly when it comes to system logic, etc.

Adam and I have found the following tools to be very useful:

PTC's MathCAD 14 - Does calculations the way a person would.  Hard to
explain in just text, but imagine writing down an equation symbolically and
having the program keep track of the variables for you as you go.  Symbolic
solving, advanced calculus, graphing, et cetera.  I've been using this a lot
for running through sample algorithms (What percent chance to hit would a
level 3 warrior have with x amount of skill?  How does that curve change
with respect to total skill?).  Windows-only, but it may or may not run on
wine for you linux users.  30-day free trial available at
http://www.ptc.com/community/free-downloads.htm

R - a language/environment for doing graphics and calculations.  Adam's been
using this since it's more grassroots-unix-opensource and he does most of
his work on Gentoo.  http://www.r-project.org/

Dia - one of the better diagramming/drawing programs I've seen.  Free and
open-source; crossplatform.  I use this a lot for making flowcharts
outlining the logic of the systems we're rewriting.
http://live.gnome.org/Dia

As far as actual coding goes, any text editor will do, but I've been using
Notepad++ ( http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm ) and Adam
recently converted to emacs.

I`ll be posting some diagrams and mathcad files early next week.