Ask HN: Software development tools

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1477538

by rvanrooy • 16 years ago

7 12 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

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 Most UML tools for linux, seem to be outdated and very light on features (please correct me).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?

michael_dorfman2• 16 years ago

A 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

ggruschow• 16 years ago

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).

adn37• 16 years ago

Diagrams on post-its, are you kidding?

vikram• 16 years ago

Paper and the text editor.

nickpp• 16 years ago

OneNote. Probably the best wiki in the world. Runs only on windows though...

stefanve• 16 years ago

Jira + Confluence + whiteboard

pwim• 16 years ago

PivotalTracker is good for managing user stories: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/

c1sc0• 16 years ago

I 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.

jwdunne• 16 years ago

Didn't you know that 37Signal's philosophy is about keeping the feature count to an absolute minimum?

beagle3• 16 years ago

UML tools seem to lack substance on any platform. Use pencil, eraser, and paper for design. And know that most diagrams are not as useful as everyone says they are.

ww520• 16 years ago

emacs

Ask HN: Software development tools

Related Stories