Firewall

I don't have any special firewall software. I just rely on the built-in Windows 7 firewall and the fact that I am behind a router anyway.

Software development

Much of my software is developed using Microsoft Visual C++. This is not cheap, but I have used versions of it for years and bought it when I was running my own business. Unfortunately, V6.0 (which I have) is now creaking at the seams, and both Windows 7 and Vista claim it’s not compatible, though I have only ever had one problem which I got round with a minor coding change.

If I was starting out again, I would use Java, since it’s a better language in my opinion and also platform-independent. In fact I am currently developing a very hush-hush version of Spine for Android, built on the Eclipse Java platform. (More of which later!)

Anti-virus

I use Avast! which is free for home use and well maintained. It updates automatically on average once a day. I recommend it to anyone who asks (or even if they don’t).

Browser

I am a dedicated Firefox user. I have IE9 of course, but only use it when I have to. I tried Google Chrome, but didn't get on with it.

Email

I use Thunderbird as my email client. It comes from the Mozilla stable, like Firefox.

PHP IDE

I have written a journey booking system for a local voluntary organisation, which is browser based and written in the PHP language. For this I use the DevPHP IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

Image viewer

There’s only one for me: IrfanView. Many of the images on this site were re-sized and processed using this excellent little product. You can’t use it for editing images, however, apart from adding text - I use MS Paint for that.

FTP agent

I need FTP to transfer stuff to and from my web site. FileZilla is OpenSource and very easy to use.

Web development

I use Serif’s WebPlus X5, having upgraded through various intermediate versions from WebPlus 10, which I used originally. It ‘s a sophisticated tool that does everything I need to do at  a fraction of the price of  the professional stuff. I particularly like the new lightbox feature which you may notice I have used on this updated site!