Linux Toys

Editors | Productivity and Utilities | Graphics | Network and Telecommunications | Games
Copyright (c) 1995-1996 John M. Fisk fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
For information regarding copying and distribution of this material see the COPYING document.

Welcome to the Linux ToyBox!

This is a collection of software for the Linux OS that:

Pretty subjective, eh?

Well, that's what this is all about -- after scrounging around various Linux archive sites, downloading way too much stuff, trying to set it up, and managing to get at least some of it running -- I've arrived at a list of software that, quite frankly, I really like.

Here's what I've got this running on:

I've tried to use a Sunsite or tsx-11 mirror whenever possible to help keep down network traffic to these busy sites. I've also tried to include Motif statically-linked programs whenever possible since not everyone has purchased Motif... and because I'm currently a Motif-have-not :-(

As of late 1995, these links are up to date. Keep in mind though that this stuff can change pretty quickly. Let me know if a link is bad or if you think there's something that should be added to the list.

Have fun!

Editors
xhtml.tar.gz (504k)
The xhtml (aka " A.S.H.E " A Simple HTML Editor) is an excellent basic HTML editor. Written by John R. Punin at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, this is a Motif statically-linked editor with split windows for simultaneous editing and viewing. The viewer does not support loading of images, but does include image placeholders. Scroll down menus and pushbuttons simplify the placement of tags. It also includes menus for creating forms. Keep in mind that you'll need nls.tar.gz (9k) if you don't already have it. The nls files allow you to run Motif/XFree 2.1 apps under XFree 3.x. Without this, you'll quickly discover that cut-and-paste operations result in an inevitable crash.

xcoral-2.1.linux.tar.gz (383k)
XCoral is another awesome editor. It was written by Lionel Fournigault, Dominique Leveque, and Bruno Pages who introduce it as:

" ...a multiwindows mouse-based text editor for the X Window System. A built-in browser enables you to navigate through C functions, C++ classes, methods, and files. A SMall Ansi C interpreter (SMAC) is also built-in to extend dynamically the editor's possibilities."

The editor has a very nice user interface and an extensive online help system.

xwpe-1.4.2.tar.gz (339k)
The X Window Programming Environment (XWPE) was written by Fred Kruse and modeled after the Borland programming editors. It is a multi-window, mouse/keyboard oriented editor with an extensive array of configuration options. It supports C, C++, Pascal, and Fortran compilers; Gbd, Sdb, and Dbx debuggers; and allows you to write, edit, compile, make, run, debug, install and beautify from within the programming environment. It can be invoked with and without the programming support and comes with a non-X Window editor that can itself be invoked with and without programming support. You'll need the Linux patch xwpe-1.4.2.linux-patch.tar.gz in order to compile this under Linux.

nedit-stat-311.tar.gz (631k)
NEdit is a fast, easy to use, and fairly extensively customizable Motif (statically-linked) editor written by Mark Edel, Joy Kyriakopulos, Arnulfo Zepeda-Navratil, Suresh Ravoor, Donna Reid, and Jeff Kallenbach at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. This is a great editor and a welcome replacement for xedit!

Andrew User Interface System (AUIS)
The Andrew system is a formitable development package developed at Carnegie Mellon University which includes: If your needs only include word processing, then the EZ editor, and possibly the documentation files, may be all you require. This is an impressive package but will need about 30MB of elbow room for the full-blown installation.

Productivity and Utilities
plan-1.4.4.srcbin.tar.gz (1138k)
Day Planner v. 1.4 written by Thomas Driemeyer is a Motif (statically linked) graphical calendar program. It is an easy to use, customizable, calendar/Todo manager with a separate alarm daemon that can be programmed to execute a predefined script or executable. It has day, week, month, and year views and allows creation of a fairly comprehensive todo-database. If you've got to have one calander program, this is it.

xgrok-1.1.2-stat.tar.gz from 3/17/95 (691k)
grok-1.2b-srcbin.tar.gz from 11/4/95 (849k)
XGrok is yet another Motif (statically-linked) desktop app designed to be used as a simple personal database program. It allows creation of phone lists, addresses, and other small databases with ease. As the author quite aptly noted, " If you're looking for a database program to use with your Space Shuttle Project ... you're going to be disappointed. " However, if you need an easy to set up and use personal database program then this may be what you're looking for. There are currently two iterations of this handy program -- xgrok and the newer release grok. Both of these are available at the same archive location.

xpostit-2.0.tar.gz (38k)
XPostIt, in the grand heritage of UNIX, does one thing and does it well. It's an X Window program that allows you to create PostIt (tm) type notes that can be viewed or hidden. Nice for reminders or quick to-do lists.

xfm-1.3.2.tar.gz (230k)
Originally written by Simon Marlow and improved and now maintained by Albert Graef the xfm file manager is an impressive X Window app that allows extensive customization and GUI-base file management. It consists of a File Manager Window and an Applications Manager Window that allows click-to-load program start-up as well as drag-and-drop operation. It had a very favorable write up in the July, 1995 edition of Linux Journal (Issue 15). If you haven't tried this program, you should; and if you haven't subscribed to the Linux Journal you should!

ext2tool.zip (259k)
If you fall into the camp of multi-OS users, then you may want to try out ext2tool: a DOS program that allows you to list, read, and copy files from your Linux partition. It does not support writing to your Linux partition. This one misses the mark on looks, but it is functional and helpful if your having to spend time working under DOS.

Xaw3d-1.1-bin.tar.gz (1.12M)
The Xaw3d libraries are an Xaw lib drop-in replacement that gives your Athena based apps a much more pleasing 3d " Motif-ish " appearance. This was also written up in the July, 1995 edition of the Linux Journal by the folks at SSC. The secret to these is in setting up the .Xresources file -- get the Linux Journal!

xkeycaps-2.29.tar.Z (308k)
As a front end to xmodmap, XKeyCaps is an X Window app that provides a graphical display of your keyboard mapping and allows interactive remapping.

xcolorsel-1.1a.tar.gz (85k)
Ever try to recolor your desktop or apps and wonder what Lemon Chiffon or #e7f2b6 really looks like? Xcolorsel gives a view of each of the colors in the rgb database together with its various designations. Makes customization much less painful.


Graphics
ImageMagick-3.6.2-bin+src.tar.gz (1.17M)
ImageMagick, by the folks at E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. is an impressive X Window graphics app that displays, manipulates, and converts images in a wide variety of formats. If you want to include support for JPEG, TIFF, Raster, XPM, and a few other formats you'll be wandering all over the 'Net looking for stuff... but the final result is well worth the effort. This is an excellent graphics viewer/converter program.

XFig and Transfig
If you're doing graphics work for publication under TeX, LaTeX, or PostScript you'll want to get these siamese twin apps: XFig allows creation of basic figures suitable for publication, while TransFig performs the conversion of these graphics to a variety of importable image formats including EPS, TeX, and LaTeX.

pixmap-2.6.tar.gz (120k)
Pixmap, like the stock X Consortium app bitmap, is an easy to use drawing program to create your own XPM bitmapped images. If you decide to set this one up you'll probably want to get the latest version of the libXpm libs (libXpm-x.y.tar.gz), which come in handy for other graphics programs as well.

xbmbrowser5.1.tar.gz (72k)
This is another small-but-very-handy X Window app that greatly aids in customizations. XBMBrowser provides a graphical view of all the .xbm files in a directory. It also allows you to add support for XPM files at compile time, but you'll need to get the latest version of the libXpm libs (libXpm-x.y.tar.gz) in order to do this. You'll also want these libraries for XPM support for other programs such as ImageMagick.


Network and Telecommunication
netscape-v112-export.i486-unknown-linux.tar.Z (1.6M)
If you are a student, work in a non-commerical academic institution, or for a not-for-profit organization, then the Netscape Navigator is available without fee. Even if you don't fit into one of these catagories, the registration fee is only $39 which is a steal for this top flight WWW browser. The above link will take you to one of Netscape's mirror sites (server.berkekey.edu). If you want to try to get to Netscape itself you can give the following link a try: ftp.netscape.com

Want to try out a couple new HTML 3.0 compliant browsers? Then get: These do lack a bit of the functionality of Netscape Navigator but provide a look into what's coming. While you're at it you may also want to check out the offerings of the various Mosaic based browsers. There are several to choose from that will run under Linux and can be found at the GA Tech sunsite.unc.edu mirror.

llnlXFtp2.0.3-Motif-bin-static.tar.gz (765k)
The llnlXFtp FTP client program written by Neale Smith at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a great app if you're having to do any significant file transfer. It is feature-rich and easily customizable. There are several other similar programs including xftp, mftp, and Ftptool as well as xarchie and xgopher programs available at the GA Tech sunsite.unc.edu mirror site. Check them out.

ncftp-2.1.0.tgz (170k)
If you're not running X Window but still have to do a lot of file transfer then the ncftp enhanced ftp client is worth trying out. It, too, is quite user customizable and feature-rich. If you're running a term connection then try ncftp185+term.tar.gz.

xmail_1.6.tar.gz (128k)
For all you folks using Slackware Linux distributions... ever notice that the X Window mail client is xmh which only works if you're running the MH mail handling system. Yet the stock mailhandler is sendmail. Hmmm. Well, if you've actually gotten sendmail up and running and still want an X Window client, then try out xmail. It's admittedly not the prettiest or the most feature-rich, but it does provide a nice X Window interface, and if you're using the Xaw3d libraries then this looks even better. XMail will support any sendmail type mail delivery program (including Smail).

minicom-1.71.tar.gz (161k)
Probably because most UN*X OS's are native networked operating systems, there are few telecommunications programs (on the order of ProComm or Telix for DOS). One of the nicest, though, has got to be Minicom, which is a Telix-like comm program. It supports multiple transfer protocols including zmodem, and now has support for ANSI graphics so you can dial up your favorite local BBS and have the same graphics support you'd have under DOS. This is a nice program that is easy to use and configure.

Games

Hmmm... not much to talk about here since I'm not much of a gamer :-)

However, you're more than welcome to browse the selections offered by the kind folks at the Georgia Tech sunsite.unc.edu mirror site.

Got any great ideas for improvements! Send your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and ideas.

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This page written and maintained by:
John M. Fisk at fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu