Tool Tips

Mobiki 2015-02-05

Lean wiki engine

Source: http://mobiki.datenbrei.de

License: MIT

Alternatives: LionWiki, TiddlyWiki

If you are looking for lean wiki engine that is also suitable for use with mobile devices, take a closer look at Mobiki. The tool requires a web server and at least PHP 5.4. After unpacking the archive, users assign a password – done.

The markup is quite intuitive, and the default template is clear-cut and HTML 5-compliant. In addition to the usual formatting (bold and italic), Mobiki supports internal and external links, lists, bulleted lists, and preformatted text. To embed images, upload them to your server, store them in the images directory, and link from the wiki with the image:<image>.jpg statement. The developers have also given their wiki a keyword search via hashtags.

Mobiki does not require a database. The software stores all content as text files in the pages subdirectory. In the config.php file, you can modify the title and description of the wiki and enter the name of the author, a character set, and the time format. If you speak CSS, you can modify the wiki design to suit your own needs in the template.css file.

4 Stars --Mobiki is lean, easy to set up, and looks good on mobile devices. The small project frequently releases new versions with additional features and functions.

jEdit 5.2.0

Cross-platform text editor

Source: http://www.jedit.org

License: GPLv2

Alternatives: Atom

Since starting life 17 years ago as a simple editor, jEdit has grown into a powerful development environment. jEdit provides sophisticated syntax highlighting and other features. The list of programming and scripting languages includes more than 200 entries. The syntax files are in XML format, and savvy users can adapt them to suit their own needs or use them as a template for their own configurations.

jEdit supports more than 160 character sets, is fully Unicode-capable, and supports folding, automatic line breaks, and indentation. It can record macros, has an unlimited undo/redo feature, and has a sophisticated search-and-replace function. Users can access most of the features using keyboard shortcuts, and you can define new ones in the configuration.

If this functionality is not sufficient for your needs, you will find around 215 extensions on the homepage. You can install, configure, and update the extensions via the jEdit Plugin Manager. The choice includes connectors for known systems, an FTP client, a spellchecker, and even Sudoku for work breaks.

5 Stars --jEdit is a powerful tool and is recommended as an editor for all software developers who work across platforms. The Plugin Manager helps install practical tools retroactively.

Youtube-dl 2015.02.28

Downloading movies off the web

Source: http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl

License: Public Domain (Unlicensed)

Alternatives: Movgrab

On video portals, Linux users will find how-tos, talks, and much more free information for the free operating system. If you prefer not to watch the many interesting movies online, you can archive them with Youtube-dl. The tool does not just download YouTube content, as implied by its name. It also taps into more than 580 platforms, including many libraries.

Download the script from the project website homepage and make it executable. To save a movie on your disk, call youtube-dl along with the URL. Optionally, --proxy defines a proxy server; -4 and -6 enforce IPv4 or IPv6. Other parameters limit the download rate or request a specific format. If you want to store a number of movies onto your disk in one fell swoop, enter -a followed by the name of a batch file containing multiple URLs.

Parameters that you will continually need are best kept in the ~/.config/youtube-dl/config file. A call to ./youtube-dl --help lists all the known options. A quick look at the documentation in the GitHub repository, which lists FAQs, tips, and tricks, is also recommend.

5 Stars --Archiving online videos from the command line with Youtube-dl is a no-brainer. The tool is flexible and easy to use.