8 of the best free open source development tools from InfoWorld

The InfoWorld Test Center selected eight of the best free open source tools for developers . There are tools for creating rich applications (RA), an AJAX framework, a business rules management system, a version control package, an object database, a monitor for testing web services ... but let's go in order:

1. Object Database: db40

   Appearing as a Java database library, db4o was then simultaneously transferred to the .NET platform. The many useful functions of the db4o library include the Native Queries implemented in 2005 for building queries directly with Java or .NET methods.
   

2. Versioning: Git

   Distributed version control system Git was originally created by Linus Torvalds, and is now supported by Junio ​​Hamano. Git is a tool for managing revisions in many outstanding open-source projects, including the Linux kernel, the X.org server, the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project core and the Ruby on Rails web framework. The Git engine is at least an order of magnitude faster than similar systems for large projects and includes advanced support for branching and merging code.
   

3. Web Client Library: HttpClient

   HttpClient is a Java library for transmitting information using the HTTP protocol (born in 2001). It allows you to perform http requests and easily process the received responses. Many libraries for working with web-services use this library as a transport layer. If you are a Java programmer, and you need to send an http request anywhere, then this is the library for you. ( aib - thanks for the corrections)!
   

4. Parallel Programming: TBB

   Intel Threaded Building Blocks (TBB) solves the problem of effective use of multiprocessor systems, which now can be attributed to conventional PCs. There are attempts to solve this problem by creating special languages ​​such as Erlang. Intel offers a high-level solution: the TBB code itself is written in C ++, but the solution allows you to abstract from platform dependencies and low-level dependencies such as the thread mechanism when solving parallelization problems.
   

5. Business Rules Management System: JBoss Drools

   Worthy rival to their paid fellow Blaze Advisor and JRules. It has a fast engine, a full-featured repository of rules, excellent development tools for Eclipse, support for Excel decision tables, allowing business analysts to write and maintain rules. A fast-developing project with a lot of developers. There is even a feature that paid monsters do not have: the ability to import from almost any other BRMS system.
   

6. Rich Internet Applications (RIA): Open Flex

   InfoWorld was highly appreciated by Adobe Flex Builder 3.0, which is a commercial tool, but more importantly, under the MPL license, Adobe has opened the Flex SDK (not the same as Flex Builder IDE). This gives the green light to the development of any open-source-tools and applications aimed at using the Flex framework, which, according to InfoWorld, is one of their favorite ways of creating a RIA. Flex's competitors are OpenLazlo and the superior Curl and Silverlight 2.0, but the latter two are not open source, although they can even be used for free in some development scenarios.
   

7. JavaScript framework: Prototype

   The popular RoR server framework uses Prototype and Scriptaculous in its AJAX layer. Using Prototype lends greater objectivity and flexibility to JavaScript coding, while at the same time facilitating manipulation of the document object model (DOM). Prototype also adds many powerful new methods to JavaScript.
   

8. Debug web services: soapUI

   There are not many tools for SOAP testing, as light and convenient as soapUI. It can be used as a separate program, and as a plugin for Eclipse, IntelliJ or NetBeans. By installing the soapUI plugin in the Eclipse IDE, you get a powerful tool for debugging and testing SOAP services. All you need to do is simply import the WSDL from the target server, ask soapUI to build test SOAP requests and have fun. Different views let you delve into transactions of SOAP requests and responses, modify test requests, check answers, and quickly locate SOAP server problems. I confirm - tested on the development of Adobe AIR-application, completely dependent on web services. Author.

Good tools - free, open and well done.

Original article .

Update: And here are the winners in other categories - such as software for productivity, collaboration, etc. Thanks, boolean !