Libraries and tools

springframework

Not my favorite library, but when I started, the propaganda sounded great. Unfortunatelly the reality was poor, so I reduced the use of the framework parts whenever I have time to reorganization.

commons-...

I'm an old guy and some tools became a habit, so I stil use them, even if there might exist somewhat cooler tools or the tool is outdated ...
one of those tools is commons-logging for sure, but I love the ease of use and I continue using it.
Other libraries from the commons-pool, I use

• commons-dbcp
• commons-lang (is only an indirect dependency)
• commons-pool

Glazedlists

The best java library I ever got in touch with! No doubt, those lists are incredibly fast, but beside that, the usage is as desired. I can'r imaging developing a real java app without glazedlists.

JGoodies

What's Glazedlists for lists, is JGoodies for the GUI. The only I had to exchange where the factories of the GUI elments. I don't like factories with public static access - they blight any application design. Beside that, I like JGoodies that much, that I choose it as a basis for my Persistenzlayer.
I use JGoodies binding, forms, validation and looks.

mysql

When I started development of VdrAssistant, mysql was the only freeware database, working some kind of reliable. I'd like to start with Postgres too, but it was not ready yet for Java-projects. All others - I don't wonna even start talking about em. So - mysql is currently the only officially supported database.

The most important tool to me is perl! Even if it is not part of the java-world and others might sneer about me. From my point of view, perl is as attractive as a natural language and so you might stumble on a perlscript being part of the build system

Further tools, VdrAssistant uses:

ImageMagick

the swiss army knife for image processing

Project-X

the swiss army knife for demuxing/cutting

mjpegtools

will be used for conversions, mainly at creation of DVD menues

transcode

the counterpart of Project-X - essential for the muxing

dvdauthor

no dvd creation without this - at least at linux systems

Handbrake

Unfortunatelly the tool is stil in early development stage and for so, not every functions are working yet. But it is already great on archiviing movies and the only tool that handles HD-movies reliably (ok, the tool needs a bit external support - but that's what VdrAssistant is for )

Unfortunatelly handbrake does not support a version query, so it is really hard to determine, which variant will work. The output of handbrake has changed in the past, so I only can recommend using handbrake from svn trunk.