FAQ and Info

• about.com Focus on Windows - the entries here all strike me as a little bit strange: not so much out of the mainstream as in a different stream from the one I'm swimming in.
• annoyances.org - started as "Windows 95 Annoyances", which later became a book. Then some of the stuff was taken out so you'll buy the book and reorganized so you can't find it any more. But what it's got is still pretty good and worth the trouble to find it.
• James Eshelman's Windows Support Center - James is a Microsoft MVP, and his site has got a lot of original articles, many based on his answers on the microsoft.* newsgroups, plus a superb set of links.
• faqs.org Windows FAQs - basic information.
• List archives at LSoft: [ WIN95-L | WIN98-L | WINNT-L ] - for the patient, there's a lot of nuggets here.
• Microsoft Windows Home - at microsoft.com
• Simtel Win9x info - requires some fishing.
• Startup checklists (which programs start automatically when Windows boots, which ones you can safely get rid of, and which ones you'd better get rid of)
  • D. J. Denham's
  • Krick's
  • at Pacman's Portal
• Resource Management - by D. J. Denham. Article on windows memory management.

Software Archives

• download.com | shareware.cnet.com | ZDNet Software Library - I think these are either the same place or so similar they might as well be. I used to have a program on download.com, but this year they wanted to charge me to have it there, and it was free software, so it isn't too hard to figure out where their hearts are, is it?
• Fourmilab - a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
• PC Magazine Downloads - I got Zdkeymap from here when the control key fell off this miserable laptop. Now my shift lock key takes its place. And a while back when Win95 would mess up my desktop icons if you looked at it funny, WinTidy let me put them back with one click. Not a lot of programs here, but these programs a often useful and always clever.
• simtel.net - Can you remember when there wasn't a simtel? I can't say more, because they're hosting one of my free programs.

Windows Utilities

• DrTCP - Utility to tweak TCP parameters (e.g., receive window, MTU) in the registry.
• DEW Associates - Get WinTop here - click on "Useful tools and files"
• Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tools List - an incredible list
• Brenton House's *Free* Utilites I use! - More utilities

Compilers and Tools

• Cygwin home -- The Gnu Compiler Collection (gcc, g++, g77, gcj, scheme) for Win32.  They also have a huge collection of Unix look-alike tools, and their xterm-without-x command window rxvt is an actual pleasure to use.  Comes with a nice package manager, so you can download only the things you want. Whenever I enter the room, package managers fall apart and the pieces can be found in a corner whimpering, so when I say I've only gotten crosswise with the cygwin package manager where I had to uninstall everything a couple of times, that's very good.
• Gnat -- Free Ada 95 compiler.  There is also an Ada compiler in gcc 3.2, but it isn't officially sanctioned.  You can also find the official version on the NYU Gnat site. On the other hand, I recall very well how installing Gnat would break gcc's ability to compile C++ until you spent an hour or so writing some work-around scripts. So in the past few years, I haven't got an Ada compiler from either place (though I still fire up my old Thomson compiler from time to time). Hey, Robert, I'll bet this wasn't what you had in mind when you made Gnat break g++, was it?
• lcc-Win32 -- Jacob Navia's Win32 programming IDE, includes a resource compiler and visual resource editor, wizards, etc. Don't forget the documentation: the tutorial and libc documentation are excellent even if you don't use lcc. Recently Jacob changed the license so I can't install it at work any more, so it's become a lot less useful than it was.
• phpdev -- This is the all-in-one installation of Apache, PHP, MySQL, PHPMyAdmin, and a couple of other goodies (Invision Board, PHPWebsite and optionally ActivePerl) that can turn your Win9x, NT, etc. machine into a full-up active content server website.  You may want to get the package from SourceForge.  I've installed the pieces of this package separately, and it's a huge pain to get them all configured and working together.  I was happy to throw the separate pieces overboard and just use phpdev.
• A few notes about phpdev:
  • As of this date, version 4.23 works just fine and the alleged upgrades that add ActivePerl and mod_perl don't seem to do anything.
  • If you're running Win95, 98, or ME, and you hate to have one or two messy DOS windows littering your desktop from the launch of Apache and MySQL, you'll need to get another couple of programs.  The first is WinMySQLAdmin, which comes in the "update" (i.e., the zip file, not the exec file) download of  MySQL.
  • The second "convenience" file for Win95 (etc.) users is Jerry Baker and Brian Fisher's Apache controller. You can find it under the name "acntrl20.zip" on a number of sites. This site looks like it might be around a while. Just install it in the same folder as apache.exe, and double click on it. It'll start Apache and reside in the tray.
  • Windows NT, 2000, and XP users should follow the documentation.  At present, the author of phpdev recommends that you start Apache as a service, but that you put a shortcut to mysqld-nt in the Startup folder.
• There's some alternatives to phpdev that may suit you better. Check this list at hotscripts.com.
• Vim -- vi improved. Even though everybody makes fun of vi and its progeny, next time you borrow a computer to do some development, I'll bet you'll find gvim on there.

PHP/MySQL

• DevShed - mostly articles, on a beginners' level
• HotScripts - Huge collection of scripts and articles
• MySQL.com - the home for MySQL. Don't neglect the HTML Help (.chm) version of the documentation.
• PHP.net - the home for PHP. Good to prowl around to find more resources.
• PHP Manual in Windows HTML Help (.chm) - The "sample" includes all the user annotations from the online version.
• PHPBuilder - This site has been around a long time, and it's still very active. Articles a little meatier then DevShed.
• PHPClasses - Nothin' but classes.
• PHP Resources Index - Pretty much an organized set of links. Lots of them.
• Web Developers' Virtual Library - not active, but some good articles.

Win32 Programming

• about.com C/C++ Programming
• codeguru.com -- mostly MFC, but some occasional Win32
• CygUtils -- by Charles Wilson
• Cygwin mailing list archives (and search)
• Cygwin ports at ftp.franken.de
• DevCentral -- tutorials
• John Findlay's LCC page (the biggest repository of example code ported to LCC-Win32)
• Iczelion's Win32 Assembly HomePage
• LCC-Win32 Meeting Point
• MSDN Home
• MSDN Downloads
• MSDN Library
• MVP Visual C++ FAQ -- by Thomas Restrepo
• Tertius Software Library for Cygwin
• Win32 API helpfile - Microsoft released this back in 1995, so you'll need the more recent MSDN sections, especially on common controls. But very little in this file is wrong. There's just more stuff in Windows since it was published, thanks to all them innovators. A Google search for "win32 api help file" will turn up several sites where you can download it. The version on the Euphoria site is OK, but I've seen some with missing or broken tables of contents.
• Win32 Programming FAQ -- by Steve Loughran
• WinHelp and HTMLHelp Resources -- by Josef Becker

Winsock

• Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval - don't even think about writing an newsreader until you commit this to memory.
• NNTP Protocol at MIB Software - a nice breakdown of the appropriate RFCs.
• newsreaders.com - an exhaustive compendium of news clients, servers, utilities, for every platform, and quite a bit more (groupware, tutorials, news security).
• RFCs at faqs.org - Of the RFC collections, this is my favorite because of the nice HTML layout, the search engine, and the links to other net standards and organizations.
• sockaddr.com - Lewis Napper's winsock resources (documents, example source code)
• Winsock Programmers FAQ - by Warren Young and Mark Towfiq

General

• Graphics File Formats FAQ
• The Graphics File Format Page
• Wotsit - The place, not only for graphics file formats but for all file formats.
• RGB Hex Triplet Color Chart
• RGB Hex Triplet Color Chart (In B&W) - Have you made a web page that's invisible on black and white monitors? The page you're reading used to be until I got wise.
• Mal Sutherland's graphics programming course notes

OpenGL

• OpenGL libraries from Microsoft | SGI
• Nate Robins' GLUT for Win32 and OpenGL pages
• GLUT documentation and Red Book examples
• OpenGL Programming links at 3dlinks.com
• Bart Jaszcz's Compiling OpenGL/GLUT Programs On Windows (Cygwin)
• opengl.org
• Online Red Book
• Richard Wright's OpenGL SuperBible
• David McAllister's Particle System API
• Gary Vaughn's note and source code for building a .a file from libraries (e.g., GLUT)