If you’re a heavy user of PuTTY, like I am, you’ll want to grab the latest release which fixes a major security hole. In case you don’t already know, PuTTY is a free Windows SSH and Telnet client (which is actually now available for UNIX as well). It also serves as an XTerm emulator including X11 forwarding (plus general packet forwarding if required).
I’m often asked about what tools I recommend for certain tasks and today I was asked about some good replacements for Rational Rose (open source or inexpensive commercial ones). Although I’m not a huge fan of UML (I’ve seen too many efforts create reams of useless UML to be stored on shelves never to be seen or used again), I do think there are many great uses for UML. My most common use for it is in reverse-engineering someone else’s model so that I can better understand it. However, I’ve also been involved in creating UML diagrams for forward-engineering activities (when there’s appropriate time and resources available). If you need good UML generation tools but can’t afford Rose, MagicDraw is a really good choice. There are community and profession/enterprise editions. Another good tool (commercial but cheap) is Enterprise Architect by Sparx Systems in Australia. It can arguably do more than Rational Rose at a fraction of the price. I recommend it for a variety of architecting tasks (not just UML).
