Arachnophilia Got Updated!

One of the things I really love about Java applications is that, in most cases, such programs are cross-platform, so you can easily use on Windows the same software that you're using on Mac or on some Linux workstation - as long as you're forced to use more than just Apple's Mac OS X, of course. Well, if you need a utility combining average Web page development capabilities with general programming features(it could also be used as a text editor, after all), then Arachnophilia is a choice worth checking out, especially since it got updated a few days ago.

The last version, namely Arachnophilia 5.4 Build 2257, is still "CareWare," and despite the fact it may seem just "another kind of freeware," I really love the idea behind it. If you want to know all about this, you should check the official page about the CareWare Idea, but if you don't want to waste your time, here's an excerpt that will make you change your mind and check the page above, after all: to use Arachnophilia for free, you have to "stop whining for an hour, a day, a week, your choice, and you will have earned your copy of Arachnophilia. Say encouraging words to young people,

make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not). Show by example that we don't need all we have in order to be happy and productive." Pretty good deal, don't you think?

Since words are nothing without something to show, it should be enough to tell you that Arachnophilia offers a built-in FTP client, syntax highlighting for HTML, JavaScript, Python, SQL, PHP, and a few more, a word count feature, a "table wizard," support for external Java/C++ compilers, and many other features that you'll see for yourselves once you grab the small setup package from the Arachnophilia web page.

Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, and Arachnophilia only seems to support PPC Macs for now, while no built-in HTML preview is available yet. Anyway, the "CareWare Idea" is great, and since the program isn't that bad, either, you may even consider using it on a regular basis, especially if you're still stuck with an older PowerPC-based Mac.