From early explorations of non-linear video and story-telling engines, over synchronized multiscreen video installations and fully automatic machine theatre projects to capture heavy computer vision experiments, software has always been at the heart of our artwork. While in the beginning the incentive to start programming was that no third party solutions that fully met our needs were available, the act of writing code has over the years become a centerpiece of the creative process itself. Software turned out to be the ultimate material, allowing to create from nothing but thoughts and intellect. The levels of abstraction it both enables and enforces by its very nature are unparalleled and if at all only compareable to what happens while creating music. Having experienced the so called digital revolution first hand over the past thirty years, software as a means of expression also always felt very much contemporary and as such presented a logical fit when looking for ways to reflect on what's going on around and in turn inside. With reoccuring needs, parts of the code created over time have been distilled into reusable building blocks and - under the term 'htools' - we are making these available to others for non-commercial use under CC licenses or as little self-cost apps for the small handheld computers of today: dsj | nmj | mnet | TouchDAW