tools

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems
TOOLS

   <event> (TOOLS) One of the oldest {object-oriented}
   conferences, with 18 published proceedings volumes.  TOOLS is
   organised by {Interactive Software Engineering}.

   (1995-12-29)

from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)

TOOLS. The Massachusetts act of assembly of 1805, c. 100, which provided 
that "the tools of any debtor necessary for his trade and occupation, should 
be exempted from execution," was held to designate those implements which 
are commonly used by the hand of one man, in some manual labor necessary for 
his subsistence. The apparatus of a printing office, such as types, presses, 
&c. are not therefore included under the term tools. 13 Mass. Rep. 82; 10 
Pick. 423; 3 Vern. 133; and see 2 Pick. 80; 5 Mass. 313. 
     2. By the forty-sixth section of the act of March 2, 1789, 1 Story's 
Laws U. S. 612, the tools or implements of a mechanical trade of persons who 
arrive in the United States, are free and exempted from duty.