Useful Tools - Programmers and Web Developers

[MetalGear]

• What tools do you find useful as a programmer and web developer?
• Am I missing something that might be useful?
• Maybe impostor syndrome is just kicking in...

• I started to program and am on my way to creating a web based digital product
• After some trial an error, I realized that there might be some best practices to follow
• I asked my friend what I absolutely need as a programmer and he gave me the list below:
  • Software:
    • Notepad++
    • GitHub
    • StackOverflow forum account
  • Hardware:
    • Dual monitors
    • Headphones
    • Caffeine

 

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[scottmsul]

I program both professionally for my day job and for my fastlane idea, I don't really use any of those lol. I edit with vim, I use bitbucket for my git repos because it's both free and private, I haven't posted on stackoverflow in months or years (although I do go there a lot to read other answers). I only have my laptop screen, I have earbuds (if I listen to music at all), and I only drink caffeine when I work out of coffee shops.

What do you absolutely need as a programmer and web developer?

You need to get good at the skill itself. The tools don't matter. Create as much stuff as you can to get better.

 

[TonyStark]

Brackets

 

[jon.M]

Sublime Text 3

 

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[JordanS]

He was pretty much spot on.

Sublime text 3, git, google, coffee.

 

[daru]

You need to be stubborn, have a lot of time and then not giving up. I actually use a lot of pen and paper to understand algorithms, concepts and drafting code architecture. Then a texteditor. I use Vim since I spend a lot of time writing and editing text.

You may also need a dog. There are two reasons for the dog.

 

[Ninjakid]

1. A computer (Petr Mitrichev wrote his first code without a computer, so that could be debatable)
   
2. Notepad, or a similar application
3. The installed language you're working with

Everything else you listed is preferable (except dual monitors), but not required. Caffeine and headphones are fantastic though.

Komodo and Visual Studio are my IDE's of choice

 

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[ApparentHorizon]

XAMPP
F12 on Chrome

 

[eliquid]

I've been programming since 1999 and I had none of those for the majority of time.

Recently I started using Notepad ++

The other stuff, I don't/haven't ever had for programming.

 

[Digamma]

This is just procrastinating, man.

You need something to write code in and then you need to, well, write the code.

Other things might be nice, but they are not necessary, and you certainly don't need to get them before you start.

 

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[Jimyy]

Weapon of choice, Atom.

Youtube is also very handy for beginners!

 

[NightFury]

No love for Visual Studio Code? I think it's awesome.

 

[Andrew MD]

That might be what he/she deems essentials but that doesn't mean it's yours, and if your new to it then those things are not important.
Ive been programming for years and never used multiple screens. Stick with a laptop and an editor (I'd suggest vim) and you'll be fine.

 

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[MetalGear]

• XAMPP
  F12 on Chrome

  
  Didn't know about F12 on Chrome <- probably the most mind blowing thing I learned today!

 

[MetalGear]

• Appreciate the feedback
• Maybe essentials is poor phrasing. Changed to "useful tools."
• I am asking what is in everyone's "kit" so I can save myself some potential hassle.
• If you read my post...you would see that I already started...
• Taking 5 minutes to sharpen my axe by asking in the forum seems like a no brainer.
• (I never knew about F12 on Chrome and I am so happy right now...)

 

[Andrew MD]

Tools I use:

• macbook (but any linux based os would be good)
• vim text editor (I use macvim) it has a steep learning curve but it's worth it. My vimrc file (which is used to config stuff) is here
• vs code text editor (here) if you dont want to invest time with vim then this is great
• Chrome with react and redux extensions for frontend stuff
• Nodejs with express or elixir with phoenix for backend systems
• Affinity designer for any graphic stuff
• SAFARI BOOKS!!! allows you to read technical books on pretty much everything. the best place to learn new tech imho
• Stack overflow for help/questions, N.b. my profile is here, always happy to help with any tech questions

 

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[letter9]

• What tools do you find useful as a programmer and web developer?
• Am I missing something that might be useful?
• Maybe impostor syndrome is just kicking in...

• I started to program and am on my way to creating a web based digital product
• After some trial an error, I realized that there might be some best practices to follow
• I asked my friend what I absolutely need as a programmer and he gave me the list below:
  • Software:
    • Notepad++
    • GitHub
    • StackOverflow forum account
  • Hardware:
    • Dual monitors
    • Headphones
    • Caffeine

Web programming is to broad to provide best workflow advice.

Firstly you should understand what you will be doing - frontend or backend, or both? Than what language will you use?
Depending on that one could recommend you what tools can make your life easier.

Without knowing more,
I would advice to check git/ sourcetree - will save you lots of time in future.
Docker - great tool to immitiate production environment as close as possible.
Github and stackexchange - to utilize solutions that already created by other people.

 

[jsk29]

Invest in a nice chair (eg. Herman Miller) or a standing desk to save yourself years of lower back pain.

I also recommend a pair of blue light blocking computer glasses if you work on coding projects at night and don't want to screw up your circadian rhythm.

 

[Jamshed33]

I use this tool to find out my website statistic, traffic, server, hosting location and many more AlexaRecords - free tool to monitor Alexa rank changes Even I can use this one for free and easily can get website details what I need.

 

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[Fox]

I love how you use all bullet points!

I would say the best resource is learning how to sell. No matter what you build or how it works you will need to sell people on that idea - either directly or indirectly. You are building something that will mean change so you have to get good at persuading and leading people.
Along with coding I would be learning this from day one.

After that I would also suggest writing which closely links to selling. These aren't coding related but once you get to a certain level with code you will wish you started the two of these a lot earlier. This is coming from the perspective of Fastlane. Of course for a regular coder it wouldn't matter but I am sure you want to be more than a cog in a machine.

 

[ReubenA]

Dash is pretty sick. Dash for macOS - API Documentation Browser, Snippet Manager - Kapeli

Hook it up to Alfred and you get instant searchable documentation for whatever

Another lesser known tool is SymbolHound: Search Better. Code Better.

Really all you need though, is a computer, code editor and a server to run said code

 

[MetalGear]

I forgot to mention that Trello and Asana are also great tools.

 

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[jon.M]

I also recommend a pair of blue light blocking computer glasses if you work on coding projects at night and don't want to screw up your circadian rhythm.

Have you tried a program named F.lux? Pretty conventient, it reduces the screen's blue light at night. Maybe computer glassess are better, I don't know.

 

[Argue]

All answers are fantastic. I agree with @Fox that learning sales and writing is imperative.

Lack of effective copy/writing, and the standard to sell will be deterrent to your business.

 

[-Brian-]

Not really a programmer, more of a SysAdmin that has done a lot of utility programs.

I find these things useful

• Macbook Pro (way more productive than I was using Windows and Linux as my desktop) - homebrew is awesome
• github (public repos are free, and for starring other developer projects)
• bitbucket for my own private repos (free)
• PyCharm (or any of the jetbrains.com IDE's), yes I know VI, etc, but I've grown to love it. "best IDE" is a religious war, just avoid it and use what works for you
• Evernote (yes I pay for it, its cheap and I can work offline with ideas while on an airplane)
• KeePassXC for keeping track of passwords
• Dropbox/GoogleDrive (or any other cloud based file repo) for keeping above keypass db safe
• DevOps stack [ vagrant, packer, terraform ] for building local test instances and remote cloud instances (amazon aws)
• Deadmau5 music

 

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[daru]

Not really a programmer, more of a SysAdmin that has done a lot of utility programs.

I find these things useful

• Macbook Pro (way more productive than I was using Windows and Linux as my desktop) - homebrew is awesome
• github (public repos are free, and for starring other developer projects)
• bitbucket for my own private repos (free)
• PyCharm (or any of the jetbrains.com IDE's), yes I know VI, etc, but I've grown to love it. "best IDE" is a religious war, just avoid it and use what works for you
• Evernote (yes I pay for it, its cheap and I can work offline with ideas while on an airplane)
• KeePassXC for keeping track of passwords
• Dropbox/GoogleDrive (or any other cloud based file repo) for keeping above keypass db safe
• DevOps stack [ vagrant, packer, terraform ] for building local test instances and remote cloud instances (amazon aws)
• Deadmau5 music

How does this work? Is it really safe on those services? I don't understand.
Spideroak better choice?

 

[waveman]

Any IDE that allows you to split your screen (Brackets).

The ability to name, categorize and version your stuff well.

Pen and paper is still good for working out your app flow, logic flow, and objects/classes you want to use. No need for fancy UML diagrams or typing out all that.

Notepad for storing older or unworking bits of code you may want to keep or come back to.

I don't have a second monitor or a github account. Usually I'll just grab the raw file I need, paste it into a working folder, back it up, then start copying from it.

 

[PatrickWho]

• What tools do you find useful as a programmer and web developer?
• Am I missing something that might be useful?
• Maybe impostor syndrome is just kicking in...

Tools

- I use VS Code.
- Git, Node / NPM
- I highly recommend a blog to help you document your learning. It's great to share, and will help you solidify your learning.
- With the blog you can post code to Github, though I have taken a liking to CodePen lately.

Other Things:

My weapons of choice are JavaScript and Laravel PHP, so I highly recommend the following learning resources:

- Front End Masters (Kyle Simpson's courses are particularly awesome for learning the deeper things of JavaScript)
- Laracasts for Laravel
- I love Node.js and learned quite a bit from Plural Sight courses
- I've heard good things about Wes Bos' JavaScript 30 course.
- The Pragmatic Programmer - Andrew Hunt / David Thomas
- Fun Fun Function on YouTube

Imposter Syndrome

Just embrace the confusion. Programming is a never-ending journey.

Just focus on building tons of stuff, striving for clean, readable code. Expertise is built in increments, so just keep challenging yourself.

You'll know many things others won't, as they will know many things you don't.

If you can plug into a community of individuals that enjoy knowledge sharing that could help. Just make sure you're not trying to learn too many different things. You'll won't even become a jack of all trades that way. You'll just become vaguely familiar with a bunch of programming buzzwords.

 

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[-Brian-]

How does this work? Is it really safe on those services? I don't understand.
Spideroak better choice?

The strength of the keypass db is not in the cloud drive provider, but the passphrase used to encrypt the keypass db. If you are more paranoid, use KeePassXC (KeePassXC Password Manager) in combination with a Yubikey (YubiKey 4 Security Keys for Two Factor Authentication | Yubico Store), have to use a passphrase and use the yubikey to unlock the db. If someone steals your keypass db and uses malware to steal your passphrase on your computer, they cannot steal the private key inside of the yubikey (secure hardware that never exposes the private key).

Never used SpiderOak, but not sure how they can claim to be anymore secure than any other 3rd party service provider.

Storing KeePass database in cloud. How safe?

At the time of the URL above, don't think Yubikey's were around as another layer.

 

[mws87]

Have you tried a program named F.lux? Pretty conventient, it reduces the screen's blue light at night. Maybe computer glassess are better, I don't know.

+1 for Flux. I'm used to coding until my eyes drop. I would wake up groggy with sandpaper eyes every morning. Started using Flux and that went away very quickly.