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What's your all-time favorite development tool or software, and how has it improved your workflow?
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Top comments (31)
If I'd need to choose one I'd say WebStorm (or any other JetBrains' IDE, depending on tech you tackle), as it has everything (I mean, not "everything" mentioned in another comment but just simply everything 😅) and more.
Yeah, nowadays we need a lot of extensions in vscode to cover the features that WebStorm offers. I love the usages and references navigation, it's like the Visual Studio IDE but for JS
Love working with Webstorm!
x2
For Windows User, this one little bit underated
Everything
Yes, the software is called Everything. "Everything" is a freeware desktop search utility for Windows developed by VoidTools. It can rapidly find files and folders by name. Unlike the Windows search, "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on your computer.
The utility is free, although VoidTools suggests a modest $5 donation. You can simply download it from the VoidTools website, and run the file to install it. It will then take a few moments to create its index, after which all of its features are immediately available.
The Everything service helps Everything index NTFS volumes and monitor USN Journals. Everything can run as a standard user when the Everything service is installed. On XP or earlier, the Everything service is not required.
Is the best tool for windows, works like a F1. And you have the posibility to find with regex, between dates, filter by file sizes and much more.
Wow, I think it's a little bit like a desktop version of autojump?
I did not know about autojump but it really helps a lot in term of searching the whole thing in my laptop
I love step debuggers. From the first time I used the debugger in Borland turbo c++ 3.0, I have been fascinated with having the ability to debug my code this way.
One of the things that frustrates me so much in the cloud spaces is that I can’t always use a debugger, which is no fun. Ruby didn’t even have a debugger when I first used it.
I love profilers, too.
straceis also a lot of fun, and I miss it dearly on macOS.brew install dtrace/usr/bin/dtrace:)
Edit: If that doesn't work, yell at me and I'll double-check the next time I'm at the Mac.
Edit 2: 8thlight.com/insights/dtrace-even-...
I lied, no homebrew needed, it comes built-in
I appreciate that, but dtrace requires elevated privs. It’s a really bad habit to get into, relying on elevated privileges in your development workflow. Some processes will refuse to run with those elevated privileges, too.
Additionally, strace and dtrace give you differently formatted output, and behave differently. As odd as it may seem, sometimes folks have preferences for one tool over another. In addition to the security hygiene concerns, I have a preference for strace, and prefer to monitor system calls from user space.
I understand that it can sometimes feel good to comment as though you know something that others do not, but it didn’t feel great to receive your comment the way it was offered.
My extreme apologies. I had forgot that. Doesn't strace as well though? Or am I remembering incorrectly?
Naw, strace works only in userland via ptrace.
I personally love Quokka.js extension for vscode. Since I write a lot of random scripts, it's amazing to verify a syntax or do a very small prototype which runs instantly.
I also like the instant deploy solutions like vercel, netlify, surge etc to name a few. They break the barrier of entry to devs into world of internet hosting
I couldn't install it and configure correctly u.u
I love three tools the most:
Raycast is definitely one of my favourites (macOS only). Huge boost to my productivity.
For anyone interested, here’s my full setup and the tools I use.
Vim, rg, fd, lsd, git, Windows Terminal, nimbletext.com/, Total Commander, ImageMagick, FFmpeg, pandoc, reveal.js
🤘Vim!
my fav hardware developer tool is definitely my keyboard. I splurged a few years ago and got a Moonlander, and it was soooo worth it!
for software, I'm gonna have to go with Warp terminal. I switched over about a year ago and have been so happy with it. Being able to get rid of some other tools and config files from my setup in favor of stuff they already have built in was really nice.
I love the Playwright extension on VSCode. It just makes writing automated tests so much easier!