Ranking my favourite dev tools
These are my favourite developer tools to use both at work and at home
1. GitHub Copilot
I write 90% less boilerplate code than I did a few years ago. It's useful for repetitive code, regex, and small utility functions. It's not perfect but the productivity boost is hard to ignore.
2. VSCode
VSCode feels less like an editor and more like an operating system for developers. The extension ecosystem is huge and somehow it manages to supports almost anything imaginable. I open it every single day without thinking.
3. Postman
Postman makes backend development way less painful. You can save collections, quickly test APIs, and debug requests. Most backend projects I work on eventually end up with a massive Postman collection.
4. Excalidraw
I use Excalidraw constantly for system design, infrastructure ideas, and explaining concepts visually. It feels much more natural than formal diagram tools. The hand-drawn style is appealing to me.
5. VSCode Pets
This extension reminds me I have cats to feed and improves my mood while coding. Having my pets walk around the bottom of the editor drives me to keep on going.
6. Vite
Vite solved so many problems which we used to have in the JS ecosystem. It has fantastic performance and most importantly removes Webpack. Start times aren't slow anymore, and reloads don't crash your computer.
7. GitHub Actions
Automating deployments and workflows feels incredibly satisfying once everything is set up correctly. GitHub Actions removed a lot of the manual deployment steps I used to deal with. When I started at my workplace, deployments were done via the terminal and would take forever. Now deployments are automated and done within 5 minutes tops.
8. Swagger
I use Swagger at work a lot. It's incredibly helpful especially for API development. The fastest way to tell whether an API project is healthy is by checking whether the Swagger docs still work. It's significantly easier than manual testing.
9. Chrome DevTools
This was my favourite tool when I first started out as a front end developer. You can do heaps of useful things like inspect network requests, debug frontend issues, and check the performance of your apps.
10. Notion
For the past two years Notion became my dumping ground for engineering thoughts, architecture ideas, and random notes. It's nice since everything is searchable in one place, and can be easily shared with peers.
Unexpected Developer Tools
Not dev tools, but oh well. Every dev needs these.
Spotify
I like to listen to music when I code. The only time I really turn it off is when I have to fully lock in. It makes arbitrary typing less boring. My personal choice is melodic EDM. Anything by Illenium, Seven Lions, or Said the Sky can get me coding for hours.
YouTube
YouTube is a goldmine for learning from random conference talks, architecture breakdowns, and videos I accidentally discover at 1am. The algorithm is great too, so after watching one great video you'll be introduced to others of the same calibre.
Reddit somehow solves technical issues faster than official documentation. Half the time the answer to a very specific bug is buried inside a thread from 4 years ago and for some reason is always by a deleted account. I learnt to consult Reddit for specific bugs before asking Copilot.
Coffee
I'd bet that most of the code right now was written by developers running on caffeine. We'd have a lot more outages if coffee didn't exist.
