DEV Community: Dhruv Bansal

Stop using IDEs and instead use these editors in 2021

Dhruv Bansal — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 07:13:36 +0000

In the earlier days, it was mandatory to use an IDE like JetBrains, or Eclipse, etc for development and programming. But today the text editors have become so advanced that the need for a full fledged IDE is reducing tremendously.
A code editor is one of the most important tools for any developer/programmer/engineer who writes code everyday. It directly makes a difference on productivity, hence it is really important to choose a good code editor. However, The definition of a good editor is different for different people. It depends on what languages and frameworks you use, whether you prefer light weight and fast editors or more feature packed full fledged IDEs. So today, we are gonna discuss about such editors which you should definitely try out.

Notepad++

If you are a casual programmer and do light tasks like writing basic web pages, etc, this is a good choice for you. It is just your notepad, but with coding abilities. It is freely available for windows and linux. Check it out here.

Atom

This is a text editor by Github. They call it "The hackable editor for the 21st Century". And to the most extent, that's true. You can customize almost everything in it as you like. It supports themes, packages, and syntax themes too. Moreover, it is lightning fast and supports the Github workflow amazingly well. Check it out here.

Sublime

This is the time tested editor. It has a free unlimited trial plan as well as a pro plan with 100$ license forever. It supports modern features like autocompletion, linting, syntax highlighting and supports community made themes and extensions. Check it out here.

VsCode

It is a light version of the Visual Studio IDE by microsoft made just for writing code. It was originally launched in 2015, back when editors like sublime text and brackets were super popular in the industry. Now, it is has grown to be most popular editor used in the tech and programming community. It is actively maintained by Microsoft and is open source. It supports extensions, themes, and is highly highly customizable. This is what most developers recommend to beginners as well as anyone looking to write code. Check it out here.

Vim

This is the legendary editor which comes pre-installed with unix based systems(macOS and linux), it is difficult to master as it has a steep learning curve, but gives a programmer real superpowers once mastered. It will increase the programming speed exponentially. It is mostly used by experienced programmers and is not targeted for beginners. However its worth checking out. Check it out here.

TL;DR: If you want to select a code editor today, i strongly recommend to use VsCode as it is beginner friendly and easily customizable. You can also try out different editors and choose the one you are most comfortable with.

If you like my article, consider giving me a follow:
Github: thesmartdeveloperr
Instagram: thesmartdeveloperr
Twitter: ursmartengineer

What do you prefer, a text editor or IDE? Comment down below and let me know.

How I got Tabnine Pro for free as a Student Developer and you can too

Dhruv Bansal — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 05:32:15 +0000

We all know that @tabnine is one of the best AI powered Code Completion Extensions out there today. It is available for a variety of text editors and IDEs and also offers free pro plan for students.
Yes, you heard it right!!
As far as i know, there are two ways to get Tabnine Pro for free as long as you are a student:

Using an school issued email
Providing your documents for verification

1)Using your school issued email

If your school/uni provides a .edu domain email address, you are all set and don't need anything else. Just send them an email and the team will verify your student status. You should receive your license within 1-2 days max.

2)Providing your proof documents

This is how i got my pro license, as my University does not provide .edu mail addresses to students. I was already using the free version for a while before, then saw that they had a student version.
So, I emailed the support team explaining that i don't have a school issued email but would love to use the full version. I got a quick reply within 12 hours and they asked me to attach my ID card, and a link to my university website, and they would be happy to provide me a Pro license. I did the same and got a reply next day, saying that my student status is verified and i just have to log back in my account, and i will have the Pro version.
So, this is how i got my hands on Tabnine Pro, and so far i am loving it. I have used it for last 15 days or so, and tested it with C++, Python, React, etc languages and it performs beyond expectations.
If you are a student and into development and stuff, or just into programming, I would strongly recommend this extension. Even if you are not a student, the free version also has a lot of amazing features which can help you increase your productivity and code more in less time.
Hope you get some help from my content.

Consider to give me a follow:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesmartdeveloperr

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ursmartengineer

Top 5 coolest VsCode Themes you should try.

Dhruv Bansal — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 03:50:24 +0000

1) Shades of Purple

If you are a fan of purple, you are absolutely gonna love this theme. It was one of the first 'Shades of X' themes. Nowadays, you can find shades of orange, blue, pink, etc very easily in the Cs Code marketplace. Even if you are not a purple fan, this theme is worth giving a try.
Check it out here.

2) SynthWave 84

If you ever dreamt about neon themes in Vs Code, congrats, because your dreams just came true. This is the neon theme for VS Code, for all the Neon lovers. It can be customized as well as the neon glow can be turned on or off.
According to me(and apparently a lot of other devs), this is the coolest VS Code theme ever developed.
Check it out here.

3) Cyberpunk 2077 themes

This, as the name indicates, is inspired from the Cyberpunk 2077 game which was launched in 2020 last year. It looks super cool and will make you code even more and inspire you every day. It is worth a try.
Check it out here.

4) Material Themes

This is just a must have, and if you only want to install one theme from all the 5 i am telling about, this would be it. This theme is a collection of several themes flavoured to different styles like material oceanic, material palenight, etc. It merges well with the code and the syntax highlighting looks good.
Check it out here.

5) Bearded Themes

Don't get fooled by its fancy name, this theme is a collection of 20 themes for different people and for different needs. It support syntax highlighting well and works well and is quite a fast one.
Check it out here.

Conclusion

There are 1000s of other themes available out there. But i thought these to be the most interesting ones and significantly different ones. So go ahead try out few themes and then go with the ones you love.

Comment your favorite VS Code themes below and let me as well as others know.

ThankYou.

Must have Vs Code extensions for beginners in 2021

Dhruv Bansal — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 10:21:03 +0000

Today there are dozens of code editors and IDEs available out there. But, there is absolutely no doubt that VsCode is the leading editor of choice by most developers. It is what most modern devs today recommend to a beginner to start with.
It is a free to use, open source, and highly customizable code editor with IDE like features, and is backed by Microsoft.
Also, it can be made even more powerful with the help of extensions(available from the VsCode marketplace) to improve our workflow as beginners.
Here are the top 10 extensions which everyone should install with VsCode.

1) Prettier

This is an awesome code formatter which automatically rearranges your code according to the best practices when you run it in a source file. You can also configure it to run when you save the file you are working on.
Check out Prettier on VsCode marketplace.

2) Code Runner

This is a must have if you are using languages like C, C++, Java, NodeJs, Python, etc. It appears as a play button on the top right corner in your VsCode instance. You can run any file by clicking this button and it will run in the integrated terminal. Believe me, it will be super handy and you will regret not using it before. You can also run any file using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+N on windows/linux and Ctrl+Option+N on mac devices.
Check out Code Runner on VsCode marketplace.

3) Live Server

This extension, as the name suggests, create a temporary server right on your machine(at port 5500 by default), and you can run your HTML, CSS, etc directly without having the refresh again and again.
Check out Liver Server on VsCode marketplace.

4) Bracket Pair Colorizer

Whatever the Programming language you are working on, this extension will make the matching brackets of the same color so you no longer have to focus on which bracket belongs to which function, etc and can focus more on coding better. It is a real life saver many times.
Check out Bracket Pair Colorizer on VsCode marketplace.

5) Color Highlighter

This is a simple yet cool one, it just colors the entire hex code or the color name whenever it sees one. It is better than the VsCode's default color preview square and just feels way better.
Check out Color Highlighter on VsCode marketplace.

6) Auto Rename Tag

Have you ever been in a state where you wrote like about 100 lines or more of html, and then have to change a lot of tags you have there. If so, this one is for you. With this extension installed, you just have to change the starting tag name and the closing tag will be automatically changed correctly. It is a big time saver and makes you more efficient at writing markup.
Check out Auto Rename Tag on VsCode marketplace.

7) CSS Peak

Another productivity based extension in the house. This will be helpful when you want to know what styles are being applied to a html element(or a tag), instead of going all the way to the css files, you can just use this and see the styles. Moreover, you can edit those styles as per your liking and it will be changed in the CSS as well, right from you HTML.
Check out CSS Peak on VsCode marketplace.

8) Peacock

This will allow you to change the color of your VsCode sidebar as well as menubar to whatever color you want. You can set it to any hex code you like, this is just a great way to change the look and feel of your editor as make it more personalized according to your needs and the workflows.
Check out Peacock on VsCode marketplace.

9) Code Spell Checker

This extension will save your life when you mistakingly write wrong spelling for a function or just make a type in some file. It works like a normal linter and underlines the wrong spelled code part which you can correct and save yourself countless hours of debugging.
Check out Code Spell Checker on VsCode marketplace.

10) Git Lens

This is a super duper powerful extension. If you are a git or Github user, you absolutely need this!!
It shows the last changed in the file along with timestamp as well as author's name, it can also be used in several other ways to make yourself more productive.
Check out GitLens on VsCode marketplace.

So, Finally we did it. These are the top 10 extensions every beginner should install and try out.

Apart from these, there are thousands of VsCode extensions available freely on the marketplace and new ones are always being added.
What are some of the extensions you guys recommend other than these? Comment down below and let everyone know...
ThankYou.

Trick the Github contribution graph and get more green squares.

Dhruv Bansal — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 06:18:42 +0000

Introduction

Hey developers, today I am sharing a cool javascript script which you can use to get more green squares on your Github profile, even in the past days, weeks, months or even years, even if you have zero contributions on your profile, you can make it to as much as possible in just seconds with this script.
Not even this, you can also make contributions for future dates, and then just see them rolling on your profile as green squares on those dates.
It is all possible with this cool script.
Before:
After:

How does that work?

Every activity you do from your account like creating a repo, commenting, pulling, merging, etc as a contribution. It does not matter if you do it on your repos with only you contributing, or a repo with 100k stars, its a contribution in Github's eyes.
So we are just going to make use of this feature and create a new repo(private) on our profile and then write a JS script which will automatically change the content of a file(temporary JSON file) as much times as we want in just few seconds. And voila, we should get the magical green squares as reward.
(note: You might wanna enable the 'show private contributions on profile' in your Github contribution chart options as shown below.)

The Project

Here is the
Link to Github Repo
, feel free to clone or fork it and try it out for yourself. Do give me a follow if you like the project.

Credits

This idea is inspired from a youtube video i came across recently. Here is the video link, it contains step by step coding and explanation plus demo.
Youtube Video

Caution

This article is only for educational purposes.
I don't encourage anyone to use this to your unfair advantage over others. However you are free to just try it and learn.

ByPass your college/University firewall and access everything privately on the internet

Dhruv Bansal — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 07:47:47 +0000

Hi Everyone, this is gonna be my first post here on DEV and i am really excited about it. So please be soft on me.

Today, i am gonna share with you guys a really cool way to bypass your college or university internet restrictions on the LAN or wifi you get. For example, in my own college campus, we have a free wifi and lan service for the students. But they have blocked a lot of internet sites like all adult sites, torrent sites, and a lot of other useful sites as well which students might find useful in day to day usage. So without wasting any more of your time, lets start.

We will be discussing 2 ways to do the desired thing we are here for-:
1) Using a VPN
2) Using a custom DNS

Using a VPN

As simple as it sounds, using a VPN is a very good option when it comes to bypassing your restricted college firewall and having privacy on the internet.
So the VPNs i recommend are proton vpn in the free category and NORD and EXPRESS VPN in the paid ones.
If you are just willing to try out a free option go with proton as it offers a pretty generous free plan which gives you multiple servers in 3 countries namely US, Japan and NewZealand.

Using a Custom DNS

If a VPN doesn't work for you, i recommend the more technical option which is using a DNS other than your default one. Sometimes what colleges do is using their own custom dns which blocks certain websites/categories of websites due to which using a VPN also does not work.
So this option should work fine as far as i know.
Now the solution:
Search for 1.1.1.1 on google, the first option you will see will be from Cloudflare's website, visit their site and download the Cloudflare warp app for your os and install it accordingly.
Then just connect to your college/uni wifi/lan and then switch on the Cloudflare-warp app's switch button, this will enable a custom dns with a VPN as well.

Now you are free to use the internet privately without any restrictions.

Do comment any questions or problems and i will be happy to answer.
Thanks for Reading.