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Jess Lee
Jess Lee

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What is your top tool that most devs would be surprised you use regularly?

DEV is in the process of launching a podcast and we'd love for you to be involved! We're recording the episodes in advance, and this week we'd like to know:

What is your top tool that most devs would be surprised you use regularly?

If you'd like to participate, please:

  • Call our Google Voice at at +1 (929)500-1513 and leave a message 📞
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  • OR, if you don't want your voice recorded...just leave a comment here and we'll read your response aloud for you 🗣

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Thank you!

Latest comments (93)

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mycodelesswebsite profile image
My Codeless Website

I use my own tools haha. There's a tool I created myself, that helps you to detect how a website was built – mycodelesswebsite.com

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v6 profile image
🦄N B🛡 • Edited

Ice packs and little fans. They make my computer go faster, because Linux.

If we're allowed to get a bit metaphorical with the word "tool," it's listening. Yes, I know, that doesn't really count as a tool. I am the tool.

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mauriciojaramillo profile image
Mauricio Jaramillo

Textpad 6.x for Windows is a powerful tool to search in LOG files, even in code files ... recurse subfolders and other options may be helpful.

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peterwitham profile image
Peter Witham

Probably using Keyboard Maestro for some code snippets and aliases that I like to have synced across my machines.

Yes, there are other tools, I even have some of them but the muscle memory of the shortcuts is firmly planted in my brain and they just work.

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foresthoffman profile image
Forest Hoffman

For Git operations, I use VS Code purely for making commits and resolving merge conflicts. For anything else, I use the Git CLI in Bash. I've used GUI alternatives before, like the GitHub Desktop app, Source Tree, and they've all lacked features in one way or another. I end up using the CLI anyway, so deviating is just a waste of time. I wish it wasn't the case, but that's the reality I've found.

 
rhymes profile image
rhymes

switch to ripgrep, come to the dark side :D

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binyamin profile image
Binyamin Green

Okay, hear me out - VS Code.

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v6 profile image
🦄N B🛡

Surprised? No.

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elanandkumar profile image
Anand Kumar

excalidraw.com
I use this for like wire frames or mocks or to take notes too. It is awesome but simple to use.

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ajboni profile image
ajboni

I do all git and docker operations on vscode.
It feels 'wrong to open an empty vscode to stop a container but Its quick and awesome

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inozex profile image
Tiago Marques • Edited
  • Windows Virtual Desktops + On Board Memory Mouse macro keys to switch to previous/next virtual desktop
  • Mouse Without Borders (I have always my mouse+keyboard connect to the desktop, but I have a work laptop which I control with the same kb/mouse)
  • ShareX (I started recently to use as replacement to Instant Eyedropper, because it has the color picker + more functionalities)
  • Windows Clipboard History
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joshichinmay profile image
Chinmay Joshi

I take notes inside Gmail’s drafts.

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codingmindfully profile image
Daragh Byrne

Code/SQL generation by Excel/Sheets spreadsheet.

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codingmindfully profile image
Daragh Byrne

Also I used whatwpthemeisthat.com/ a lot when I did wordpress dev.

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tmonika profile image
Monika Tiruchanur

'Meld' tool to compare two folders. By this I mean when a repo is used as a dependency in another repo, and I made changes in the folder present in node_modules, how do I make sure to not loose any of these changes and push them to the actual repo? Using this meld. I got to know this from one of my colleague some years back and I still use it.

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carlosguzman profile image
Carlos Guzmán

xfce4-timer-plugin to run my pomodoros 🍅

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johnkazer profile image
John Kazer • Edited

Whimsical.com, for brainstorming simple wireframes, flowcharts and mind maps all in one canvas.