DEV Community

Juan F.
Juan F.

Posted on

What apps, software, or tools do you use and why?

What are some of your favorite/useful/recommended application, software or tools used to program or stay productive or are just plain awesome.

Top comments (45)

Collapse
 
jamesj profile image
James J

General

Slack: Work/team based communication
Discord: General chat with other colleagues and friends
Skype (I know..): Communications with 'legacy' clients

Development

IntelliJ: Java work, IntelliJ works so much better than Eclipse/NetBeans (I believe so anyway)
WebStorm: any web based work (NodeJS, React, HTML, etc).
Notepad++: General file editing on Windows
Sublime: General file editing on Mac

Other

mRemoteNG: Server management
FileZilla: (S)FTP
ShareX: Screenshot & Screen-recording (GIF & MP4) management

And probably some other stuff that I use without even realising...

Collapse
 
shajorjita profile image
RJ • Edited

Background: I am primarily a java developer.

IDE:
*Eclipse
*Android Studio


Editor:
*Notepad++ (on Windows)
*Vim (on Linux, since I have no choice)


Remote connection:
*mRemoteNG Connection manager
*Putty
*RealVNC
*Windows Remote Desktop


Debugger/Profiler
*JVisualVM
*YourKit


Email/Collaboration/IM:
*Thunderbird
*Pidgin (provided by office, have no choice)
*(We are moving to slack soon)


Collapse
 
thomasthespacefox profile image
Thomas Leathers

I use many tools to program, but primarily i use:

  • GIMP - image editing and general graphics work. such as user interface graphics, logos, and so on
  • LibreOffice - vector graphics, user manuals, and so on.
  • geany - my preferred IDE. geany is fast, powerful and i like it.

though often, i find myself writing tools, sometimes for fun, other times because i need a rather specific tool to do something or other. when you start getting into things as complex as virtual machines that are not even binary, you start running into needs for quite specific applications...

Collapse
 
nelruk profile image
Nelson

I found the perfect replacement for GIMP and it's Affinity; don't get me wrong, I like GIMP but it's limited in some features. Affinity is a one-payment software. Worth every penny.

Oh, first time I see geany.

Collapse
 
legolord208 profile image
jD91mZM2

Goddamnit it's not for GNU/Linux

Collapse
 
juanferr profile image
Juan F.

first time hearing about Geany.

Collapse
 
chinmaykunkikar profile image
Chinmay Kunkikar

I love geany too

Collapse
 
skdomino profile image
Steve Domino • Edited

Terminal:

Development:

  • Chrome
  • Atom editor (one dark) - Amazing text editor
    • minimap
    • pigments
    • file-icons
  • Nanobox (Docker/VB) - App development/deployment
  • ngrok - Sharing localhost dev links

Working Remote:

  • Slack - Group chat
  • Discord - Group voice (not just for gaming!)
Collapse
 
andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

Second company I've heard of using Discord for work. Do you find using voice on Discord better than Slack?

Collapse
 
skdomino profile image
Steve Domino

We started using Discord before Slack had voice available. I would say that the voice quality is probably comparable, but Discord offers a lot more features. It's basically the "Slack" of voice (very comparable in design and features, just centered on voice).

Thread Thread
 
andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

Hmm interesting, Slack recently baked in screen sharing and it works just fine for us, but it's great to hear Discord works really well. Cool to hear companies are using software intended for gamers.

Collapse
 
bowedcontainer2 profile image
Matthew Pineda • Edited

Discord feels like a teenage version of Slack, lol.

Collapse
 
igormp profile image
Igor Moura

On Linux:

  • Urxvt with zsh/oh-my-zsh
  • Sublime text 3
  • Chrome Canary
  • Picocom for easy serial communication
  • Arduino IDE for those quick hacks
  • Postman whenever I need to mock HTTP requests
  • gdb (I'm all ears for a better/easier debugger recommendation)
  • KVM + libvirt
Collapse
 
val_baca profile image
Valentin Baca • Edited

macOS:

JetBrains Complete Suite (IntelliJ, etc.) - I love love love coding in IntelliJ and I just finally splurged on the complete the suite

Vim & MacVim - for editing everything else that JetBrains doesn't, or when I'm working over ssh

Spotify - I play this playlist nearly every day to "prime" my brain into work mode open.spotify.com/user/chaseman/pla...

Simple invaluable tools:

iTerm - Strictly better than Terminal, assigned a global shortcut

CopyClip - Keeps a running history of items copied to the clipboard. I don't use it every day, but when I do use it, it's a lifesaver

Spectacle - Makes putting windows side-by-side and maximizing windows easy.

Global New Tab Shortcut (Chrome plug-in) - assigned to Cmd+0 for super fast web access

Vimium (Chrome plug-in) - power of vim + Chrome

git-number: Allows you to use numbers in git instead of full path names. Really useful for java projects where the folders are deep.

Collapse
 
juanferr profile image
Juan F.

spectacle is awesome

Collapse
 
juanferr profile image
Juan F.

I use the following:

  • Flux - good on your eyes
  • Sublime Text 3 - editor
  • Trello - keeps me organized
  • Slack - communication
  • Zapier - automate some task
  • Ulysses - note taking, writing. up until it started being subscription based.
Collapse
 
jacoby profile image
Dave Jacoby

Ubuntu: I am a Linux guy, preferring command line stuff, and there are some very personal things about Ubuntu/Unity that I prefer, including how it implements Notify-OSD so I can use it to notify me of events I care about, and how I can use Upstart to tell if the screen is locked or not, so I can send notifications to my phone if I'm not there.

Perl: I am willing to try other languages if that's what the idea is built in, if it's easier to do a task in that language or if you just can't use anything else. I do a lot of JavaScript for that last reason, and for some things related to Google Calendars and FitBit, I found it easier to work in Python than anything else. But for most thing, I have built enough that I can tie all the things I want to do together using Perl, and my mind's pseudocode has always exported near-executable Perl.

Bash: I started out as a tcsh user, because that was what was default on the Solaris machines at the time, but having the same syntax between your shell and your shell scripts is good.

Reply: A friend used a Python REPL as his primary shell. I don't know how, and I don't really want to do that, but on occasion, being able to type some code and get your short-term answer is good. Reply is Perl's REPL.

Chrome: I use Firefox for diagnostic purposes and occasionally play with some new ones, but my daily driver is Chrome. My main thing is common bookmarks and history between all browsers, so I can look up things I saw on my phone when I get back to the office.

Session Buddy: A Chrome plugin that saves your tabs, because one too many times, a Chrome crash took my n open windows with m open tabs each down.

Dropbox: The "cool" thing I do is have my bin, lib and dev directories in Dropbox, so I have my same commands (mostly) on every machine which has a shell, which actually includes my Windows computers.

Pushover: This ties back to Perl and Ubuntu, because Perl is how I send the notifications, and if I'm not at my desk, I use Pushover to get them to my phone.

JuiceSSH with Hacker Keyboard: Trying to do Linux stuff on a phone or tablet sucks, but having a good SSH client and a keyboard that works like a desktop keyboard, with all the special characters you need to do all your Linux stuff, like using esc to get out of write mode in vim, is crucial.

Twitter: For some things, it's accountability. I send FitBit stats and my daily coffee intake to Twitter. I'm the computer guy in a biology lab, and I'm a developer in a campus full of admins, so Twitter is also my Slack/IRC, where I can pick up info and ask questions about topics I need to understand but have no way to find in my normal social circles.

3-D Printed Fixes to my Desktop: Using ASCII to describe, most keyboards and trackpads are set to go like this / but really should point like this \. I printed a few things so my trackpad and keyboard point the way that's best for my wrist, but still remember, wrist rests are bad for you; keep them arched, like a piano teacher would yell at you about.

Standing Desk: I've done so just over four years. As coder/admin/helpdesk in my lab, my job is to stay here, so my daily steps is embarrassingly low, but I maintain decent leg tone by standing all day. It works for me.

curl and jq: These are new additions to my workflow. We're working with a new third-party API at work, and if I work out how the API works (and doesn't) with curl rather than Perl, that makes the commands I send to their help desk more transferable. Once I know I can do a thing, I enshrine it in my language of choice.

Spotify on Linux, plus DBus: I can pause, play and skip to the next via command-line tools, allowing me to pause when people come to bother me without having to go to the far virtual desktop. Also,

Virtual Desktops: So I can segregate my projects.

git and github: Surprisingly, mostly for side projects and things not directly connected to my work, because our workflow was built to actively hinder before the widespread use of version control. But I keep side projects in it, because it's good and useful, and someday...

Teensy, and...: I use an IOGear KVM to switch between my two desktop computers, Windows 10 and Linux. (I don't use the V part.) I also use a Logitech Unifying Desktop to cut down on the number of wires on my desk. But my keyboard won't talk to my KVM, so I use a Teensy microcontroller in a Staples "Easy" button to send the keystroke I need to switch to Windows, mostly for Admin functions.

Baby Mirror: The mirror-on-a-mount that parents of infants put up so they can check on their children while driving. I put it up so, when people walk into my area, I can see them.

White Board: GTD tells us to use external memory, and for me, my to-do and repeated tasks go on the board so I don't have to always keep them in mind, and back-burner items don't go down the memory hole, like the clown in Inside Out.

Collapse
 
andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

I use MacDown for writing in Markdown. Love Alfred as my replacement for Spotlight search.

Also, I love Tomato Timer, which basically is a timer for the Pomodoro technique.

Collapse
 
monicag profile image
Monica Granbois

It is cool to see everyone's recommendations! The programming and desktop apps I use have already be mentioned. But one app I use that hasn't been mentioned is the Hemingway app. I use it when blogging. After creating a first draft I use the Hemingway website to edit my complicated sentences. I find it helps clarify my writing and thinking.

Collapse
 
defman profile image
Sergey Kislyakov

Other stuff:

  • Ruby with rbenv.
  • Docker with docker-compose.
  • Git with a bunch of custom aliases.
Collapse
 
sethmlarson profile image
Seth Michael Larson

PyCharm is single-handedly the greatest tool invented for working on Python. I've used all other IDEs designed for Python work in the past until I switched to PyCharm. If you're doing Python work and you haven't tried it yet you don't know what you're missing. :)

Collapse
 
dueppecn profile image
Christian Dueppe

Thought I add tools not yet mentioned or mentioned not so often.
Shifting to Visual Studio Code for my small projects. I like that it is intuitive and powerful.
Whenever there is a repetitive editing task, I switch back to emacs and its ability to record keyboard macros, because it is so much faster than writing a text processor with sed, awk asf.
I like umlet for sketching software designs.
I use snagit for screen captures.
Sometimes I use autohotkey for tasks that I can not automate any other way.
Powershell is a crazy language, but its access to the complete windows environment is worth some pain.
git bash when I get homesick for the good ol Unix days

Collapse
 
soundstruck profile image
Dina Gathe • Edited

Dev

iTerm2 + zsh/oh-my-zsh
Atom

  • emmet
  • vim-mode-plus
  • sync-settings
  • minimap
  • stylus Paw for api testing Git, GitKraken (for visualization sometimes), Bitbucket SQLPro Studio

Chrome w/:

  • Vue DevTools
  • OneTab
  • Vimium
  • JWT Debugger
  • Wappalyzer

Polypane (show mobile/tablet/desktop viewports simultaneously)
regexr.com/
VirtualBox + vagrant/ansible

Productivity:

Quiver for dev notes
Gmail w/Sortd
RescueTime keeps me honest!
Alfred w/powerpack
Flexiglass (window mgmt)
Trello
Slack
Clubhouse.io for longer projects
Dropbox
various apps from Setapp subscription (setapp.com/apps)

Design-y stuff:

Sketch
Astropad (use my iPad as graphic tablet)
Affinity Designer/Photo
Squash
Capto/Snagit (captures)
Shotty (screenshot mgmt)
Gif Brewery
I still use Fireworks sometimes because I haven’t figured out an easier way to do “path to marquee” or “marquee to path”! :-)

Collapse
 
niorad profile image
Antonio Radovcic

I use Notepad to edit my Winamp-Visualizations and Paint Shop Pro for creating Skins. ICQ for collaboration. For edits on my Myspace-Theme, I use the editor in Netscape.

Ok this is what 2001-me had to say. Now-me uses Emacs and iTerm all the way on OSX (which are even older, haha). Alfred, Moom and Bartender for productivity.

Some comments may only be visible to logged-in visitors. Sign in to view all comments.