Tools & Skills
Best Dev Tools for a Beginner Software Developer
A comprehensive guide to some of your most important tools in software development
Over the past year, the global pandemic has changed the world intensely and irreversibly. More than just forcing us to work at home, this new work landscape has been a catalyst to re-evaluate the way that we work, and pushed us to develop new systems of getting things done.
Some of these tools have been profoundly helpful to me when I needed them. Please add more tools in the comments section to help out the web development community and possibly really help out the project of an upstart coder.
Git
Git is probably one of the most important tools in a developer’s toolbelt because it is the industry standard for version tracking (aka tracking the updates of all different files on a project).
As a free and open-source version control system, Git is actively maintained and used by developers all over the world to track changes made to files.
GitHub
GitHub is a cloud-hosted platform for code, that’s free if it’s being used on a “personal use” basis. It works with Git on both you and your colleagues’ computers, serving as a point of origin, or foundation of truth for anyone working on the code.
You and your collaborators upload your code to GitHub periodically, and GitHub provides a toolset to help manage changes to the code over time.
Over 56 million developers worldwide use GitHub to build and ship software.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code, or VS Code for short, is a sleek code editor that supports debugging, version control, and task running, giving devs the tools they need to maintain a quick code-build-debug workflow.
It is the most used IDE (integrated development environment) in the world.
It’s also open-source and can run on pretty much any operating system, meaning that there’s a large community making sure that the program is at its best at all times.
Figma
Figma is a cloud-based design tool, similar to Sketch and Adobe XD in functionality, but with big differences that make it better for team collaboration.
Figma works on any operating system that runs a web browser. Macs, Windows PCs, Linux machines, and even Chromebooks can be used with Figma.
It is the only design tool of its type that does this, and in companies that use hardware running different operating systems everyone can still share, open, and edit Figma files.
Chrome Dev Tool
This set of tools is built directly into the Chrome browser and enables devs to edit pages on the fly. It’s extremely convenient and dynamic for even beginner devs.
MDN (Mozilla Developer Network) Web Docs
MDN Web Docs (formerly known as the Mozilla Developer Network or MDN) is a free resource for in-depth articles about all sorts of web development components such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and much more. If you’re looking to brush up on some of your knowledge, this free encyclopedia might be just the thing for you.
Netlify
Netlify probably one of the best places to host your static website. It works by connecting to your GitHub repository to pull your website’s source code.
After that, it will run a build process to pre-render your website’s pages into static HTML. The resulting pages will then be distributed and deployed across a wider range of content delivery networks.
Trello
Trello is a project management and team collaboration tool. Trello has a similar appearance to a board with sticky notes — projects and tasks can be organized into columns and moved around easily to indicate workflow, project ownership, and status.
Stack Overflow
A well-loved and respected online community, developers come here to find answers to common programming questions and share their knowledge with others.
Extras:
Here are some bonus programs that can also be pretty useful in web development.
Gist:-
Instantly shares code, notes, and snippets.
Carbon:-
Creates and shares beautiful images of your source code.
Choose a License:-
An open-source license protects contributors and users. Businesses and savvy developers won’t touch a project without this protection.
Gitignore.io:-
Web service designed to help you create .gitignore files for your Git repositories.
TinyPNG:-
Smart PNG and JPEG compression.
DB Fiddle:-
An online SQL database playground for testing, debugging, and sharing SQL snippets. Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
Wappalyzer:-
Identifies the technology used on websites.
ngrok:-
ngrok is a tool that creates secure introspectable tunnels to localhost webhooks for development and debugging. It allows a team to share information amongst each other easily.
