DEV Community

Tools that make me fast and productive

Kushagra Gour on August 03, 2017

I have been asked a lot of times how am I able to take out time to do so many side-projects, play musical instruments, draw etc apart from regular ...
Collapse
 
rina profile image
Rina

Re: "Web Maker", thanks a bunch this perfect for work.

Collapse
 
ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Agreed!

Collapse
 
chinchang profile image
Kushagra Gour

Thanks Rina and Ben _^

Collapse
 
daveblythe profile image
Dave Blythe (he/him)

Agreed! This is fantastic!

Collapse
 
rhymes profile image
rhymes

iterm2 + oh my zsh + z is a superpower! :-)

I have been using Sublime since forever (before that TextMate and before that Emacs) and you're not definitely the first to rave about Visual Studio Code. I need to check it out. I need motivation though, changing text editor is such a monumental feat. You need to relearn shortcuts, muscle memory and so on.

Thanks for the article!

Collapse
 
chinchang profile image
Kushagra Gour

Install VSCode + Sublime Text Keymap extension on it - you have a better Sublime Text now! :)

Collapse
 
rhymes profile image
rhymes

ahhaha thanks will do. :-)

Collapse
 
jcmsalves profile image
Joao Alves

Definitely have to try ClipMenu looks like I'm missing that one. I personally have atom on hand for basic stuff I need to do as I use Android Studio as an IDE. Jetbrains IDE's are definitely there on the top.

Collapse
 
eonist profile image
Eon

I love atom 😭

Collapse
 
arandilopez profile image
Arandi López

Same, I tried with vscode but I saw it like a ugly copy of atom. And I really don't trust in Microsoft at all, neither their OSS

Collapse
 
eonist profile image
Eon

Trust being keyword here. More and more software is becoming "subscription" based. M$ 2019: VSCode is now apart of Dev 365 subscription. :P

Thread Thread
 
rubberduck profile image
Christopher McClellan

Unlikely to happen. Code's core is open source. MS just adds their branding on top of the tool. If they do put it behind a paywall (again, unlikely) it would be forked in no time.

Collapse
 
dominicduffin1 profile image
Dominic Duffin

Me too - although I haven't tried using VS Code.

Collapse
 
ssmusoke profile image
Stephen Senkomago Musoke

Thanks for sharing, And for us who are not terminal savy here is my summary list:

  1. Intellij Suite of IDEs - Idea as the generic one for Java/XML and others for web, Python, Android. I use Datagrip for database connections and management

  2. Iterm (of course)

  3. Atom - everyone needs a text editor at some point even for editing markdown and files not needing an IDE

  4. SimpleNote - sync my notes across all different sites

  5. Firefox Developer Edition (faster than the regular Firefox) + Chrome of course

  6. Mac - Homebrew and Cask package managers, you can install most of the software under the sun with dependencies managed for you

My current list of tools is ssmusoke.com/2017/02/06/11-tools-i...

Collapse
 
bitwiseman profile image
Liam Newman • Edited

Re: "Spectacles"
I agree it is quite useful (though its name is actually "Spectacle"). However, even better than positioning your windows, is not positioning your windows. Using a tiling window manager, Amethyst in my case, completely transformed my workflow. When you combine with it with multiple "Spaces" and the keyboard and mouse shortcuts for switching spaces, it is mind blowing. Now on the rare occasions I have to turn Amethyst off, my first reaction is "Why have my windows stopped reading my mind?"

Collapse
 
chinchang profile image
Kushagra Gour

I'll definitely checkout Amethyst! Thanks for suggesting Liam :)

Collapse
 
rad_hombre profile image
Matthew Orndoff • Edited

Big ups on Web Maker, man. Looks pretty slick 😎

Just gotta add my 2 cents:

Dash
It's incredible. All my docsets available on or offline in one place. Very convenient.

GitKraken
I'm a command-line junkie most of the time, but sometimes it's nice to see all your commit history and branching in a nice slick gui.

vim
I gotta be that guy. Just learn some of the basic navigational keybindings at the very least. Seriously. Pretty much every editor has a plugin to support Vim keybindings, not to mention browsers. It's just so much faster.

Collapse
 
brandonb927 profile image
Brandon Brown

I've recently become a VSC convert from Atom and I don't think there's anything that would make me switch back 😅

Collapse
 
eonist profile image
Eon • Edited

Come back to Atom 😭. It has a new mindfulness feature now. It basically freezes for 5 - 10 seconds to let your frantic mind become tranquil again. 😭 img

Collapse
 
chinchang profile image
Kushagra Gour

Yeah. Nothing that looks so in near future :)

Collapse
 
its_hulkking profile image
hulkking • Edited

Thanks for posting! I am a fan of VSC too.
But I would love to see someone posting his Software who uses Linux or Windows. :)

Collapse
 
vgrovestine profile image
Vincent Grovestine

Ask and ye shall receive. From the perspective of a Linux-using backend/db developer...

  • Komodo Edit: I prefer a more traditional editor but without the bulk of a full IDE.
  • Meld: Side-by-side file and directory comparison.
  • Guake Terminal: Quake-style, drop-down, tabbed terminal.
  • GitKraken: Git client.
  • Draw.io: Sometimes a diagram speaks louder than words; web-based flow, UML, logic chart designer.
  • DbVisualizer: Database navigation, relationship mapping, basic querying; supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, and more.

With the exception of Guake, everything is cross-platform! :)

Collapse
 
its_hulkking profile image
hulkking

Thank you so much for sharing!

Draw.io seems extremly useful for me :) Cheer!

Collapse
 
cedrickchee profile image
Cedric Chee • Edited

I have been using Sublime Text since version 2 as my primary text and code editor. I have used VS Code on and off since the initial release almost 2 years ago. Not until recently that I have fully switched to VS Code. No more wasting so much time customizing every little details of my code editor before I am happy to write my first line of code. Learned a hard lesson in developer productivity I have seen over and over again developer spending unnecessary time bike-shedding on code editor/IDE settings for code style and formatting and what not. I think VS Code has the essential and modern features of a code editor out of the box that most developers need to write their code comfortably. VS Code achieved a balanced set of features so we don't have to go out immediately to look for third-party extensions. Yeah, I know, no one code editor can fit all developer's needs.

Collapse
 
ozymandias547 profile image
Joseph Jung

Hey all, one tool that I use to get fast QA tests is SnapTest - saves me countless hours at work both in generating tests and finding bugs.

Collapse
 
bgadrian profile image
Adrian B.G.

Nice, I never used a Clipboard tracker, as a security threat, but in rest are the same tools I used when working on Mac.

I see WebMaker as a nice tool for the devs that are starting to learn web too.

Today I released a similar article, with the tools I use, mostly web services, but the #1 is still VSCode :)

Collapse
 
akikomccloud profile image
Akiko

Nice list! I would definietely add Kanban Tool (kanbantool.com ) as a great software that helps you become more productive and focused on your work. It allows you to schedule your tasks and track time you spend working on each one. It's an awesome way to stay productive and organized!

Collapse
 
chisomilokah profile image
Munachiso Ilokah

Thanks for this list. Spectacle just made the mac I am using much less frustrating especially for a mac newbie and long time windows user. Enjoying iTerm also...was already on the Visual Studio Code train.

Collapse
 
preciselyalyss profile image
Alyss 💜

Alfred's powerpack has a good clipboard manager and some other neat features :)

Collapse
 
mikkel_lausen_8bd8d18c0f6 profile image
Mikkel lausen

I made a post about some AI tools I use as a Startup Founder and Software Engineer, maybe this could be interesting to some people as well?

4 AI Tools I use in my Day-toDay as a Startup Founder and Software Engineer

Collapse
 
mcalcote profile image
Matthew Calcote

I wish windows had better terminal solutions :'(

Collapse
 
thebettertwinuk profile image
Andrew Morgans

Have you tried Hyper app? (hyper.is/).

Collapse
 
mcalcote profile image
Matthew Calcote

I will check it out

Collapse
 
lawrenxoz profile image
Onaulogho Lawrence

Thanks for sharing.

Collapse
 
necmettin profile image
Necmettin Begiter

Do any of you guys have a copy of clipmenu.dmg ? Its website is working but the downloads are not.

Collapse
 
chinchang profile image
Kushagra Gour

Try from here -> clipmenu.com/blog/2014/11/11/clipm... (it has the latest release)

Collapse
 
necmettin profile image
Necmettin Begiter

I had already tried both dmg links on that page. I tried again, they are still inaccessible: dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114064... and dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/114064... are still inaccessible. Also, apparently I'm not the only one with the problem: github.com/ClipMenu/ClipMenu/issue... and github.com/ClipMenu/ClipMenu/issue...

Collapse
 
dominicduffin1 profile image
Dominic Duffin

Web Maker looks great! I'll definitely try it out.

Collapse
 
espoir profile image
Espoir Murhabazi

Iterm on my new MacBook bro!!! The best tool forever 🙌🙌🙌

Collapse
 
simonced profile image
simonced • Edited

For the ones on Windows10, a clipMenu altenative is builtin: [Win]+[V].

Collapse
 
dhanush_ramuk profile image
dhanush 

Yeah, VS code is better than sublime.

Collapse
 
karltaylor profile image
Karl Taylor

Clipmenu download isn't valid!

Collapse
 
in_harmonia profile image
Bustanil Arifin

Do you have any suggestion for windows users?

Collapse
 
lauragift21 profile image
Gift Egwuenu

Thanks for sharing. Recently started using VSCode. love at first sight

Collapse
 
vasilvestre profile image
Valentin Silvestre

Jetbrains suite is the only one that give my satisfaction under Linux.. Visual Code is not user friendly under Linux :/

Collapse
 
tonyhicks20 profile image
Tony Hicks • Edited

For my fellow Windows users - Instead of ClipMenu I've used ClipX (bluemars.org/clipx/) with the "stickies" plugin for years now. It's a bit of a dated app, but it gets the job done.

Collapse
 
slowcar profile image
slowcar

XDiff - Great for merging files with simple shortcuts
Notepad++ - I love not having to save stuff, also great for xml formatting
SoapUI - free and powerful tool to test web services

Collapse
 
samxeshun profile image
Kwaku Eshun

Notepad ++ and Visual Studio when I’m working on Windows. But VSCode when I’m on the Mac.

Collapse
 
dimitri_acosta profile image
Dimitri Acosta

ClipMenu is no longer available, I use CopyClip instead