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Some of the Best Coding Tools Aren't Coding Tools

Grumpy and on November 28, 2017

"That which hinders your task... is your task." -Sanford Meisner Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Okay, s...
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Robin Kretzschmar

I can't express in words how much I take from this article, so thank you for taking the time to explain your tools and how you use them (with pretty good examples) and delivering it here!
I am constantly curious how other people manage themselves and honestly I used a lot of tools and sticked with Evernote so far. But your usage of TextExpander got me thinking and I will definitely give it a try!

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Grumpy and

Wow! I'm glad you got something out of it! Thanks!

I used Evernote briefly a few years back, and it's a great tool. I've been meaning to give it another look and see how it's changed/grown.

TextExpander happens to be my favorite, but it's not the only snippet tool out there. If you find something else that you like (especially if it's free) let me know!

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Robin Kretzschmar

Sure I will let you know!
I used TextExpander some time now and did not manage to get a REST API call working with pure JavaScript (cause on windows shell is not supported sadly).
Just out of curiousity: did you manage to do something in pure JS?
I can embed momentJS and stuff, but did not find a standalone JS library that does not use the "window" object, since this is not available in TextExpander.

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Grumpy and

I'm on a Mac, so I tend to write stand-alone shell/ruby scripts, and then just call them from TextExpander.

I haven't tried it, but implementing a pure JavaScript REST call within TextExpander should be possible, provided TextExpander's runtime supports XMLHttpRequest, and you set it to make synchronous calls, rather than asynch.

Now you've piqued my interest. Gonna have to play with this a little bit when I have time. I'll let you know what I find. :)

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Robin Kretzschmar

That's my issue at the moment, I did not manage to use XMLHttpRequest yet. I will also try to solve this and will keep you posted :)

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Alexandra Grazhevskaja • Edited

For remote developers I would also add voice/video recording tools.
It can be of so much help if you have a lot of voice communications and need to go back to them.
I have shared it here, how it helped me working remotely.

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Grumpy and

That's a great suggestion! What specific tools do you use?

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Alexandra Grazhevskaja

I usually use HyperCam, but for sure you can find a lot of others that will suite you better.

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Victoria Drake

Okay, fine, you can be my hero.

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Grumpy and

No! Be awesome! Share what you know! Write fun articles! Be your own hero!

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Isaac Lyman

This is extremely well-written, Chris. Thanks for sharing. I would add that two of the most effective development tools I know are pen and paper. If I try to sketch a system out in ink, I'll find out really fast what parts I don't understand.

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Grumpy and • Edited

Wow! Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

Yeah, pen & paper are time-honored tools on my desk. Excellent point! I also find that sketching it out on paper really helps clarify my thinking.

Thanks for reading!

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Jean Clay

tcpdump + wireshark

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Andy Pieters

+strace

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Nick F

Nice writeup, this is exactly what having a personal computer is all about, fine-tuned for it's owner to be as powerful as possible. I would add that taking the time to have an ergonomic setup is also a great way to ensure your staying productive. I use a trackball mouse and split keyboard to ensure that while I'm getting my work done I'm not hurting myself. Can't be productive later if my wrists are in pain.

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Bruno Louzada

Thanks for sharing

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Brett Stevenson

I'm definitely going to have to try out some of these text expansions. I've always bound things like my email address to a hotkey or expansion, but your examples are now giving me all kinds of ideas!

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Grumpy and

Awesome! That's what I was hoping for! It's an amazingly powerful and flexible tool. I've used it for everything from git & Jira-related stuff to recording my cycling workouts. Let me know what you end up doing with it!