9 tools, libraries and extensions our developer can't live without (and why)

1

TailScale

‍Tailscale simplifies network management, enhances security, and facilitates remote collaboration, ultimately enabling them to focus on their core development tasks without worrying about networking complexities.

#Security & Privacy #VPN #Cloud VPN 521 social mentions

2

Graphviz

‍Graphviz is a graph visualization tool - useful for visualizing things such as flow charts. You write out the graph in a special language called the "DOT language" where you specify what's in the graph, and graphviz handles all of the layout / visualization for you. It is insanely easy to programmatically create directed graphs and I use it when debugging complex state machines. I have a CLI shortcut to render those graphs in my command-line. It is also really useful to map out network topologies. It helped me plan out network topologies for datacenter deployments, as well as help save me countless hours debugging complex code with lots of state flying around.As a bonus, here’s the code behind Graphviz.

#Diagrams #Flowcharts #Wireframing 86 social mentions

3

fzf

Fzf plugs into almost every alias I have including shell history, which allows me to operate in the CLI using 1-5 keystrokes instead of typing out extremely long commands. Here's a good tutorial of using FZF.

#Note Taking #Productivity #LMS 230 social mentions

4

The Silver Searcher

There are other CLI search tools for code: grep, ripgrep, etc. Or actual search tools (Sourcegraph, Github, IDEs), but I always reach for Silver Searcher/Ag. Ag is a code-searching tool similar to ack, but faster. The syntax is pretty good and it’s very helpful when I just want something basic such as when I’m just looking for the string Config (I don’t use complex regex).By the way fzf.zsh, combines ag with fzf to do instant full text search recursively over the current directory, and then pops you into vim at that exact file line.

#File Manager #Note Taking #Clipboard Manager 36 social mentions

5

VS Code

‍VS Code just works, and the marketplace is great and while the software can get a bit degraded from time to time, even "bad state" is more than good enough.

#Text Editors #IDE #Software Development 1146 social mentions