My toys

Photo by Barn Images on Unsplash

My toys

This article was originally written on my personal site (sgracia.es) in March 2022

There is a type of posts that I always love to see on technology sites, those in which developers or "tech" users in general talk about the software they use in their day to day. So I, who have the sick impulse to try any new program that falls into my hands and keep up to date with those little gems in the form of applications that appear at any moment, I have encouraged myself to tell a little about which are those programs that I use very frequently and, why not, show you those little things that I am trying day in and day out.

First, the usual suspects:

Development

VSCode

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The newest might not remember how the first versions of VSCode were not very encouraging: it was born as a kind of ATOM from Microsoft and did not do much more than edit text but with the look & feel of its older brother (Visual Studio). But Microsoft from the beginning has been very smart and has been opening the doors to the community to create an indispensable beast for any developer.

Customizable to the max, with a marketplace of extensions that doesn't stop growing and agnostic in terms of operating system (it can even be used via the web) it is one of the first things that I install in any clean installation.

Extensions you say? I have extensions. Here are some of the ones I have installed right now (I count 52 in total, and it's not a plan to list them all either :P )

  • VSCode-icons: meramente cosmética pero increíblemente agradable a la vista. Añade iconos en el explorador de archivos para cualquier tipo de extensión habida y por haber.
  • Window Colors: útil cuando necesitas trabajar en el front y en el back en editores distintos y no quieres liarla, esta extensión permite dar un color distinto a cada instancia de VisualCode que abramos.
  • Docker: extensión creada y mantenida por la propia Microsoft para la creación y gestión de contenedores. Un must.
  • Jira and Bitbucket: si trabajas con alguna de estas dos herramientas de Atlassian esta extensión te ahorrará mil y un clicks. Te permite crear incidencias en jira, crear ramas a partir de las mismas, crear y resolver issues de bitbucket, crear pull requests, revisar pull requests, etc,.... muy versátil.
  • Live Sass Compiler: extensión que detecta ficheros en SASS y automáticamente genera el CSS equivalente cada vez que detecta un cambio.
  • Live Server: ¿necesitas levantar un servidor de una forma sencilla para probar ese script en el que estás trabajando? Live Server te permite hacerlo con un solo click. Fantabulosa.
  • Remote-ssh: brutal extensión que nos permite conectarnos a máquinas remotas y editar como si estuvieramos físicamente allí. Un ahorra-tiempo de narices.
  • Todo+ : gestión de listas de tareas y trabajos pendientes. Permite detectar tanto los "todo's" que hay en todo el proyecto como centralizarlo en un fichero de texto global que la propia extensión se encarga de mantener. Una vez que la pruebas ya no hay vuelta atrás.
  • Gitlens : mis amigos de GitKraken nos dan esta extensión indispensable para hacer seguimiento de repositorios git hasta las máximas consecuencias. Cualquier cosa que puedas o necesites saber o hacer en un repositorio Git esta extensión te lo ofrece. Otro indispensable.

I could go on until I'm bored because I'm always trying new extensions but it's better to leave it here and, if anything, do a monograph another day. And that's not to mention the skins...

Sublime Text

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The one that was my main editor for a long time has been replaced by VsCode as far as development issues are concerned, although it has not been completely discarded since it now supplies the notepad functions.

Very (VERY) agile if you manage to tune it and very versatile in terms of options and extensions Sublime Text 3 I use it mainly as a notebook for scrathing (eg: if I need to visualize a JSON or copy a piece of code for later ). I also use it as the default editor on Windows.

Tabby / CmDer / Windows Terminal / Git Bash...

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Here as I wake up that day: I love you all equally :D

Tabby is beautiful and super configurable (and it's still in alpha), Cmder is a super fast and a reliable veteran, Windows Terminal has improved a LOT since the first preview version they released, GitBash well... just: GitBash. Simple but effective.

I found myself using more and more Windows Terminal because the configuration options have improved in an amazing way although it's not uncommon for me to alternate between all of them in the same day.

Prepros

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A real Swiss Army knife that I have been using for many, many years.

Prepros allows you to do almost anything: minify files, create bundles, set up servers on the fly, upload modifications to FTP, update package.json with a visual interface, etc, etc, etc... A true wonder that can automate all these tasks (and more) since it works hot detecting changes in the workspace.

Postman

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This one doesn't need much of an introduction. The omnipresent Postman helps us in the creation of API's from its initial design to its production. Two things that make it irresistible as a "companion" is the management it has of development environments (in which you can define predefined environment variables, for example) and how easy it makes collaborative work between several people since the synchronization of the entire API directory is transparent.

Mockoon

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The ideal complement for Postman. If with Postman you can try to "attack" API's Mockoon allows us to set up "fake" servers that respond to those calls. With Mockoon we can set up in a matter of seconds (but really seconds. Literally.) servers that respond to any type of call and simulate responses of all types. A great tool when you are developing a frontend that attacks a back that is not ready yet and you need to simulate it in order to keep on working.


Management Tools

Notion

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After being a 'heavy-user' of Evernote and OneNote (we're talking about thousands and thousands of notes between them) I've been using Notion intensively for a while and I appreciate its apparent simplicity. And I say apparent because with a little scratching, you immediately begin to see the enormous potential of its system of relationship between notes. Although the true potential of this type of tools is no longer found in the number of options they can offer, but in the constant use of them and the commitment to carry a minimum of order. After having tried various combinations I have found (I think) the organization of directories/notes that best suits my daily pace of work and personal life.

Miro

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A kind of virtual blackboard where you can actually capture anything that comes to mind. In my case, I use Miro to manage my team's work (represented in colored post-its according to the assigned person and with relationships between them) and it helps me see, at a glance, the workload of each one and the possible bottlenecks. It also has great potential for creating interface mockups, flowcharts, etc...

Microsoft ToDo

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Indivisible companion (in my case) of Google Calendar,Microsoft ToDo has become my default task and reminder manager. Before opting for this I have gone through Todoist, RememberTheMilk and others, but (again) Microsoft has done a great job of renewing the application and offering a series of features that work flawlessly in the Windows ecosystem.


To be continued...