About: I'm a fan of Open Source and have a growing interest in serverless and edge computing. I'm not a big fan of spiders, but they're doing good work eating bugs. I also stream on Twitch.
Location:
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Joined:
Mar 11, 2017
Tools that keep me productive
Publish Date: May 6 '24
302 46
This page details mostly all I use as a developer. I use a Mac, so a bunch of tools are macOS-specific, but there are some OS-agnostic ones in the list.
One thing to mention before we get started is that these are the tools that make me productive. Maybe they won't make you productive like the way they do for me. I always say, use the tools that make you the most productive.
Some of these tools are free but some are paid. I personally think the paid ones are worth it, but I leave that up to you and your wallet.
Note: I've put some referral links in here. Just want to be upfront about that is all.
Editor
It all starts with the editor. Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is my go-to editor. I was using the Insider’s Edition for the longest time, but some extensions would try to log in and redirect to VS Code regular edition, so I decided to go back to it. That said, VS Code Insider's is very stable.
I was a big fan of the Dank Mono for the longest time, but GitHub released a bunch of monospaced fonts this year and I've been loving Monaspace Krypton.
For the theme, it varies. I've been on the light modern default theme recently as I find it's better for my live streaming, but I'm also a fan of the Houston and Fortnite themes.
Although I have iTerm installed, a great terminal for macOS, I honestly live in the VS Code terminal 99.999% of the time.
Another setting that I find super handy is terminal.integrated.autoReplies. I never want to source my .env file and this handles it perfectly.
"terminal.integrated.autoReplies":{"dotenv: found '.env' file. Source it? ([Y]es/[n]o/[a]lways/n[e]ver)":"e\r"},
Maybe Zed Soon?
I do want to give a shout out to the Zed editor. I use it occasionally and it’s super fast, but it hasn’t become my main editor yet. I think once the extension ecosystem blows up a little more is when I move to this. Maybe in the next year. We’ll see. 😎
Browser Extensions
I don't use all of these everyday, but these are my go-to browser extensions.
a11y Twitter - Small changes to how you use Twitter to promote Tweeting in an accessible manner.
Desktop Apps
These are most of the desktop apps that I use every day. Let's get started with some general ones.
General Tools for Common Things I do Everyday
Arc Browser is a Chromium-based browser that, in my opinion, has nailed a tonne of the user experience (UX) issues I've encountered with any other browsers. Vertical tabs, command palette, and auto-picture in picture video to name a few.
I used Vanilla for the longest time for my top menu bar icons, but once I got a MacBook Pro with the notch, it just didn't work well. I've since moved on to Bartender for managing my menu bar.
The emoji picker on macOS isn't that great, but Rocket makes it so easy to add emojis. I can't tell you how many times a day I use this.
Raycast is my go-to replacement for macOS' spotlight. It's like Spotlight on steroids. I previously used Alfred, another outstanding Spotlight alternative, but for some reason Raycast grew on me. I also use it for window management.
For those evenings where I'm in front of the computer, f.lux is a must. Like some wise person said, "Be kind to your eyeballs". macOS's Nightshift kind of works, but f.lux destroys it.
For managing meetings, Dato is a better date app for macOS. It's great for having multiple time zones in the address bar. I have my local time as well as UTC. I also use it for upcoming meetings and events. Previously I was using Meeter which is great for this, but it's one less app I need now.
I take screenshots or short video recordings almost daily, and Cleanshot X is so great for this.
Tools for Git
I do most of my "git"ing on the command line, but sometimes I need a graphical user interface (GUI) to really understand what's going on. When I need that, I reach for Fork.
Shoutout to Cassidy (@cassidoo) for the awesome GIF!
If you're using Git, which I imagine most of you are, signing your commits is super important. GPG Suite makes this easy to set up.
Frontend Tooling
I do a lot of work building user interfaces (UIs) and these are some indispensable tools for that kind of work.
xScope is a fantastic tool set for frontend development. Rulers, guides etc.
Figma is where I live when I need to coordinate with our designer, look at designs, or pull some assets.
I had heard about Polypane before and I think I may have tried it a few years ago, but nowadays, It's a must for frontend. It helps you build out responsive, accessible apps with all kinds of goodies. Curious about it? I hung out with the creator of Polypane, Kilian Valkhof (@kilianvalkhof), on a live stream earlier this year.
For color contrast issues, TPGi's Color Contrast Analyzer is top tier. I can't recommend it enough. Thanks to Todd Libby (@colabottles) for recommending this to me last year.
I'm sure there are streamers with bigger audiences that have a better setup, but this is how I roll.
Restream.io is what I use to stream to multiple platforms, currently Twitch, YouTube, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn.
OBS is used by many including myself. It's a great piece of open source software. I use it for streaming instead of Restream Studio or similar tools like Streamyard because I have custom overlays and some other customizations.
Krisp is outstanding for filtering out unwanted noise on calls and streams. Say goodbye to fire engines in the background while you stream. 🤣
I use Loopback for virtual audio sources. This is super helpful because I create an audio source, which is my microphone and the guest's (guests') audio, and treat it as one input source. I use this audio source as the audio source for live captioning.
I don't have a fancy camera for streaming. I used to use my Logitech webcam, which was fine, but when I finally got a decent iPhone, I was like the camera on this is amazing! So I decided to use that for live streaming. Camo makes it possible to do that, and it has plenty of niceties like zooming, watermarks, filters, etc.
Tools for Live Streaming Guests
For the longest time, I couldn't figure out how people brought guests on to livestreams. In my early days of streaming, I used to bring in the full Discord screen and share that on my live stream. Although that worked, it was not ideal. I also tried Zoom similarly, and then I also started cropping parts of Zoom on my screen, but again, not ideal.
Eventually, I discovered vdo.ninja. The TLDR is, it uses peer-to-peer technology to bring remote cameras into OBS or other studio software.
It's a fantastic project and I highly recommend it. If your guest has a Twitch account, another similar piece of software is Twitch's Stream Together. I use this as well, depending on the guest.
Command Line Interface (CLI) Tools
I don't have many CLI tools, but here are some of my go-to ones:
Homebrew - The Missing Package Manager for macOS (or Linux)
GitHub CLI - GitHub on the command line. Great for creating PRs, etc.
Create components, functions, pages, and other files for your project with a few commands
Clingon CLI
Create components, functions, pages, and other files for your project with a few commands
Tired of creating components by hand? And still without any help from the VS Code interface or other IDEs?
Clingon comes to simplify this creation flow
You are going to create a React or Vue component, but this component needs a test file and a stories file (if you use storybook), with its entire structure being grouped or separated, it is a very tiring task to create all of this, add the code boilerplate (which I know you will copy from another ready-made file and change everything).
Let's simplify all of this, execute a command, answer some questions, or select your favorite template and that's it, everything is created, just start coding.
Hello everything is fine? I wrote an article talking about the motivation for doing this project (you can read it here: dev.to/ipetinate/clingon-the-cli-t...), but your question is great.
The central idea of this tool is to reduce time when creating resources in a project, and obtain pre-configured minimal code ready for development. But I have plans, for the future of the application, I want to make it flexible enough to create complex structures for projects, let's say that in your project, every View/Page has a Wrapper component for titles and action buttons, has some specific config or request, in the future it will be possible to add this structure to your own templates, and use them. This adds value to the team, making the learning curve of new engineers on a project easier and faster, or you save time by performing fewer manual tasks when creating a simple component, or page, or whatever (little by little the tool will allow more options).
But I also see advantages for new programmers who don't have as much knowledge, getting a minimum ready to code, or getting opinionated standards instead of creating their own standards.
In fact, in the future with the local templates mode (which I intend to develop and launch soon), the tool becomes flexible and agnostic, serving any type of file or project, not just web projects.
I started implementing web templates, as that is my need at the moment. In the article linked above I talk more about this, but anyway, the tool has space for several important features to add Developer Experience to your daily life.
I do want to give a shout out to the Zed editor. I use it occasionally and it’s super fast, but it hasn’t become my main editor yet. Maybe in the next year. We’ll see. 😎
I'm going to add this comment to the post actually.
Holy moly, you have so many tools that you''re using. I'm excited to start procuring my own set of tools that will be my go-tos. For now it's just VS Code and some extensions... haha 😆
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I was a big fan of Dank Mono for a long time, but GitHub released a bunch of monospaced fonts this year, and I've been loving Monaspace Krypton.
For the theme, it varies. Recently, I've been using the light modern default theme because it's better for my live streaming, but I'm also a fan of the Houston and Fortnite themes.
Even though I have iTerm installed, a great terminal for macOS, I honestly live in the VS Code terminal 99.999% of the time.
2.1 Editor Settings
2.2 Maybe Zed Soon?
3. Browser Extensions
Refined GitHub - GitHub on steroids
VisBug - A fantastic tool for frontend (only for Chromium-based browsers)
React DevTools - Because React
Preact DevTools - Because Preact
Axe - For web accessibility testing
WAVE - For web accessibility testing
HTTPS Everywhere
uBlock
LanguageTool - A grammar and spell checking tool
Pocket - For bookmarking stuff to read
JSONView - A prettified view of JSON payloads
Tweak New Twitter - Gets rid of a lot of noise in the Twitter UI
a11y Twitter - Promotes Tweeting in an accessible manner with small changes to Twitter's UI.
4. Desktop Apps
4.1 General Tools for Everyday Tasks
Arc Browser: A Chromium-based browser that, in my opinion, has nailed a ton of the user experience (UX) issues I've encountered with other browsers. Vertical tabs, command palette, and auto-picture-in-picture video, to name a few.
Bartender: Manages my menu bar icons. I used Vanilla for a long time, but Bartender works better with the MacBook Pro's notch.
Rocket: An easy way to add emojis. I use this multiple times a day.
Raycast: My go-to replacement for Spotlight on macOS. It's like Spotlight on steroids. I also use it for window management.
f.lux: For those evenings in front of the computer. macOS Nightshift is okay, but f.lux is much better.
Dato: A better date app for macOS, useful for managing multiple time zones.
Cleanshot X: For screenshots and short video recordings, which I use almost daily.
4.2 Tools for Git
Fork: When I need a GUI to understand what's going on with Git.
GPG Suite: Makes it easy to sign your commits.
4.3 Frontend Tooling
xScope: A fantastic toolset for frontend development.
Figma: My go-to for coordinating with designers, viewing designs, or pulling assets.
Polypane: Indispensable for building responsive, accessible apps.
TPGi's Color Contrast Analyzer: For color contrast issues.
4.4 Other Desktop Apps
Cloudflare Warp: For faster internet and some VPN goodness.
Plash: An interactive desktop background for your Mac.
CleanMyMac X: A suite of utilities for keeping your Mac in top shape.
Starship: A cross-shell prompt.
5. Live Streaming Software
Restream.io: For streaming to multiple platforms (Twitch, YouTube, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn).
OBS Studio: Open source software for live streaming and screen recording. I use it for custom overlays and other customizations.
Krisp: Excellent for filtering out unwanted noise during calls and streams.
Loopback: For creating virtual audio sources.
Camo: For using an iPhone as a streaming camera.
5.1 Tools for Live Streaming Guests
vdo.ninja: Uses peer-to-peer technology to bring remote cameras into OBS or other studio software.
Twitch's Stream Together: Similar to vdo.ninja, but for guests with a Twitch account.
6. Command Line Interface (CLI) Tools
Homebrew: The missing package manager for macOS (or Linux).
GitHub CLI: GitHub on the command line, great for creating PRs, etc.
nvm: Node version manager.
cloudflared: Exposes local servers to the public internet via secure tunnels.
Thanks for sharing!