The Apps and Tools We Use
Rule #9; Always use the right tool for the job
— Juan Cortez
You have no doubt wondered which applications do what, and which ones you need. The following list should help you know which tools are useful for which job. Not all of the tools are required, but I am listing all of the ones that I am using (and maybe the rest of the team will add some new ones so I can say “we” with proper context).
Apps
Dev Utils
- iTerm2 (terminal/console)*
- OhMyZsh (bash replacement)*
- Hyper (another terminal/console)
- Docker Desktop
- Visual Studio Code (IDE)*
- JetBrains WebStorm (IDE $129/$60 per year) or PHPStorm (IDE - $200 per year)
- Forklift 3 (S/FTP - $10 on sale - $30 msrp, or just use the demo version)
- Tower (git client - $70 per year)*
- SourceTree (git client)
- Github Desktop (GitHub client)
Productivity
- Slack (like Discord, but more hipster-businessy)
- Discord (like Slack, but more free and usually comes out with useful features first)*
- Teams (Communication… the way Microsoft wants it)*
- Rectangle (Window management, placement, and snapping)
- Bear (One of the best ways to take notes on iOS/macOS)
- Todoist (Todo list and kanban board for you and/or your team)
- Clickup (where we do all our team task/ticket tracking, request a login from Phil)*
Testing
- Vue Devtools (debug/log variables and events)
- Axe Acessibility Devtools (ADA/WCAG compliance)*
- Accessibility Insights (ADA/WCAG compliance)*
- ARIA Devtools (Checks for missing and misleading ARIA)*
- ChomreLens (simulates visual impairments for accessibility testing)*
- Color Review (ADA color checker)*
- WebAIM Contrast Checker (ADA color checker)
- Inspect Browser (Great for testing on Apple devices)
- Postman (Need to hit an API? Use this)*
Others
- OneDrive (most affordable online storage solution)
- Dropbox (the other ‘not Google’ online storage service)
- Sip (Design much? this little system eye-dropper is quite convenient)
- Box (where we store all our envs & other crucial env info for projects, request a login from Phil)*
- TablePlus (tool to access our databases, free version available)*
- dBeaver (another tool to access our databases, more setup required than TablePlus if you go this route)
Recommended VS Code Extensions
- Synk (Websec/vulnerability)
- Vetur (If you use Vue, this might help)
- ENV (.env format/highlighter)*
- ESLint (JavaScript goodness checker)*
- GitLens (See how committed what and where - git awesomeizer)
- Peacock (Auto-theme your windows based on color)
- YAML (YAML format/highlighter)*
- PHP Intelephense (PHP format/highlighter)
- Tailwind CSS IntelliSense (for easier Tailwind development)*
- Astro (language support for Astro files)*
- MDX (language support for MDX)*
- JSX Snippets (extensions for React, Redux in JS with babel and ES7 syntax)