“When software developers get together, chatter quickly turns to
shop talk. Developers regale one another with tales of hair-pulling
bugs, demanding clients, cheap hardware, and fantastic hacks.
Conversation includes esoteric debates, too: the advantages of one
processor versus another, or the aesthetics of indentation. There’s
even proselytizing: Emacs or vi? Mac or not Mac? RMS: angel or
devil? And of course, no professional gathering would be complete
without a discussion or three about the tools of the trade. Indeed,
of late, there seems to be a veritable explosion of great tools for
developers. The ubiquity of the Web has democratized the
marketplace for such tools, but Web application development is
sufficiently refined that propping up a new product online is quite
tractable and inexpensive. Moreover, leasing an online service such
as Github is cheap compared to purchasing licenses, installing
software, and maintaining internal servers. And, in a boon for
developers, the cost of switching from one online service to
another is relatively slight. All things combined, these are heady
days for software developers.“This week, I list some of my favorite software development
tools. There are the usual suspects: an editor and a debugger, but
I also highlight some tools that are far less technical but no less
vital to the job.”