Developer's Arsenal
Posted on Nov 23rd 2009 | 1comments
So, you are a web developer, eh? And, you want to become a kick-ass developer who can surprise people by providing awesome functionality to websites or by developing super cool web applications. Before I proceed further, I must say that you can’t become a kick-ass developer by just reading some blogs or books unless you belong to “ THE ONE” species from Matrix. You will have to spend a lot of time in web development before you get that title of a kick-ass developer. So, some things will come with time. But, you can surely begin now in the right direction to achieve your aims. The aim of this blog post is to provide you with all the tools and tips which can propel you in the field of web development.
The White-board
Any development work first begins with brainstorming. I personally prefer using a white-board for my brainstorming session. A white-board offers several advantages:
1. You can quickly translate your idea into drawings and flowcharts
2. You can have your pseudocodes or class diagrams on it so that they are always in front of your eyes which is certainly a better option than having them on paper
3. You can also make any changes on the whiteboard thereby avoiding all the messy work on the paper
4. And obviously you save a paper by doing everything mentioned above on a whiteboard.
Still, if you prefer to have everything on your computer, then you can go for utilities like XMind and NClass.
Editor/IDE
Now, after the brainstorming session comes the coding part. This brings us to a discussion on editors/IDE. There are lots of editors/IDE available on the internet (both free and commercial) which you can use for your development work. However, there are certain things which you must look in an editor before you choose it for your work:
1. Support for basic features like code completion, smart indentation, syntax highlighting, bracket matching, error markup, code folding and line numbering.
2. Version control integration can also be a useful feature. With version control integration, you can initialize a Git/mercurial project or import into subversion/CVS repository directly from inside the editor.
Aptana Studio is a nice open source cross platform IDE which supports all the above mentioned features. This blog has been entirely developed in Aptana Studio.
Click on image to enlarge
Mac users can also go for Textmate, which is an awesome editor. It is quite powerful and can surely enhance your productivity.
You can also opt for vim, if you are not a fan of GUI. Although vim has a learning curve, but you will realize that it’s quite powerful once you are done with the learning part.
I ran into a problem!
It’s quite possible that you might run into some problems while coding. Looking for answers on Google will waste a lot of your time which will surely decrease your productivity. The best place to look for answers is Stack Overflow. It’s a website featuring questions and answers on a wide range of topics in computer programming. Currently, it has about 94,000 registered users, and 321,000 questions. You can not only get your answers on Stack Overflow but also some useful tips and tricks by the best developers on the planet.
Code snippets also come in handy to speed up your site development. There are several places on the internet where you can find some good code snippets. Some of them are listed below:
Keep me going!!
It’s quite obvious that web developers have to spend a large amount of time on their systems. A light snack or a non-alcoholic beverage can certainly help you re-energize. I personally like having trail mix and coffee. Fruits can also be a good option. And if you are planning to have a long night, then Red Bull can keep you from falling on your keyboard.
So, these were some of the tips and tools which can keep you going as a web developer. Still, there is no substitute for experience. I hope you liked this post. Looking forward for your suggestions in the comments section. :)
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