Christian's Dev Tools

🎒 My toolkit for getting work done.

This repo contains configuration and reference for my dev tools.

• Terminal
• Editor
• Desktop Tools
• SaaS
• Web Resources

Terminal

➜ ~ oh-my-zsh

Theme

I use the Tomorrow Night Blue theme, with a modified ANSI color profile that matches the VSCode theme of the same name.

Extensions

• git - Provides a ton of useful git aliases.
• npm - Provides a ton of useful npm aliases
• osx - Shortcuts for Mac tasks -- showFiles, hideFiles and quick-look will change your life.
• yarn - Aliases and autocomplete for yarn. yarn -> y & yarn add -> ya.
• node - Adds node-docs command for launching the docs of whatever version of node is running.
• colored-man-pages - Adds color highlighting to man pages so that you can actually read them.
• zsh-autosuggestions (essential) - Automatically suggests commands that you've run before, based on your history.
• z (essential) - It's like cd except 100x smarter. Do you have a dev directory that you're always going to? Type z dev from anywhere in the file system and it will take you right there.
• zsh-syntax-highlighting (essential) - Adds syntax highlighting to all commands as you type them.

Emulator

The mighty terminal.app is my go-to because of its speed and reliability.

Hyper is installed because it has cute plugins, and is great to look at. I want to love it, but it's too janky to use as a daily driver. I'll probably try to switch once the project is more mature.

Command Line Tools

The XCode Command Line Tools include many common utilities such as git and gcc.

Via homebrew

brew list && brew cask list

• node
• yarn
• java
• jenv
• maven
• mysql
• screenfetch
• bat
• diff-so-fancy
• ag
• tree
• hub
• httpie
• python
• sqlite

Via yarn & npm

npm list -g --depth 0 && yarn global list

• webpack
• prettier
• eslint
• vuepress
• trash-cli
• DocToc
• tldr
• git-open
• stylelint

Via curl

• homebrew

Via git

• asdf

Editor

> Visual Studio Code

Theme

I use the Tomorrow Night Blue theme which is included as an extension in the base install of VSCode.

Extensions

Language Services

• Python
• Sass
• YAML Support by Red Hat
• DotENV
• Freemarker
• Java Extension Pack
• gitignore
• Mustache

Appearance

• Atom One Dark Theme
• Auto Close Tag
• Bracket Pair Colorizer
• highlight-matching-tag
• Indent-rainbow
• Material Icon Theme
• Output Colorizer
• TODO Highlight
• Color Highlight

Other

• AREPL for python
• CSS Peek
• Debugger for Chrome
• EditorConfig for VS Code
• ESLint
• HTML Snippets
• Image preview
• Intellisense for CSS class names
• Markdown All in One
• Markdown Preview Github Styling
• Markdown Shortcuts
• markdownlint
• Maven for Java
• npm
• npm Intellisense
• Open in Github, Bitbucket, Gitlab, VisualStudio.com!
• Optimize Images
• Path Inellisense
• Polacode
• Prettier - Code formatter
• Settings Sync
• yarn
• SCSS IntelliSense
• stylefmt
• Project Manager
• Auto Rename Tag

Desktop Tools

I do all of my personal and professional work on a 15" Macbook Pro (2016 or 2017) running macOS Mojave.

System Enhancements

• Alfred 3 - It's like Spotlight on steroids. It's a ⚡️ fast app launcher, 📁 file searcher, and 💻 system shortcut tool. Plus, it seamlessly integrates with 1Password and your browser bookmarks. These Workflows take it up a notch:
  • Alfred GitHub Workflow - Quickly access GitHub repositories.
  • Alfred Go CD Workflow - Quickly access Go pipelines.
  • Alfred Emoji Workflow - Find an emoji and copy it to the clipboard.
  • Alfred Bluetooth Switch Workflow - Quickly connect Bluetooth devices.
  • Alfred Wi-Fi Workflow - Toggle wi-fi on and off.
  • Alfred HTTP Status Code Workflow - Instantly check http status code definitions.

• ToothFairy - I love my AirPods, but digging through the Bluetooth menu to connect them is a first-world hassle. ToothFairy gives you a one click shortcut!

• Vanilla - Is your menu bar getting cluttered? Vanilla will hide the icons that you rarely use.

• Amphetamine - Keep your Mac from sleeping with a button in the menu bar. Don't do drugs, kids!

• Spectacle - Adds window snapping and resizing with simple keyboard shortcuts. It's free and open source. (Magnet is a high quality paid alternative).

• Rocket - Add emotions anywhere by using the : shortcut, just like in Slack 🎉!

• High Sierra Media Key Enabler - Force the media keys control to iTunes, like they have for years. Works in Mojave too.

Programming

• IntelliJ IDEA - Though I'm not doing much Java development right now, IntelliJ consistently provides the best experience. It's far more powerful that VSCode for Java, and has far better UX than Eclipse.
• GitHub Desktop - GitHub's desktop client. It's good for viewing visual diffs, but I use the command line (or VSCode) 90% of the time.
• Lepton - An open-source gist manager. It's not much of a looker, but it gets the job done.
• Atom - A text-editor by GitHub. This was my daily driver for almost two-years before switching to VSCode. I think VSCode is more mature for daily development, but I keep Atom around to keep up with its new releases.
• XCode - Apple's IDE for Apple's OS's. I use it rarely right now.
• CodeRunner - A lightweight IDE that can run a ton of different languages. I use it for writing quick Java and Python scripts.
• Sequel Pro - Great visual utility for MySQL databases.
• Docker - For running Docker containers.
• Transmit - A beautiful client for interacting with remote file systems.
• Postman - Ubiquitous REST client and API development toolkit.

Productivity

• Things 3 - The best To-Do list app in existence. I have obsessively tried tons of to-do list style apps, and this one is my favorite by a large margin. It's clean, powerful, and reliable. Pricey but worth it.
• Pages, Keynote, & Numbers - Don't make me use Office.
• Slack (Playstation theme) - Slack is ubiquitous, and the best chat client money can buy.
• Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Teams is not good software. But I use it.
• Discord - Discord is the best cross-platform voice chat that I've ever used.

Utilities

• 1Password - The best password manager for mac. The UX is consistently great, and the development team is constantly releasing improvements.
• AppCleaner - Dragging an app to the trash doesn't really delete an app in macOS. This handy app will fully remove apps that you're not using anymore.
• ImageOptim - Open-source painless image optimization. A must-have when working with images being published to the web.
• CleanMyMac 3 - The best app for removing junk files, cleaning out caches, and fixing permission issues. Just turn off the garbage helper tool.
• PDF Toolkit+ - Performs all sorts of useful actions on PDF documents. I frequently use it to stitch multiple PDFs together.
• CDTo - Adds a button to the Finder toolbar that opens the current directory in a new Terminal Window. A huge time save.
• OpenInCode - Adds a button to the Finder toolbar that opens the current directory in a new VSCode Window. A huge time save.

macOS System Settings

Key Speed

Login Items

Hot Corners

Trackpad

Browsers

I use Google Chrome for work, and Safari for play. The Chrome Dev Tools are next level, but Safari is cleaner and has better OS integration.

Safari Extensions

• 1Password - Seamless password autofilling.
• Wipr - Super light weight and open-source ad-blocker and tracking prevention.
• Instapaper - Minimalist reading list.

Chrome Extensions

• 1Password X - Seamless password autofilling.
• Bookmarks Bar Switcher - Allows you to swap out your bookmarks bar at will -- I use it to separate my personal and work bookmarks.
• Instapaper - Minimalist reading list.
• LastPass - Useful for when other LastPass users have passwords to share. Otherwise, I stick to 1Password.
• Fireshot - Takes seamless full-page screenshots.
• File Icon for GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket - Adds a suite of unique file icons to GitHub, determined by the file's extension.
• Octotree - Adds a persistant file tree in GitHub that makes navigating directories seamless. I use it everyday.
• OctoLinker - Allows you to "jump into" imported files, similar to an IDE.
• Boxcutter - Turns the dependencies in GitHub manifest files into links.

For Fun

• Steam - It's Steam.
• OpenEMU - An amazing Mac application that can emulate a great many retro game systems.
• Spotify - Apple Music is my daily driver, but I keep Spotify installed for it's social features.
• Hearthstone - The only PC game I play reliably.

Web Resources

Blogs

• Aaron Krauss's Blog
• Bob Nystrom's Blog
• Hackernoon
• Code Without Rules
• Destroy All Software

YouTube

• DevTips
• Programming with Mosh
• Jonathan Blow
• Computerphile
• Manorisms
• Chris Courses
• Wes Bos
• The 8-Bit Guy
• Retro Game Mechanics Explained

Reddit

• /r/programming
• /r/webdev
• /r/web_design
• /r/cscareerquestions
• /r/ProgrammerTIL

Reference

• Big-O Cheat Sheet
• Technical Interview Cheat Sheet
• Front End Interview Handbook
• Terminal Mac Cheatsheet
• RegexOne
• MDN Web Docs
• Semantic Versioning
• Bash Scripting Cheat Sheet

Required Reading

• Cracking the Coding Interview
• Game Programming Patterns
• In the Beginning... Was the Command Line
• The Graphing Calculator Story
• The Hardest Program I've Ever Written
• Conquering The Command Line
• GitHub Open Source Guides
• Choose Boring Technology

Informative Articles

• Imperative vs. Declarative Programming
• How to Report Bugs Effectively
• GitHub Flow
• Apple File System Reference/Unix File System Help
• Understanding CSS Units
• The Rise and Demise of RSS
• Get the work/life balance you need
• A Conspiracy to Kill IE6

On Interviewing

• Interviewing for a Technical Position Doesn't Have to be Scary