Basic Dev Tools

Another short list of tools to pick up after installing and setting up Git. (Mostly a reference point to get started setting up a new machine/recently wiped machine.)

Editor

Free, tons of customization, built-in Git. My editor of choice for most situations.

Also free, fairly equal to VS Code.

Extensions for VS Code

Extensions make life easier. While others may be added in over time or removed depending on needs, must haves are:

  • Auto Close Tag - Automagically add HTML/XML close tags, saves a lot of time!
  • Bracket Pair Colorizer - Colorize your brackets to easily match them up
  • DotENV - Adds support for dotenv file syntax
  • gitignore - Makes working with .gitignore files easier
  • Live Server - A MUST: Launch a local development server with live reload, makes life so much easier when designing web apps/pages
  • Prettier - A code formatter to make your code easier to read
  • vscode-icons - This isn't necessarily a must have, but it certainly makes navigating files easier.

Other Tools

  • Node.js - JavaScript runtime environment. Installing Node will also install npm, a package manager for Node.
  • Yarn Another package manager commonly used.
  • Codepen Maybe not quite a tool, but allows you to create projects on a browser rather quickly. Useful for experimenting or inspiration from others.