Here are some of the software I utilize, gadgets that I adore, and other items that I highly recommend.
I am frequently asked about the tools I employ to develop software, enhance productivity. Therefore, I have compiled a comprehensive inventory of all the items I particularly enjoy.
Workstation
13” MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro 13 is a premium laptop computer developed by Apple Inc. It features a high-quality Retina display, a sleek aluminum design, and powerful hardware components such as an Intel processor and up to 16GB of RAM. It also includes advanced features like the Touch Bar, Touch ID, and Apple's T2 security chip. The MacBook Pro 13 is popular among professionals, creatives, and students who demand reliable performance and portability in a stylish package.
Apple Magic Mouse
Magic Mouse is wireless and rechargeable, with an optimised foot design that lets it glide smoothly across your desk. The Multi-Touch surface allows you to perform simple gestures such as swiping between web pages and scrolling through documents.
Programming languages
Java
Java is a high-level, object-oriented programming language that is designed to be portable and platform-independent, and is widely used for developing desktop, web, and mobile applications, as well as enterprise applications and large-scale systems.
Python
Python is a high-level, interpreted programming language that is known for its simplicity, readability, and versatility, and is widely used for web development, scientific computing, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and automation.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a high-level, interpreted programming language that is used to create interactive and dynamic web content, as well as for server-side programming, desktop and mobile application development, and game development, and is a fundamental technology for building modern web applications.
TypeScript
TypeScript is a strongly-typed superset of JavaScript that provides additional features, such as static typing, interfaces, and class-based object-oriented programming, and is designed to improve the productivity and maintainability of large-scale JavaScript applications, as well as to make JavaScript development more familiar to traditional object-oriented programmers.
Web development frameworks and libraries
Spring
Spring is a powerful and popular open-source framework for building Java applications, which provides a comprehensive set of features and tools for developing scalable, modular, and secure enterprise applications, including support for dependency injection, aspect-oriented programming, web applications, messaging, data access, and testing.
React
React is a popular and powerful JavaScript library for building user interfaces and web applications, which uses a component-based approach to building reusable and modular UI elements, and is designed to provide a fast, efficient, and flexible way to create complex and interactive UIs, using a declarative and reactive programming model.
HTML5
HTML5 is the latest version of the Hypertext Markup Language, which is used to create and structure content for the web, and provides a range of new features and capabilities, including multimedia support, enhanced semantics, and better accessibility, as well as APIs for building web applications that can work offline and interact with native device features.
CSS3
CSS3 is the latest version of the Cascading Style Sheets language, which is used to style and layout HTML and XML documents, and provides a range of new features and capabilities, including advanced selectors, flexible box and grid layout, animation and transition effects, and support for responsive design and mobile-first development.
Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is a popular and modern CSS framework that provides a set of pre-defined utility classes for building custom and responsive user interfaces, and is designed to improve the productivity and maintainability of CSS code, by reducing the need for writing custom CSS styles and classes, and enabling rapid prototyping and development.
Bootstrap
Bootstrap is a popular and widely-used CSS framework for building responsive and mobile-first web applications, which provides a set of pre-defined CSS classes and JavaScript plugins for creating customizable UI components, such as navigation bars, forms, buttons, modals, and carousels, and is designed to simplify and streamline the development of modern and consistent web applications.
GraphQL
GraphQL is a query language and runtime for APIs, which provides a flexible and efficient way to request and deliver data over the network, by allowing clients to specify exactly what data they need and how it should be structured, and enabling servers to respond with only the requested data, in a type-safe and self-documenting format, thus reducing the amount of network traffic and improving the performance and scalability of applications.
Databases
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is a powerful and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS), which provides a robust and scalable platform for storing, querying, and managing structured data, and offers a range of advanced features and capabilities, such as transactional integrity, data consistency, concurrency control, and support for JSON, XML, and spatial data types, as well as extensibility and interoperability with other data sources and applications.
MongoDB
MongoDB is a popular and flexible NoSQL document-oriented database management system (DBMS), which provides a scalable and distributed platform for storing and managing unstructured and semi-structured data, and offers a range of advanced features and capabilities, such as automatic sharding, replication, and failover, flexible data modeling with dynamic schemas, support for ACID transactions and multi-document transactions, and integration with popular programming languages and frameworks.
Testing tools
Selenium
Selenium is a suite of open-source software tools for automating web browsers, which enables developers and testers to write scripts and execute automated tests against web applications, by simulating user interactions and verifying expected behavior and functionality, across multiple platforms and browsers, using a range of programming languages and frameworks, and offering support for parallel execution, reporting, and integration with other testing tools and frameworks.
JUnit
JUnit is a popular open-source testing framework for Java, which provides a platform for writing and running automated unit tests, by defining test cases and assertions, running tests in isolation, reporting test results, and enabling integration with build tools and continuous integration (CI) servers, thus helping developers to improve code quality, detect and fix issues early in the development process, and ensure reliable and maintainable software.
Messaging system
Apache Kafka
Apache Kafka is a distributed streaming platform that provides a fast, scalable, reliable, and fault-tolerant way to process, store, and stream large volumes of real-time data streams, by decoupling producers and consumers of data, and enabling them to communicate through a unified messaging system, that is based on the publish-subscribe model, and provides features such as partitioning, replication, and fault tolerance, as well as a rich set of APIs, tools, and connectors, that make it easy to integrate with various data sources and sinks, and build complex data processing pipelines and applications.
Version control systems
Git
Git is a widely-used distributed version control system (VCS), which enables developers to manage changes to source code and collaborate on software development projects, by providing features such as branching and merging, version history tracking, conflict resolution, and support for multiple workflows and collaboration models, thus improving productivity, code quality, and project management.
GitHub
GitHub is a web-based hosting platform for software development projects that use Git as their version control system, which offers features such as source code hosting, issue tracking, project management, code review, and collaboration tools, and provides a platform for open-source and community-driven development, as well as for private repositories and enterprise-scale software development.
Project management tools and methodologies
Jira
Jira is a popular project management and issue tracking tool developed by Atlassian, which provides a platform for software development teams to plan, track, and release software projects, by enabling the creation and management of tasks, issues, stories, epics, and sprints, as well as the customization of workflows, dashboards, and reports, and the integration with other software development tools and frameworks, thus improving collaboration, transparency, and productivity.
Agile Methodologies
Agile Methodologies refer to a set of iterative and incremental software development approaches, which prioritize customer satisfaction, adaptability, and collaboration, by emphasizing frequent feedback, continuous improvement, and close communication among team members, stakeholders, and customers, and by valuing working software, simplicity, and self-organizing teams, thus enabling faster time-to-market, higher quality, and better alignment with customer needs and business objectives.
Cloud platforms and services
AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that offers a wide range of scalable and cost-effective cloud services, including compute, storage, databases, analytics, machine learning, security, networking, IoT, AI, and more, which can be easily provisioned, managed, and deployed on-demand, across multiple regions and availability zones, and can be integrated with other AWS and third-party services and tools, thus enabling businesses to innovate faster, reduce costs, and improve their agility and scalability.
Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a cloud computing platform that offers a wide range of scalable and flexible cloud services, including compute, storage, databases, analytics, AI, machine learning, security, networking, and more, which can be easily provisioned, managed, and deployed on-demand, across multiple regions and zones, and can be integrated with other GCP and third-party services and tools, thus enabling businesses to innovate faster, reduce costs, and improve their agility and scalability.
Continuous integration and deployment tools
Jenkins
Jenkins is an open-source automation server that helps automate software development processes, including building, testing, and deploying software applications, by providing a wide range of plugins and integrations with other tools and platforms, such as Git, GitHub, Jira, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and more, thus enabling developers to automate their workflows and increase their productivity and efficiency.
Log management tool
Splunk
Splunk is a powerful data analysis and visualization platform that helps organizations to collect, analyze, and monitor their machine-generated data, such as logs, metrics, events, and more, from a wide range of sources and systems, using advanced search and reporting capabilities, machine learning algorithms, and dashboards and alerts, thus enabling them to gain insights into their IT infrastructure, security posture, business operations, and customer behavior, and make data-driven decisions.
Containerization technologies
Kubernetes
Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that helps automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications and services across multiple hosts and clusters, by providing a unified API, a set of powerful primitives, and a flexible architecture, that enable developers and operators to abstract away the underlying infrastructure and focus on the application logic and business needs, while ensuring high availability, scalability, and resilience.
Docker
Docker is a popular open-source containerization platform that enables developers to package their applications and dependencies into lightweight, portable, and self-contained containers, that can run reliably and consistently across different environments and infrastructure, by leveraging the OS-level virtualization features of the host system, and providing a simple and flexible way to build, ship, and run containerized workloads, that is widely used in DevOps, cloud computing, and modern software development.
Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA is a popular integrated development environment (IDE) used primarily for Java software development. Developed by JetBrains, it offers a wide range of features including code analysis, debugging tools, intelligent code completion, and a variety of integrations with other tools and frameworks. It also supports other programming languages such as Kotlin, Python, and JavaScript. IntelliJ IDEA is known for its intuitive user interface and productivity-boosting features, making it a popular choice among developers.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code, often abbreviated as VS Code, is a free and open-source code editor developed by Microsoft. It supports a wide range of programming languages and offers features such as syntax highlighting, code completion, debugging, and source control integration. VS Code also allows users to customize their environment with various extensions and themes, making it a versatile tool for developers. Its popularity has grown rapidly due to its speed, ease of use, and cross-platform support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
API development platform
Swagger
Swagger is an open-source software framework that helps developers design, build, document, and consume RESTful web services. It includes a set of tools and a specification for building APIs, allowing developers to easily create, test, and deploy APIs that are well-documented and easy to use. With Swagger, developers can easily manage API endpoints, test API responses, and generate client libraries for different programming languages. It is widely used in the industry for API development and has become a popular tool for building and managing APIs.
Postman API Platform
Postman is a popular API platform used by developers for designing, testing, and documenting APIs. It offers a user-friendly interface for creating and sending requests, as well as debugging and monitoring API traffic. With Postman, developers can easily collaborate on API development and share their work with team members. Postman also supports automated testing and provides tools for generating API documentation. Its popularity is due to its ease of use, powerful features, and compatibility with a wide range of APIs and web services.
Design and collaboration platforms
Figma
Figma is a cloud-based design and collaboration platform that enables users to create and share user interfaces, prototypes, and design systems. It offers a comprehensive set of design tools, including vector editing, prototyping, and real-time collaboration features that allow multiple team members to work on a project simultaneously. Figma's versatility makes it a popular choice among designers, developers, and product teams for creating interactive designs and user experiences. Its cloud-based nature also allows for easy sharing and iteration of design assets, making it an effective tool for collaboration.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a popular image editing software used by designers, photographers, and digital artists for manipulating and enhancing digital images. It offers a vast array of features, including color correction, image retouching, layer management, and 3D modeling tools. Photoshop has become a standard tool in the design industry and is widely used for creating and editing graphics for websites, mobile apps, and print media. Its flexibility and versatility make it an essential tool for any digital creative who needs to manipulate, enhance or create images.