18 DevTools for productivity 🚀

Christopher Kade - Nov 5 '19 - - Dev Community

This may sound crazy, but developers are lazy. I know, unbelievable. Some of us are, we need to automate lots of our tasks because repetition can be tiring. So let me show you some tools I find extremely useful, either because they make my life easier or because they push me to write more accessible code.

We've all done it. Type ls you lazy, lazy person !

These tools will either be browser/IDE extensions, web apps or CLIs.

Web apps

Bundlephobia

You'd like to use a new dependency but you're not sure if it'll have a major impact performance-wise?

➡️ bundlephobia

Coolors

Looking for a cool color combination for a personal project and you're tired of looking around the room for inspiration?

️➡️ coolors

Carbon

You'd like to share a code snippet with style for a presentation? (Keep in mind that these pictures are not accessible)

➡️ carbon.now

Snippet generator

You have a live-coding session and you'd like to use code snippets to be more efficient?

Generate them using this tool & add them to your IDE of choice.

➡️ snippet generator

Wolfram Alpha

You have a complex mathematical problem on your hands? Or a complicated if statement you'd like to simplify? Input it in this tool and retrieve its truth table, venn diagram & other useful data to make your life easier !

➡️ Wolfram Alpha

DevHints

You keep on forgetting the syntax of that one framework or tool?

➡️ DevHints

Caniuse

Want to check if a feature is supported by a specific browser?

➡️ caniuse

Browser extensions

headingsMap

Are your headings accessible to screen readers? Do you want to see if your headings are in the wrong place?

➡️ Chrome

➡️ Firefox

WCAG Color contrast checker

Looking to avoid contrast problems with your application? Do you want an understanding of which elements of your screen have a bad contrast ratio at a glance?

➡️ Chrome

➡️ Firefox

Screencastify

Want to record your web app for a demo?

➡️ Screencastify (for Chrome only)

Axe

Want to execute automated accessibility tests very easily? (Axe won't test every accessibility concerns you may have, manual testing is also recommended)

➡️ axe

VSCode extensions

Bracket Pair Colorizer

Lost in a forest of { and }?

➡️ Bracket Pair Colorizer

Git graph

Sick of living in the console for your Git commands?

➡️ Git Graph

GitLens

Want to see who coded what?

➡️ GitLens

Live Share

Want to live-edit a file collectively in your IDE?

➡️ Live Share

CLIs

ngrok

You're working on a project and want to show your local environment to someone who's not here?

➡️️ ngrok

svgo

Want to optimize your svg files and remove all the noise?

➡️ svgo

tldr

Someone told you to RTFM (as much as I hate this expression) and you despise the usual man display?

➡️ tldr

fkill

Want to kill that pesky process but kill won't do it?

➡️ fkill

gitmoji CLI

Want to easily commit something following the gitmoji syntax?

➡️ gitmoji CLI

gitmoji changelog

Do you wish to generate a beautiful changelog based on your gitmoji commits?

➡️ gitmoji changelog

I hope you've found at least one tool that will make your life easier.
If you'd like to share one of your own, feel free to send them to me on Twitter @christo_kade or right here in the comments!

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