This page is a collection of tools, plugins and scripts I find to be useful. Come back regularly and follow @mLachinger on Twitter to not miss any of the goodness.
Contents
Javascript
NVD3 – Reusable Charts for D3.js
http://nvd3.org/
A extensive collection of standard graph visualizations using the powerful graphing library d3.js.
PACE – Automatic Page Load Progress Bar
http://github.hubspot.com/pace/docs/welcome/
Automatically display the load status of the current website by i.e. having a progress bar on the top of the page like youtube uses when switching between videos.
Ladda – Buttons with Build-In Loading Indicator
http://lab.hakim.se/ladda/
Nice pre-built user-friendly buttons that show loading indicators after a button has been pressed and is i.e. waiting for an AJAX request to return. Can even show a progress bar where applicable.
TodoMVC
http://todomvc.com/
Implementation of a simple ToDo app in over a dozen different MV* frameworks. Makes evaluating and comparing the frameworks a little easier.
Terminal
The Text Triumvirate
http://www.drbunsen.org/the-text-triumvirate/
An introduction to a powerful set of tools to work in the console. tmux as a console multiplexer, zsh as a really powerful shell and vim for quick and efficient editing of files. Also take a look at alternative window managers, different unix shells like ksh or tcsh and other editors, most notably emacs (welcome to the #editorWars ;) ) .
Solarized
http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized
My favorite color scheme available for almost anything. Has a light and a dark theme.
Ag – The Silver Searcher
https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
Very fast ack-like search tool.
Ack – Grep-Like Search Tool
http://beyondgrep.com/
Even though Ag is faster and a little more intelligent (presumptuous) when searching through large amounts of files, ack still has some other nice features like pipelining which i.e. allows you to colorize regex patterns.
Vim
vim-airline
https://github.com/bling/vim-airline
Good-looking, colored and informative status bar.
In addition to these general purpose plugins, I use specific plugins depending on the language I am coding in:
Ruby / Rails
rails.vim
https://github.com/tpope/vim-rails
Tim Pope’s Rails power tools. A must for every rails developer, many small but convenient features.
Scala
While I am still mostly developing Scala in IntelliJ Idea, I am trying out the following plugins:
vimside
https://github.com/megaannum/vimside
A vim-wrapper for the ENSIME server. Not completely ported yet but looks promising.
vim-scala
https://github.com/derekwyatt/vim-scala
Standard syntax highlighting, indentation, grammar, etc.
Collaboration
Google Docs
http://docs.google.com
Even though I would never call them a replacement for Microsoft Word or Microsoft Powerpoint, they are really good to quickly jot down an idea or a product spec and collaboratively edit it real time as well as get comments on it.
Floobits: Cross-Editor Real-Time Collaboration
https://floobits.com/
I really like the idea of having a solid product that allows me to remotely pair-program, debug and just brainstorm in my IDE / editor of choice. Currently there are plugins for Emacs, Vim and Sublime but I have already seen an IntelliJ plugin flying around as well.
Frameworks
TechEmpower Backend Framework Benchmarks
http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/
This is a very comprehensive community-supported performance benchmark starting with full-fledged frameworks like Rails or Play! over micro-frameworks like finagle down to platforms like pure PHP and Go.
Performance
Pingdom Full Site Test
http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
Convenient tool to check website loading speed from multiple locations with detailed insights on which parts of the request and which parts of the website took the most time. Also allows uptime and performance monitoring once every minute for free.
Webdesign
Testing Responsive Design
http://responsive.victorcoulon.fr/ && http://mattkersley.com/responsive/
When working on responsive designs these tools help to quickly find out how the result looks in different resolutions.
Twitter Bootstrap
http://getbootstrap.com
Get a good looking basic design within a second. Thanks to the CDN you don’t even have to download anything. Link the css file, follow some structural guidelines and it just looks good. More time to focus on the actual product :)
Mockflow – Collaborative Wireframing
http://www.mockflow.com/
Design and collaborate on creating wireframes, banners and brochures in the cloud with a very reasonable pricing model!
Miscellaneous
Screenr
http://www.screenr.com/
Allows to quickly make screencasts without spending a lot on professional software. Alternative on Mac is the QuickTime Player (File > New Screen Recording) which however lacks the easy sharing.
OmniGraffle
http://www.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle/
Very good (but somewhat expensive) tool to create anything from flow charts to iOS mockups.
Please leave a comment below no matter whether you have suggestions, found this list useful, spotted a mistake or just want to say hi! ;)
p.s.: I have no affiliation with any of the tools listed. I list them purely because I like them.