Let’s see…

Well, at first I want to start with the most important thing for writing code, obviously the computer. Here my eye fell on Mac, or rather late 2021 MacBook Air with M1 chip. It is quiet, or to be exact, silent, close to the power I need, and also has a terminal in the OS. I have the lowest configuration with 8Gb RAM and 256Gb SSD. Update! I am currently using a MacBook Pro 16’’ on M1 Max chip with 32Gb RAM and 1024Gb SSD. I don’t understand why some programmers use Windows laptops, I can easily imagine writing code using a laptop with Linux on it, but Windows seems so tricky and weird to me.

The second most important thing for a programmer is a browser. I have tried many options and I think this is a topic for a separate blog post, write comments if you want to read about it. I am currently using Google Chrome because I found how to integrate it with Chat-GPT. I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine. The extensions I have installed are: 1Password for password management, I like to read articles and Instapaper makes my life easier.

The second and a half most important thing is a terminal. Well, I tried two options, the first is iTerm, it’s a very well-known thing and I don’t need to tell you about it, and the second is Warp. Warp seems more interesting to me, it’s free, it’s more like a text smart editor and it’s written in Rust. This is why I decided to stay with Warp.

Here we go to the IDE, based on the languages I use I’ve chosen IntelliJ IDEA. The most powerful IDE for any language, I use it mostly for Java and Rust, for other languages I can use anything from a basic text editor on my laptop to nvim(Press Esc, press :, enter q to exit) or Sublime Text.

Here’s a great presentation on how to work effectively with IDEA

We’re done with developer tools, the next apps on the list are apps that are just a joy to use.

To make my fingers work as fast as possible, I use KeyKey. I think if you’re a programmer and you can’t write code as fast as your thoughts flow, you can’t do it efficiently because you don’t think about the code you’re typing at the moment, your brain is doing something like this:

“Eh, which key should I press next? Oh, that one! Okay, but where is it? Please give me a second. Wait, what am I doing here?”

Try to type at least 60 characters per minute. You can also try to learn as many hotkeys as possible, imagine that your computer has no mouse, only a keyboard.

For VPN connection I use WireGuard, I don’t trust proprietary VPN services. In my opinion, using a proprietary VPN is almost the same, or even worse, than not using one at all. So I set up my own server. In today’s world, it is impossible to use the Internet or even PC without VPN because of traffic sniffers, targeted ads, etc. This is also the reason why I use DuckDuckGo instead of other search engines.

In my MacOS I replaced the standard Spotlight search with Raycast. They’re almost the same, but Raycast has some features I need, a clipboard manager, currency converter, system-wide search, and the ability to set any hotkey to any application. I almost never use a mouse or trackpad when working on my computer.

As a torrent client I prefer Transmisson. Sometimes we need to find something on the Internet and it is impossible to do without a torrent-client. Most often it is used to find an e-book or download a movie for the trip (I have a subscription to online movie theaters and music-sreaming service!).

To work with images I use several applications. I use Pixelmator to edit photos, Sketch to work with vector graphics, and Tayasui Sketches for ordinary drawing.

I also often need a video production tool, I’ve tried three in all time. The first was Adobe Vegas, probably the worst video editor in the world. The next was DaVinci Resolve, I think it’s the best, but I decided to stop on FinalCut Pro.

This is the best app ever! What does it do? It just mutes my mic while I’m typing, a must-have app for anyone with a laptop. I also usually use Google Meet, Zoom, Telegram and rarely Skype (does anyone know if it’s alive or not?) for calls. Since we’re on the topic of communication, I want to talk about messengers. I think the list will be standard, but: Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber(I just don’t want to leave a link to it, we should get rid of it).

To remove other important and useful applications from my Mac, I use AppCleaner because I’ve heard only good things about it.

Maybe you know some useful apps and you’d like to share them in comments. Thanks!