Table of Contents

Development Tools

This section covers essential development tools and workflows for modern software development, including version control, code editing, containerization, and automation.

Core Development Tools

Version Control & Collaboration

  • Git - Distributed version control system
  • GitHub - Git hosting and collaboration platform
  • GitLab - DevOps platform with integrated CI/CD

Code Editors & IDEs

Text Processing & Utilities

Containerization & Orchestration

Container Technologies

Container Orchestration

Build Tools & Package Managers

JavaScript/Node.js

  • npm - Node.js package manager
  • Yarn - Fast, reliable package manager
  • pnpm - Efficient package manager

Python

  • pip - Python package installer
  • Poetry - Python dependency management
  • Conda - Package and environment manager

General Build Tools

  • Make - Build automation tool
  • Gradle - Build automation system
  • Maven - Project management tool

Testing & Quality Assurance

Testing Frameworks

  • Jest - JavaScript testing framework
  • Pytest - Python testing framework
  • JUnit - Java testing framework

Code Quality

CI/CD & Automation

Continuous Integration

Infrastructure as Code

  • Terraform - Infrastructure provisioning
  • Ansible - Configuration management
  • Pulumi - Modern infrastructure as code

Monitoring & Observability

Application Monitoring

  • Prometheus - Monitoring and alerting toolkit
  • Grafana - Analytics and monitoring platform
  • Jaeger - Distributed tracing system

Logging

  • ELK Stack - Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana
  • Fluentd - Data collector for unified logging
  • Loki - Log aggregation system

Database Tools

Database Management

  • PostgreSQL - Advanced open-source database
  • MySQL - Popular relational database
  • Redis - In-memory data structure store

Database GUIs & Utilities

Security Tools

Vulnerability Scanning

  • OWASP ZAP - Security testing proxy
  • Snyk - Vulnerability scanning platform
  • Trivy - Container vulnerability scanner

Secret Management

Getting Started

For Beginners

If you're new to development, start with these fundamentals:

  1. Git basics - Learn version control
  2. VS Code setup - Configure your development environment
  3. Docker fundamentals - Understand containerization
  4. Basic terminal commands - Command line proficiency

Essential Workflow

A typical modern development workflow includes:

# 1. Version control
git clone <repository>
git checkout -b feature/new-feature

# 2. Development environment
code .  # Open in VS Code
docker-compose up -d  # Start services

# 3. Development cycle
npm install  # Install dependencies
npm test     # Run tests
npm run dev  # Start development server

# 4. Code quality
npm run lint    # Check code style
npm run format  # Format code

# 5. Commit and push
git add .
git commit -m "Add new feature"
git push origin feature/new-feature

Project Structure

Recommended project structure for modern applications:

project-root/ ├── .github/ │ └── workflows/ # GitHub Actions ├── .vscode/ │ └── settings.json # VS Code configuration ├── docs/ # Documentation ├── src/ # Source code ├── tests/ # Test files ├── docker-compose.yml # Local development ├── Dockerfile # Container definition ├── .gitignore # Git ignore rules ├── .eslintrc.js # Linting configuration ├── .prettierrc # Code formatting ├── package.json # Dependencies └── README.md # Project documentation

Development Environment Setup

Quick Setup Script

#!/bin/bash
# setup-dev-environment.sh

echo "Setting up development environment..."

# Install essential tools
if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "linux-gnu"* ]]; then
    # Ubuntu/Debian
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install -y git curl wget vim build-essential
elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
    # macOS
    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
    brew install git curl wget vim
fi

# Install Node.js and npm
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Install VS Code (Linux)
wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > packages.microsoft.gpg
sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 packages.microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install code

echo "Development environment setup complete!"
echo "Please log out and back in for Docker group changes to take effect."

Best Practices

Code Organization

  • Consistent structure - Follow project conventions
  • Clear naming - Use descriptive names for files and functions
  • Documentation - Comment complex logic and maintain README files
  • Version control - Commit frequently with clear messages

Security

  • Dependency scanning - Regularly check for vulnerabilities
  • Secret management - Never commit secrets to version control
  • Access control - Use proper authentication and authorization
  • Regular updates - Keep dependencies and tools updated

Performance

  • Optimize builds - Use efficient build processes
  • Monitor resources - Track CPU, memory, and disk usage
  • Profile applications - Identify and fix performance bottlenecks
  • Cache effectively - Implement appropriate caching strategies

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

  1. Git conflicts

    git status
    git diff
    git merge --abort  # Cancel merge if needed
    
  2. Docker issues

    docker system prune  # Clean up unused resources
    docker-compose down -v  # Remove volumes
    
  3. Package manager issues

    rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
    npm install  # Clean install
    

Useful Commands

# System information
uname -a
lscpu
free -h
df -h

# Process monitoring
htop
ps aux | grep <process>
netstat -tlnp

# File operations
find . -name "*.js" -type f
grep -r "pattern" .
sed -i 's/old/new/g' file.txt

Learning Resources

Documentation

Practice Platforms

Books and Tutorials

  • Clean Code by Robert C. Martin
  • The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas
  • You Don't Know JS series by Kyle Simpson

This comprehensive guide provides a solid foundation for modern software development workflows and tooling.