Good programmers are rare, which is why they need to be looked after carefully. Like prize orchids and good cigars, a programmer’s environment needs to be carefully maintained to ensure s/he delivers ultimate joy. Reatile Tshikalange, senior programmer at Flow Communications, explains what makes him tick ...
There is a lot that I could cover, but as an introduction these are some of the things that make me happy and productive every day. I take them for granted now and again, and often don’t even notice them until someone points them out. All it takes is a “That’s so cool!” or a “How did you do that?” from one of my colleagues to remind me about my favourite things.
These are more than merely tools, tips and tricks … they have become a part of who I am.
1. My machine
A good machine is a must and can only result in a happier developer. When running multiple applications, having a quality machine is always handy as the machine needs to be able handle the load. These are the types of applications that I run daily:
- Browser: Google Chrome (I also use it as my email client)
- DB management: Sequel Pro (MySQL graphic user Interface)
- IM Client: Skype
- IDE: PHPStorm
- Text editor: Sublime Text is always open in our studio
- Terminal client: iTerm2 (As the sites states, it does amazing things!)
2. Servers are my friends
They keep our sites warm, store our data and make it possible for the world to view our work. Configure them well and look after them. Monitoring tools and experience make a great maintenance combo. Keep your service provider on speed dial, though, just in case.
3. A second (or third) monitor makes life just a tad sweeter
Tad is an understatement. With a second monitor attached to your machine you’ll be able to have your one application on your primary screen (i.e. laptop screen) while viewing another in your secondary screen. If you have three monitors, you would be able to view the design, open the browser and have the IDE running without having to switch between the three different applications, all of which are needed to bring a site to life.
4. Music library for any mode (with a good set of headphones)
I could be in deep thought, listening to Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus or preparing for weekend shift with DJ Fresh’s Deep in My Soul. Music is the key to my heart, next to code. The headphones help you to get lost in your music library.
5. Good connectivity
I do suffer from withdrawal when I don’t have connectivity. Since we installed fibre at the office, Internet experience has been a pleasure, with faster downloads and uploads.
6. Keyboard shortcuts
Knowing that cmd+tab (on Apple’s OS) will allow you to quickly switch between your running applications saves those seconds your hands use to travel to your mouse. Or that cmd+F1 will mirror your display (to your secondary display) - very useful when setting up for a presentation. My most-used shortcuts (in no particular order):
- cmd+[1-9] – Mostly used in Google Chrome to quickly switch between open tabs. Note that cmd+9 will always select the last tab, irrespective of the number tabs open
- cmd+q – Quit the currently selected application
- cmd+z – Undo (I just had to include this one, it was used a lot in constructing this article!)
- cmd+a – Select all, very useful when used in conjunction with cmd+x (cut), cmd+c (copy) and cmd+v (paste)
- cmd+shift+3 – Take a screenshot of the entire screen and saves it to your desktop
- cmd+shift+4 – Take a screenshot of a selected area. Adding the control key to this combination will save your your screenshot to memory, allowing you to paste your screenshot into any application
- cmd+m – Minimise the currently selected application
- cmd+w – Mostly used in the browser window to close the current tab
- The scroll wheel click a.k.a middle-click – I can quickly close any browser tab by middle-clicking the tab
7. Bookmarks
This list is always growing with new resources, interesting sites, snippets (pieces of code that could be used anywhere) and interesting articles.
So you see, keeping a developer happy is really not that complicated.
