Over the years, many new technologies and tools have emerged to facilitate web development. If you're a web developer, you know how important it is to have the latest and greatest tools at your disposal so you can maximise efficiency and output excellent work.
In this article, we'll go through the top 10 web development tools that every designer and coder ought to know about.
Experts in the field have acknowledged and recommended these resources, and there is empirical evidence to back up their claims.
The most essential tool for each programmer is the text editor. Syntax highlighting, code completion, and skinnable interfaces are only some of the benefits provided by these tools. A large developer community and robust plugin support help make Visual Studio Code (VS Code) the most popular text editor, as reported by the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021.
When it comes to keeping track of and managing modifications to a codebase, version control systems are a must-have. The market is dominated by Git, a distributed version control system. Over 80% of developers in the 2020 JetBrains Developer Survey utilised Git, making it an essential tool for teamwork and source code organisation.
Integrated development environments (IDEs) provide a full-featured setting for coding, testing, and managing projects. Both Microsoft's Visual Studio and JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA are widely recognised as two of the best integrated development environments (IDEs). According to the State of the Developer Ecosystem in 2020 study, these IDEs are extensively used because of their advanced capabilities and streamlined processes.
Installing and maintaining frameworks, libraries, and dependencies is made easier with the help of package managers. The Node Package management (NPM) is widely used as a package management for JavaScript-based applications. Over 80% of Node.js developers utilise NPM, as reported in the Node.js User Survey Report 2021.
Repetitive processes like minification, compilation, and testing may be automated with the help of task runners. Two popular task runners are Grunt and Gulp. According to the results of the State of JavaScript 2020 study, developers make heavy use of these resources to create more streamlined automated processes.
The capabilities of CSS are expanded by preprocessors with the addition of features like as variables, mixins, and nested syntax. Two popular preprocessors are Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) and Less. According to the results of the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021, Sass is the preprocessor of choice for the vast majority of Stack Overflow's user base.
Using a JavaScript framework is a methodical way to create websites and programmes. Some of the most well-known frameworks include React, Angular, and Vue.js. Developers are most happy with React and Vue.js, respectively, according to the State of JavaScript 2020 survey.
The success and reliability of web applications rely heavily on testing frameworks. Testing frameworks like Jest, Mocha, and Cypress have found widespread use. According to results from the State of JavaScript Testing 2020 poll, Jest is widely considered to be the best testing framework for JavaScript.
Optimising for performance is essential for delivering reliable and quick online apps. Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, and WebPageTest are just a few of the tools available to assist pinpoint performance issues and provide fixes. Google's Lighthouse has received much praise and comes highly recommended.
Web developers have access to a wide variety of profiling and debugging tools in modern browsers. Chrome DevTools' comprehensive functionality, such as DOM inspection, network monitoring, and performance analysis, contribute to its popularity and high esteem. Chrome DevTools is the most widely used debugging tool for websites, as reported by the HTTP Archive.
Staying productive and able to ship high-quality web apps in today's ever-changing web development environment requires having access to the best technologies available. This blog post provides a strong basis for developers by covering 10 crucial tools and backing them up with research, statistics, and polls. If you want to succeed as a web developer, you should adopt these tools, keep investigating new ones, and keep up with the always shifting web development environment.
