Software tools for full-stack development
Table of Contents
Introduction
Technologies are constantly changing, every day there are lots of new applications or software ideas are made. The developers before are creating their software manually with limited tools and resources. Therefore, companies nowadays creating tools to help developers to prevent difficulties. And tools to provide the needs of software development.
Now developers can develop software using these tools. And they can use the feature like drag and drop tool, code generator, error detector, debugger, etc.. Using these tools are very helpful for developers, therefore, it can increase productivity. And save a lot of time in software development.
Working in the full-stack application does a lot of configurations and development phases before you finished it. However, knowing the important software tools are really helpful for full-stack development.
In this article we will discuss the list of import software tools for software development:
- IDE
- Text Editor
- Photo Editor
- Diagram software tool
- Browser
- Version control tool
IDE
The IDE or Integrated Development Environment is a software development tool for building an application. And it’s combined with the common development tools, including text editors, plugins, code libraries, debuggers, compilers, test platforms, etc.
Additionally, it is the right tool for back-end development. And it can fulfill the needs of the development by extending the features of IDE on the plugins. Below is the list of example IDE:
Eclipse IDE is a popular development tool for Java language. However, you can also use it in any available programming language in eclipse plugins. Including PHP, Python, Ruby, C/C++, etc. and you can extend the eclipse features using eclipse marketplace.
Netbeans is the same as Eclipse IDE, and it is famous for Java and has an extendable platform. But you can only use this IDE in few programming languages like Java, C/C++, PHP, Groovy, JavaScript.
Developers don’t need to write code or design desktop applications manually. Therefore, they can use drag and drops feature provided by Netbeans. And it can save a lot of time for development.
Visual Studio is used for C# and Visual Studio languages. However, it can also support other languages such as Python, Ruby, Node.js, etc.. And it can be used to develop desktop, web, and mobile development. Therefore, this tool is good for window applications, since it uses Microsoft platform. Including Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation, etc. to develop applications.
Text Editor
The text editor is developing tools that allow developers to view and modify files. Including a plain text, programming language source code, or config file. And it is a lightweight compare to IDE, however, it has only limited features. Therefore, it is a relevant tool for front-end development like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, PHP, etc.. Below is the list of example text editor:
Visual Studio Code is a source code editor created by Microsoft, is a light version of Visual Studio. And It has so many features that can reach the level of IDE tool. Its features include debugging, embedded version control, syntax highlighting, code refactoring, etc.. And you can use extensions to support other features.
Notepad++ is a free source code editor that allows you to open multiple tabs. And you can view and modify a lot of programming language source code. It has a syntax highlighting that can highlight codes depends on what type of programming language.
Sublime Text is a source code editor with a Python API. And it also supports many programming languages like the other editor and functions can extend via plugins, Sublime is a cross-platform software meaning it can be used in any platform like Windows, Mac OS, Android or IOS.
Photo Editor
You need to include image editor for your development tools since you will involve in a front-end development or full-stack development, you should expect that you will make icons, logo, background images, etc. for your application design. You don’t have to buy expensive application because there are lots of free software you can use for your image editing.
But if you don’t have competent in your skills or you don’t have enough time, you can pay for online service, for example, you can hire a freelancer or use software online to create images for your app.
Here are some applications for photo editing with a short description, if you want more details you can click the title itself to navigate you to their website:
GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is a free and open-source image editor that can be available in many platforms like Windows, GNU/Linux, etc. it has advanced editing tools, it is like a free version of Adobe Photoshop, GIMP provides lots of tools that enough to get the job done.
Paint.NET is a simple and easy to learn software for a photo editor, its free software can be available only in windows platform if you don’t want to ways your time learning advanced and complicated photo editor, this app is the right for you, It provides fast and easy to operate tools that ideal for simple photo editing
Adobe Illustrator is a graphics editor that ideal for a page layout, logos, icons, etc. it is a powerful tool for web development and front-end development, It easy to learn from the start, but it is hard to master everything, however, there are lots of videos and tutorials online that you can use to learn this app.
Diagram Software Tool
Diagrams are important in software development, it will help you to analyze the whole software, and it can serve as a guide to your software development processes. Diagrams are useful for presentations, which is not difficult to understand by the client and team.
Refer to this post for flow chart diagrams tutorial:
Below is the list of example Diagram Software:
Lucidchart is an online diagram software that combines diagramming, data visualization, and collaboration that can easily share the diagram and presentation remotely for the team, client or to anyone who is part of the development process, this app provides hundreds of templates that you can use to create flowchart, UML diagram, ERD, and more
Microsoft Visio is the alternative software of Lucidchart, but it will cost you amount money depends on what type of software you want to use like Standard or Professional, Microsoft Visio provides advanced tools for creating professional flowcharts, diagrams and more, and can also share the charts or diagrams online for team collaboration.
Browser
Using a browser for testing the front-end or web application is the best practice for developers, and on the other hand, applying the extensions or test platform in the IDEs or any software is not ideal for testing, for some valid reason, after the web development has finished, the user will use the actual web browser to run the app, so it can cause hidden errors.
Developers should use all the major browsers including Google, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer/Edge, and Safari to test the web app for the development to prevent bugs and faults, if you work for the client, it is better to ask what browser they are using to avoid the issue in the actual operation.
Below is the list of example browser:
Google Chrome is one of the most useful tools for web development, and it has a built-in developer tool that provides useful functions to speeds up the development process. And it has hundreds of useful extensions that you can add from the Google web store..
Version control tool
The version control also known as file control and source control is a document change management system that allows users to recover, modify, add and remove any files that are controlled by the version control software. Therefore, this tool will help developers to back-up their changes during full-stack development. Without this tool, the project will be difficult to handle. Since full-stack development is huge.
As you can see in the image above, there are three versions for the file, so let say that you are in the current version which is the third version, you can revert the file to the previous version anytime, or you can modify the file then push it to create another version, see the images below:
Revert Changes
Push Changes
Git is one of the most popular version control applications for software development, it is a cross-platform application that can use in Linux, Windows, macOS, and more, and there are lots of IDEs, and Text Editors that embedded or can extend the Git tools, for example, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, etc. and there is available User Interface software for mobile, desktop and web application for project changes monitoring and management.
Conclusion
For more information about full-stack development, you can refer to the posts below:
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