Every business has a fixed set of tools and software required to conduct it successfully. Software development also falls under these criteria and has a limited set of items that you must use to get the best results from the Development Team. We believe that a good developer will never lose his tools and will have access to highly skilled and advanced items than an average developer. However, it is impossible to expect that a company will know about all the tools available in the market. So, in this article, we are going to discuss the best tools that every developer must use or know.
Additionally, companies don’t give much attention to new and innovative tools. The main reason is that they consider these tools to be raw and do not require much attention due to inefficiency. On the other hand, a good software developer spends time, money, and effort to learn about every tool that can reform the development process. Additionally, you can also decrease the development time for your company. In simple words, the perfect balance is to learn new tools while ensuring that you improve your knowledge of the tools that are already familiar.
So, instead of learning a new framework like Angular or React a developer should spend time understanding and improve necessary skills. These skills will help in the long run while serving every day in the software industry.
Tools that Every Developer Should Know About
Some people might think that these tools are too simple or basic. However, these are essential for a developer to accomplish the tasks in his daily life. Now, let us look at the list of the tools that every developer should have the necessary knowledge about:
- LambdaTest
LambdaTest is one of the most trusted platform when it comes to software development and testing. They have a cloud-based engine to perform efficient automation testing. The LambdaTest allows you to test web applications from the browser. Thus, it saves time and effort required to install any third-party application on your desktop. It has various features like live activity log, quick bug detection, and DevOps integration. LambdaTest is highly supportive of small and growing companies with their wisely priced plans. Additionally, they have various free programs that allow conducting necessary testing and development processes for free.
Thus, we can justify that LambdaTest should be the priority for any development company. This fantastic tool will serve as your one-stop solution for all development and testing needs. Additionally, their efficient customer support ensures that you get all the help required at any point in time.
- Git and GitHub
The knowledge about the source control repository is highly essential for any developer or software designer. The crucial reason behind this is that they need to do a check-in and checkout of the necessary codes every single day. Additionally, it is highly essential to have basic knowledge about certain concepts like branching and merging to become a good developer.
In the Present software market, GIT and GitHub are the prime methods of maintaining source repository control and version control tool. In simple words, this is the most critical tool that every developer needs. So, we suggest all companies ensure that their development team has good knowledge about GIT and GitHub.
For beginners, there are various online courses based on Git and GitHub. Thus, you can use these courses to learn basic concepts and improve your development skills.
- SQL
SQL is yet another essential tool that every software developer must learn. SQL stands for Standard Query Language and works with code database. This unique software allows you to read, update, and delete data from a table. In the modern Software Development Industry, you have to use tables in almost every phase of development. Thus, the developer needs to have a good understanding of SQL.
Other than performing the basic commands, SQL also allows you to select, insert, update, and delete every form of data. We recommend that every software developer must know how to write Complex queries using join, aggregate, functions, and other advanced functionalities of SQL. Similar to GIT and GitHub, there are also various workshops that you can attend to increase your SQL knowledge. These are online boot camp-style courses that will teach you everything that a developer should know about SQL.
- Python
Java is the dominant programming language for every Software Development Industry. Thus, the suggestion for Python might seem to be a matter of surprise for most of the readers. However, there is a strong reason to suggest Python. For instance, Python is a powerful, high level, and object-oriented programming language. Additionally, it is well known for its versatility.
This innovative software allows you to create large applications like Java and also creates useful automation scripts for automated testing. The multiple models available in Python helps you to complete any possible task starting from the filesystem access to the development of web applications. The various advantages of Python include easy-to-use syntax, clean UI, and adaptive interface. It is a perfect programming language for any new PC software development industry. There are various online courses that you can join to learn more about Python and its various features.
- Excel
Excel is highly essential for anyone related to the developer industry. People often mistake this excellent application to be just spreadsheet software. However, the truth is that you can do more with Excel than you can ever imagine. An essential benefit of Microsoft Excel is that it is standard software, and you can find it everywhere. For instance, you can find it with anyone related to BA, QA, and project management. Thus, you can use this excellent software to generate project reports, automatic and reconcile staff, and much more.
In case you want to do more with Microsoft Excel other than copy-pasting staff then, you can learn advanced functions like VLOOKUP. This software is highly essential to maintain project reports and keep track of all the tasks that are happening in your current development log.
- Microsoft Word
Indeed, Microsoft Word isn’t as popular as Microsoft Excel, but, it is still one of the most essential and efficient tools for software developers. During development, there are various instances when you need to design documents, lookup a set of data, etc. Thus, Microsoft word is the best tool for this purpose. Additionally, it provides various advanced formatting options to create visually attractive documents for your customers and clients.
The cloud-based service of Microsoft Word allows you to store multiple documents on the server. Thus, you can access them from anywhere in the world at any time you need. You can also use this software to write the necessary code for automated test scripts. Thus, we can justify that Microsoft Word is highly essential to create a decent testing environment.
- PowerPoint
Other than Microsoft Word and Excel, PowerPoint forms the last pillar of the ultimate office tools that is essential for software development. Additionally, Microsoft PowerPoint plays a critical role in management for various software development processes. It is one of the most popular tools that help to create a presentation as a developer. For instance, there are many situations when you need to create slide shows like displaying your ideas or business, innovative plans to your project managers, and other knowledge-sharing sessions. Furthermore, Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to share your business ideas with various teams in your company.
Microsoft allows various free online classes to learn the essential function of PowerPoint or to improve your existing knowledge about this application. Thus, you can learn the basics of PowerPoint within a brief period.
- Text Editors
To become a successful software developer, you must have a decent knowledge of at least one text editor software. For instance, software developers perform a lot of text processing tasks daily. So, a text editor will help you reduce the complexity of this process. Notepad is considered to be the most efficient Text Editor application in the entire software industry. Other than Notepad, there are other advanced test editor software like sublime or Notepad++.
All this softwares allow you to perform regular expression searching and replacement with macros. These features are highly useful for most daily activities related to software development. Thus, text editor softwares are essential to uplift your abilities as a software developer.
Additionally, the text editor available in the VS code is also very efficient. Thus, we recommend that if you have a good knowledge of VS code text editor then, you don’t need to learn any new one.
- Linux Commands
Similar to SQL, Linux commands are also very crucial for all software developers. Every developer needs to work on Unix sometimes, most of us find ourselves spending the day on a Linux machine. Thus, a good knowledge of Linux commands will help you to find what you want and complete your task with the device. Additionally, it also allows you to troubleshoot any possible issue with the application that is running on Linux.
Thus, we can justify that the Linux commands are a must-have knowledge for every software developer. Moreover, there are various online activities that you can join to increase and improve your understanding of Linux commands.
- SVN
A survey suggests that Git has overpowered almost 70% of the software market in terms of the version control system. However, there are still open-source projects like SVN that are used in the industry. Thus, having proper knowledge about SVN is highly essential for any beginner or veteran in the Software Development Industry. The only drawback of this software is that it is really updated and is still running on version 12 that was released years ago.
The Verdict
So, in this article, we discussed the essential tools for every software developer. These are some of the simple tools that you must know while you are working with programming languages like JavaScript or developing Android and iOS applications. Exceptional knowledge of these applications would benefit in the long run as you will use these tools every day in your development career. Thus, you will end up appreciating the time that you invested in learning these applications. Lastly, we would recommend our reader to consider LamdaTest Browser as one of the essential commodities for the development process. This company has been serving the software industry for several years now.
