Skills that I have, tools that I use and my experiences with them.

I get asked a lot about the things I use to build software, stay productive, or buy to fool myself into thinking I’m being productive when I’m really just procrastinating. Here’s a big list of all of my favorite stuff.

Frontend

  • Angular

    Nothing beats frontend developement like angular. I am a fan of the clean and neat (albeit verbose) approach that Angular takes as opposed to other frameworks that are trying to appeal to developers by suggestively trimming the fat.

  • Tailwind

    Once you get onboard, you’re going to realize that Tailwind is the endgame of CSS frameworks. Not only do I love the simplicity and flexibility of Tailwind, I also appreciate the idea of being able to port tailwind code easily just by pasting it and making minor adjustments.

  • Ionic

    I am lazy and I like the idea of using my existing web developement skills to create a mobile app. Not only can I use an angular/tailwind combo I can also integrate other web technologies and package it for both the platforms.

  • Pixi JS

    When it comes to working around in HTML Canvas, one 2D engine is enough. Pixi js covers most of the ground and then some. While I have done some extensive project work in Pixi, I am always looking to learn more.

  • Chart.js

    This nifty library is all you need to create beautiful charts. While this library is not as extensive and broad as D3.js, its far more versatile in the sense that you can use it to create performant canvas based charts with just a few lines of code.

Backend

  • Express.js

    Written enough endpoints to know this thing makes sense in a server based environment. Althought, I might shift to some of the newer technologies like Huno or Fastify. But until I have learnt them, Express is my default.

  • tsyringe

    Did I mention that I only use Typescript? Well now you know, but more importantly, outside of Angular, when I have to implement inversion of control, I use tsyringe for all the dependency injection.

  • Jest

    I have used Jest in a lot of my projects. I can say that I love it. Angular default Karma/jasmine combo just doesnt cut it for me. I want tests to be lightweight enough that I can run them in the terminal or in the IDE based on my preference and integrations.

  • Faker

    Can't develop a project without it. I use faker to generate mocks for both my frontend and backend code. Its not a megacorp library but its a life saver that deserves a mention.

Tools

  • Figma

    I used to design most of UI in Sketch. For some reason, I started using Figma(must be the widespread prevalance). I am comfortable creating decent UX/UI if I may say so myself. Though I must admit I never joined any design school. All the knowledge I gathered was from hands on projects.

  • VS Code

    VS code is my bread and butter. I have never felt the need to upgrade (or try) any other IDE. The temptation never comes. Debugging can be a breeze along with window pane mangement. I am too used to the keybindings in VS code to make a switch.

  • Affinity Designer

    While I own the entire affinity suite, I particularly use affinity designer whenever I am working on some logo or mocking an idea for a webpage. It may surprise you but you can use affinity designer to come up with radical vector animation concepts. All it takes is a bit of imagination and a whole lot of animation thinking. Just tweak some sliders, you will get an idea.