What tools do you use?
I sometimes get asked about certain tools that I use so I figured it might be interesting to share my setup with you.
For hardware, I’ve used the same MacBook Pro for the last ~5 years with the Catalina OS installed. I don’t think it is new enough to install a later OS than this.
I only use one screen which I think is 21 inches. I’ve never used 2 screens because I prefer to just tab through applications rather than keep looking in different directions and I always have my screen just sat flat on my desk and not on a stand.
For my editor, I’ve used only PHPStorm for quite a few years and doubt that I’ll ever use anything else. Other editors have been hailed as the latest-greatest editor but they always seem to need quite a lot of config to get them to work with PHP like PHPStorm does, so why change? Before PHPStorm, I used Netbeans and Sublime.
I’ve used a few themes over the years including custom ones which I created myself but I’m now using Material Darker and people seem quite happy with that. A couple of people said that my screen was too dark when I used my own theme so I changed it.
For database administration, I now use Table Plus but I have also used Sequel Pro, which is Mac-only, and I used to use MySQL Workbench, which I thought was really good. I’ve never used the DB tools in PHPStorm much. In fact, I don’t use a lot of PHPStorm functionality, I just use it as an editor.
For the command line I use iTerm and the terminal built into PHPStorm. I also have Oh My Zsh installed which includes a load of helpers including auto-completion and git aliases which I find really useful.
For every day development software, I have Git and Composer installed globally as well as PHP 8.1 and MariaDB but I now mainly use Docker which means I can use whatever versions I want so I’ve recently been using PHP 8.2 inside a container. This obviously means that I need to have Docker Desktop installed.
And that is my setup. I keep things deliberately uncomplicated and just focus on productivity. I also make sure that I set up in a corner of the room where nothing can catch my eye and distract me and I always wear headphones while I’m coding; I need to block out the entire outside world.
I hate trying to write code in an open-plan office so I work alone in a purpose-built wooden office in my garden. I always have a guitar within reach because playing it helps me to reset my brain when I’ve been thinking about something for a while.
What do you think? It would be cool to see how it compares with your setup so feel free to share!
Do you not use the debugger in PHPStorm? I find it extremely useful. Couldn't live without it.
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