5 Cool Tools for Web Dev

A presentation to the django-boston meetup on 5 tools I use to be efficient in my workflow: Affordable Whiteboards, Virtualbox,
StartWork Script, 8 Million Pixels, Django Project Template Quickstarts

Transcript

2. have you met Ted? Technical founder of SittingAround.com Full stack developer except the adobe products Using Django since 1.0.2 ~5.5 years Work in Windows
3. 1. whiteboards 2. virtualbox 3. startwork script 4. 8 million pixels 5. django project templates 5 cool tools
4. 1. whiteboards 2. virtualbox 3. startwork script 4. 8 million pixels 5. django project templates 5 cool tools
5. whiteboard wall 4’ high, entire wall of office, 64 square feet Total cost < $100
6. metalic dry-erase boards $10 / sqft ($3 – $20)
7. ideapaint $4.50 / sqft
8. home depot panelboard $0.75 - $1.30 / sqft 8’ x 4’ panel of plywood with coating of white acrylic In the “tasteful faux-wood paneling” section, usually by lumber
9. my whiteboard wall 2 x Thrifty White Panel Board (cut in-store to 4’ sections) $28 Mirror hanging sets (4) $ 8 8’ length, white plastic panel edging (8) $16 Marker shelf - 1”x2”x10’ select pine boards (4) $20 Angle brackets & misc $10 Total $82 Lower budget? Just board and plain screws = $15 Biggest downside? Have to use windex every ~3rd time you erase
10. 1. whiteboards 2. virtualbox 3. startwork script 4. 8 million pixels 5. django project templates 5 cool tools
11. Virtualbox Lightweight virtualization software by Oracle (Sun) Supports Windows, Mac, and Linux Hosts Supports Windows, Linux, and more as Guests FOSS and free commercial versions
12. Virtualbox Run your dev machine as if it was just another program in windows
13. Virtualbox
14. why virtualbox Encapsulation: My Host OS has less cruft No MySQL or Postgres No PIL/Pillow No Django No Python
15. why virtualbox Isolation: Can “pause” the machine Save state without using host os resources Even if you shutdown the host os, state is stored on disk The virtual machine doesn’t know it is a virtual machine
16. why virtualbox Portability: Easily backup/transfer entire machine Export to .ova Keep bi-monthly backups of your dev machine Copy to thumb drive Import on new machine
17. how I use virtualbox Shared Folder Two way, automatic, file synchronization Write code in windows Execute code in linux Can run git commands in either environment!
18. beyond virtualbox Vagrant Wrapper around virtualbox Uses VagrantFile + Puppet/Chef/Docker to create carbon copy environments on multiple machines Remove env based differences from debugging Give design/biz people dev machines they can actually use Dev team of 5? Use vagrant to create === dev machines for everyone
19. 1. whiteboards 2. virtualbox 3. startwork script 4. 8 million pixels 5. django project templates 5 cool tools
20. startwork script It was taking me 5 to 30 minutes to get my environment ready It’s easy to get distracted when you’re tired I wrote StartWork Switches to “desktop 2” Opens all of the programs in my workspace Positions them for me 1 click, 30 seconds, no friction
21. demo startwork
22. gridmove virtuawin Move a window to an exact position by dragging with middle mouse button Multiple virtual desktops for windows startwork relies on autohotkey Windows scripting, tweaking, and macro software
23. demo gridmove and virtuawin
24. 1. whiteboards 2. virtualbox 3. startwork script 4. 8 million pixels 5. django project templates 5 cool tools
25. getting 8mn pixels 4 x 1920x1080 $400-800 1 x 4k $600+
26. is 8mn pixels overkill? No 8mn pixels is where you stop needing Alt + Tab
27. is 8mn pixels overkill? Webdev involves lots of moving parts Efficient webdev requires many things running simultaneously Text Editor / IDE 2+ Browsers (1 for localhost, 1 for docs/stackoverflow) Chrome/Firefox Dev Tools 1+ Terminals 1+ File browsers
28. no more Alt + Tab
29. window tiling Sublime Files docs chrome @ localhost misc chrome dev tools Virtualbox Files
30. window tiling Sublime Files docs chrome @ localhost misc chrome dev tools Virtualbox Files
31. virtual sub-tiles
32. virtual sub-tiles runserver pyzen django shell linux shell
33. 1. whiteboards 2. virtualbox 3. startwork script 4. 8 million pixels 5. django project templates 5 cool tools
34. create or use a quickstart $ django-admin.py startproject --template=https://… As of 1.4 Automatically sets up the project the way you like Readme.md, great place for your own krib-sheet Can get up an running on a new site, including aws & first production deployment in ~ 45 minutes
35. i wrote two $ django-admin.py startproject --template=https://… https://github.com/django-quickstart/1.5-heroku/ https://github.com/django-quickstart/1.5-webfaction/ (in progress)
36. i also really like and respect $ django-admin.py startproject --template=https://… https://github.com/rdegges/django-skel/ https://github.com/twoscoops/django-twoscoops-project/
37. Bonus
38. Herman Miller chairs $300-400 On Craigslist NB: No warranty
39. cables and mounts: monoprice www.monoprice.com
40. office planning: sketchup www.sketchup.com
41. Ikea Galant desks $200-300 Basically indestructible Galant > Linmon Linmon is flimsy in comparison
42. DjangoPackages.com Find, compare, evaluate community packages