Ask HN: What developer tools would you like to see?

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

SurveyJS - Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App
With SurveyJS form UI libraries, you can build and style forms in a fully-integrated drag & drop form builder, render them in your JS app, and store form submission data in any backend, inc. PHP, ASP.NET Core, and Node.js.
surveyjs.io
featured
InfluxDB - Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale
Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.
www.influxdata.com
featured
  • toast

    Containerize your development and continuous integration environments. 🥂 (by stepchowfun)

  • - A build system like Nix [1] but with a better user experience / more straightforward command-line tooling.

    - A dependently typed programming language like Coq [2] (or Agda, Idris, Lean, etc.) that is sufficiently approachable to gain enough mindshare that companies start adopting it for mission-critical work.

    - A version control system which scales to petabytes or more. Something that I could put large video files in without thinking twice about it. Something a large company could use for their monorepo—or even their data warehouse.

    - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" so I never lose a note.

    - Something like Toast [3] but which is also designed for running services in production, not just local development and continuous integration. A unified way to run code in dev, test, and prod environments. A new k8s.

    [1] https://nixos.org/

    [2] https://coq.inria.fr/

    [3] https://github.com/stepchowfun/toast (shameless plug)

  • nix

    Nix, the purely functional package manager

  • - A build system like Nix [1] but with a better user experience / more straightforward command-line tooling.

    - A dependently typed programming language like Coq [2] (or Agda, Idris, Lean, etc.) that is sufficiently approachable to gain enough mindshare that companies start adopting it for mission-critical work.

    - A version control system which scales to petabytes or more. Something that I could put large video files in without thinking twice about it. Something a large company could use for their monorepo—or even their data warehouse.

    - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" so I never lose a note.

    - Something like Toast [3] but which is also designed for running services in production, not just local development and continuous integration. A unified way to run code in dev, test, and prod environments. A new k8s.

    [1] https://nixos.org/

    [2] https://coq.inria.fr/

    [3] https://github.com/stepchowfun/toast (shameless plug)

  • SurveyJS

    Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App. With SurveyJS form UI libraries, you can build and style forms in a fully-integrated drag & drop form builder, render them in your JS app, and store form submission data in any backend, inc. PHP, ASP.NET Core, and Node.js.

    SurveyJS logo
  • coq

    Coq is a formal proof management system. It provides a formal language to write mathematical definitions, executable algorithms and theorems together with an environment for semi-interactive development of machine-checked proofs.

  • - A build system like Nix [1] but with a better user experience / more straightforward command-line tooling.

    - A dependently typed programming language like Coq [2] (or Agda, Idris, Lean, etc.) that is sufficiently approachable to gain enough mindshare that companies start adopting it for mission-critical work.

    - A version control system which scales to petabytes or more. Something that I could put large video files in without thinking twice about it. Something a large company could use for their monorepo—or even their data warehouse.

    - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" so I never lose a note.

    - Something like Toast [3] but which is also designed for running services in production, not just local development and continuous integration. A unified way to run code in dev, test, and prod environments. A new k8s.

    [1] https://nixos.org/

    [2] https://coq.inria.fr/

    [3] https://github.com/stepchowfun/toast (shameless plug)

  • wappalyzer

    Discontinued Identify technology on websites.

  • suture

    🏥 A Ruby gem that helps you refactor your legacy code

  • There's a gem for Ruby that does a limited version of this: https://github.com/testdouble/suture

    Suture is geared towards refactoring, so it doesn't do it for every function at once, and instead you have to specify methods manually.

  • Playwright

    Playwright is a framework for Web Testing and Automation. It allows testing Chromium, Firefox and WebKit with a single API.

  • It doesn't check all your boxes, but have you tried Playwright?

    https://playwright.dev

  • EdenSCM

    Discontinued A Scalable, User-Friendly Source Control System. [Moved to: https://github.com/facebook/sapling]

  • > - A build system / package manager like Nix [1] but with a better user experience / more straightforward command-line tooling.

    Working on it :)

    > - A version control system which scales to petabytes or more. Something that I could put large video files in without thinking twice about it. Something a large company could use for their monorepo—or even their data warehouse.

    https://github.com/facebookexperimental/eden

    > A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them

    https://www.orgroam.com/

  • InfluxDB

    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

    InfluxDB logo
  • org-roam

    Rudimentary Roam replica with Org-mode

  • > - A build system / package manager like Nix [1] but with a better user experience / more straightforward command-line tooling.

    Working on it :)

    > - A version control system which scales to petabytes or more. Something that I could put large video files in without thinking twice about it. Something a large company could use for their monorepo—or even their data warehouse.

    https://github.com/facebookexperimental/eden

    > A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them

    https://www.orgroam.com/

  • algo

    Set up a personal VPN in the cloud

  • optionator

    JavaScript option parsing and help generation library

  • modd

    A flexible developer tool that runs processes and responds to filesystem changes

  • devd

    A local webserver for developers

  • autotest

  • annotate.el

    Annotate.el

  • There's an Emacs mode that does this called annotate. But why would this be better than just leaving a comment on the file?

    https://github.com/bastibe/annotate.el

  • tree-sitter

    An incremental parsing system for programming tools

  • Too bad, I don't have time to build it

    [0] https://github.com/tree-sitter/tree-sitter

  • guard-livereload

    Guard::LiveReload automatically reload your browser when 'view' files are modified.

  • livereload-js

    LiveReload JavaScript code that communicates with the server and implements reloading

  • ntfy

    Send push notifications to your phone or desktop using PUT/POST

  • A CLI tool that can be used to observe and act on the return code and/or output of any CLI tool on Linux. It should have a way to notify [1] the user after a long-running CLI program terminates on Linux.

    It would have similar semantics to the time utility. Let's call this tool timed.

    For instance, prefixing any task with the time utility e.g. "time dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb" would output the duration of the underlying task.

    Similarly, executing "timed dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb" would send a notification to the user when the task completes containing the return code and any console output.

    1: Paired with something like https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy. This would allow a user to set up multiple ways to receive the notification, including Telegram/Slack, SMS, push notification, email or simply just turning console outputs into a continuous audio note similar to http://listen.hatnote.com/

    > - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" (by following links) so I never lose a note.

    There is a class of note taking apps that's becoming increasingly popular (at least I perceive it that way) that does this. They store notes in local Markdown files, and when you link between pages, they can build and render a graph based on them. For example:

    - Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/

    - Logseq: https://logseq.com/

    - Joplin: https://joplinapp.org/ (not sure if it's built-in, but there's a plugin: https://github.com/treymo/joplin-link-graph)

  • obsidian-releases

    Community plugins list, theme list, and releases of Obsidian.

  • > - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" (by following links) so I never lose a note.

    There is a class of note taking apps that's becoming increasingly popular (at least I perceive it that way) that does this. They store notes in local Markdown files, and when you link between pages, they can build and render a graph based on them. For example:

    - Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/

    - Logseq: https://logseq.com/

    - Joplin: https://joplinapp.org/ (not sure if it's built-in, but there's a plugin: https://github.com/treymo/joplin-link-graph)

  • logseq

    A local-first, non-linear, outliner notebook for organizing and sharing your personal knowledge base. Use it to organize your todo list, to write your journals, or to record your unique life.

  • > - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" (by following links) so I never lose a note.

    There is a class of note taking apps that's becoming increasingly popular (at least I perceive it that way) that does this. They store notes in local Markdown files, and when you link between pages, they can build and render a graph based on them. For example:

    - Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/

    - Logseq: https://logseq.com/

    - Joplin: https://joplinapp.org/ (not sure if it's built-in, but there's a plugin: https://github.com/treymo/joplin-link-graph)

  • Joplin

    Joplin - the secure note taking and to-do app with synchronisation capabilities for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

  • > - A note-taking tool that allows me to organize notes in a graph with links between them (like a wiki), not as files and folders in a tree, which enforces the invariant that every note is transitively reachable from some "root" (by following links) so I never lose a note.

    There is a class of note taking apps that's becoming increasingly popular (at least I perceive it that way) that does this. They store notes in local Markdown files, and when you link between pages, they can build and render a graph based on them. For example:

    - Obsidian: https://obsidian.md/

    - Logseq: https://logseq.com/

    - Joplin: https://joplinapp.org/ (not sure if it's built-in, but there's a plugin: https://github.com/treymo/joplin-link-graph)

  • Visual Studio Code

    Visual Studio Code

  • I would just like the see the suckier parts of VSCode be fixed (to my liking ... meaning I get that different people have different preferences)

    1. Give me keyboard macros (emacs) https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeyboardMacros

    2. Select modes. #1 generally is better with a start selection, end selection mode. As in Start recording, search for `(`, start selecting, search for `)`, copy, do something, paste.

    3. Fix the Undo. AFAICT the undo feature in VSCode was made with zero thought. I don't know if it just undoes the last N keystrokes or what it's criteria area but IMO it fails to even try to do what a user (me) would want compared to the editor I used previously which seemed to have some heuristics. (undo cursor moves in groups? undo single words?) I don't know what it's algo was but I never had to retype stuff where as in VSCode I'm always having to retype stuff as undo undoes too much. Another nice feature if my previous editor was I could undo to the last save by just holding Ctrl-Z/Cmd-Z and when it hit the last save it would pause with a prompt. I found that super useful. VSCode I have to close the file (and therefore lose undo/redo past the save) or I have to just super carefully undo and try to remember where the last save happened. 3b. wish undo undid the last multi-cursor addition.

    4. Add true column selection/virtual space. Multi-cursor mode is great but it doesn't handle many cases the column selection does. https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/13960

    5. Fix the broken "go to" (search result, definition, etc...). In most editors when you choose to "go to" a search result (search all, click a result) the editor shows the result in the active window. Example: Search for "name-of-method", results show the definition and the declaration in the same file. Open 2 windows, make one window active, click the definition in the search results, the active window "goes to" the definition. Click the 2nd window, click declaration in the search result, the 2nd window goes to the declaration. Now you can reference both. This doesn't work in VSCode. In VSCode clicking the 2nd result will move the first window making it frustrating to try to reference things in the same file. They added that you can drag the search result to a specific window but unfortunately there are tons of other places in the editor that default to moving whatever window is already showing that file, rather than the active window. So, if you were trying to see something in that window and had chosen different window as to where you wanted the result to appear you're S.O.L. No other editor I've used in 40yrs has had this (arguably) broken behavior.

  • logos

    Logging + Printing + Compromising (by bbkane)

  • - Beekeeper Studio (after conversion to SQLite)

    This won't scale to large projects, but it works well for the little CLI tools I enjoy writing in my spare time.

    I wrote about this (with some screenshots) at https://github.com/bbkane/logos#analyze-as-json

  • jj

    A Git-compatible VCS that is both simple and powerful

  • TablaM

    The practical relational programing language for data-oriented applications

  • I wish to resurrect the spirit of the Fox/dbase family of languages. I start from the bottom with a language more on line with data manipulation: https://tablam.org.

    But what they have is integrated REPL + Jupiter-like Command Window + UI Builder. It was a "low-code" kind of tool way before the idea of today, but also a real, full-featured, serous pro-developer environment.

  • linenote

    VSCode extension to add notes to the line of code.

  • vscodium

    binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing

  • Are you aware of VSCodium (https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium#readme) and does it not meet your criteria because it's "dominated" by Microsoft?

    The rest of the terms such as "responsive," "easy to use", and "no unique interfaces" make your request hard to fulfill

  • Guard

    Guard is a command line tool to easily handle events on file system modifications.

  • Perhaps using guard you can automate that https://github.com/guard/guard

  • intellij-plugins

    Open-source plugins included in the distribution of IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate and other IDEs based on the IntelliJ Platform

  • https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/

    They make IDEs for many languages but the indexability of languages varies a lot depending on (mostly) how strong their type system is and how easily parsed the code is. Check out their structured search feature for an example of how to do semantic queries over the indexed AST.

  • git-bug

    Distributed, offline-first bug tracker embedded in git, with bridges

  • Do you fancy re-thinking buf trackers? I'm looking for help over at https://github.com/MichaelMure/git-bug to create a distributed bug tracker embeded in git, with bridges.

    It's close to be ready for prime time, yet there is so much that could be done to make it better.

  • cli

    Makerflow is a deep work and collaboration assistant for developers. Get in the zone without hiding away from your product manager, designer or other teammates! (by makerflow)

  • Yes, docs on the website are upcoming. Meanwhile I have some documentation on github for the cli [1] and vscode plugin [2]

    [1] https://github.com/makerflow/cli

  • vscode-plugin

    VS Code extension that helps you balance deep work and collaboration, so you can get more done without hiding away from your team (by makerflow)

  • SaaSHub

    SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

    SaaSHub logo
NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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