Programming tools are software programs that programmers use to create, debug, maintain, or support other programs and applications. I’ll only talk about a few of them, since tools are specific to the programming language you use or the task you need to perform.

I advice you the following: when you have to implement a task – always think whether there’s anything that can help you implement it faster.

Let me give you some examples:

Source code editor / Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

The source code editor is your main tool as a programmer. It provides syntax highlighting, indentation, bracket matching, and autocomplete functionality. You should focus on learning how to use at least one source code editor, including common shortcuts, as it will make you faster.

Frameworks / libraries

Frameworks are similar to a complete application, except for the actual functionality. A GUI Framework contains everything you need to make an interface, such as window management, menus, button bars, and so on – you only need to write the code that makes your application different than all the others. They provide the base functionality which you can use and build upon (extend).

Libraries are a set of functions that can be called, and they are easily replaceable by other libraries.

In comparison with frameworks, the libraries perform specific, well-defined operations.

The framework decides when and how to execute your code (Inversion of control - “the framework calls you”), whereas with libraries, you decide what and when to call (you are in control).

This implies that the framework have a much larger impact on how you have to structure your code.

Programming language

Yes, programming languages are tools. We are programmers, so we use the languages to write our application. Based on what we have to build, we may use different programming languages that are more appropiate for a given task.

For example:

Source control repository

Version control is a tool that tracks changes to a file or set of files, so that you can be able to retrieve, revert, or update code and/or other files, compare changes over time, and see who modified and what has been modified with each commit.

Static code analysis

Static source code anaylsis are tools that detect code defects, by examining the source code (without running the software) and analyzing it against sets of coding rules. This will find weaknesses that might lead to vulnerabilities, and other mistakes in code.

Profilers

Profilers are tools that allows you to see what part of application is running slow, allowing you to further use optimization techniques to improve the quality of the application.

Debuggers

Debuggers are tools that allow you to test and debug your application, by pausing the software (through breaks), running the program step by step, tracking the value of variables or pause the application when a condition is valid (value bigger than x, address memory changes, etc.). When a software crashes, the debugger will show the position of the error (instruction pointer), the stack trace, the value of all parameters (local, global), and other useful information.

Content collaboration tools

Team content collaboration tools allow for efficient knowledge sharing, maintain meeting notes (moments of meetings), documentation, requirements, team calendar, and other pages that can be commented and edited by people. Such tools also comes with admin accesses, so that each user can create private pages, visible only to specific people.

Bug / issue tracking

The bug tracking tools are very important for the project, allowing the team to track the bugs, issues, to split tasks into smaller sub-tasks, to estimate the time until completion, and to log hours spent on tasks based on their daily activity.

When we issue a new defect, we should provide a minimum of information, such as:

If all of these will be found in the report, the developers can easily track down the error or at least reproduce the issue to get some logs and any other relevant information it might need to fix the issue.