Toolchest

Nowadays it’s common to refer to software “craftsmanship” where development is likened to professions of yesteryear where tradespeople became expertly skilled in niches of construction. One attribute of craftmanship is developing a toolchest over a number of years and customizing certain tools to fit one’s personality and preferences.

There is also a parallel to the music industry where certain periodicals often include a listing and diagram of a particular musician’s signal chain, starting at the year, make, model, and pickup specifications of the guitar and following through pedal choices and arrangements to amplifier choices and routing to front of house PA.

In that spirit, I felt it would be interesting to do a similar list of my most-often used tools and packages:

• Windows 11 / Windows Subsystem for Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)
• fish - the friendly interactive shell
• The anaconda distribution of python
• Lubuntu 18.04 LTS on a 10-year-old laptop
• Raspberry Pi 3
• tmux terminal multiplexer
• JupyterLab (with vim keybindings)
• Visual Studio Code (with vim keybindings)
• Bentley CONNECT OpenRoadsDesigner / OpenBridge Modeler
• Unreal Engine 5
• TwinMotion 2022.2