Why Frontend Web Developers Leverage Open Source Tools

Developing software can be surprisingly expensive. No one really hand-codes things line by line since the advent of object-oriented programming in the 80s. Since then, there’s been a paradigm shift: make code reusable, shareable, and portable.

Sharing, collaborating, and improving software iteratively may very well depend on the open-source community. So, while fancy development tools and off-the-shelf components can be quite nice, it’s essential that front-end developers leverage open source tools.  Why? The whole of the software development world is based on managing complexity by leveraging diverse perspectives. 

GitHub

GitHub is one of the most important open-source tools in a web developer’s arsenal. Not only is it free to use, but it’s also the largest open source community on the web. With millions of users and thousands of code repos, developers all over the world collaborate, pushing and pulling code remotely.

Collaborating with others greatly improves design and development processes. Source control management is vital for sprawling projects as well, backing up iterations remotely keeps projects stable and rollbacks possible.

AngularJS

“HTML is great for declaring static documents, but it falters when we try to use it for declaring dynamic views in web-applications. AngularJS lets you extend HTML vocabulary for your application. The resulting environment is extraordinarily expressive, readable, and quick to develop.”

Webstorm

WebStorm helps developers to code more efficiently when working with large projects.

Webstorm is an incredibly lightweight and intelligent IDE that comes equipped to handle everything from CSS to AngularJs. 

By not requiring developers to maintain multiple plugins they allow them to focus on development without worrying about compatibility issues. Because the plugins are built-in, Webstorm stays lightweight throughout development and is better able to handle future expansions or modifications. 

It provides built-in tools for debugging, testing, and tracing client-side and Node.js applications. Webstorm provides developers with a plethora of tools that allow them to test and debug their apps without relying on external programs. The platform goes for the all-in-one service so that developers can focus on mastering their discipline and not their plugins. 

It integrates with popular command-line tools for software development companies

Much of the complexity that Webstorm is built with makes it so that development becomes a simple process. Webstorm is built with command-line functionality so that software customization and project access can be accomplished through a variety of means. Allowing developers to work in their own way creates a better overall environment for development that is focused on skill and not management. 

Spy-js built-in tool allows tracing JavaScript code

Another important tool that comes with Webstorm is SpyJs which allows developers to trace their JavaScript and quickly modify any values. Tracing technology grants the developer control over how and when their script is optimized. 

It provides a unified UI for working with many popular Version Control Systems

The greatest single aspect of Webstorm is that it puts all of its tools under one UI system that is completely customizable and controllable, down to the last line of code. Utilizing a single UI system allows developers to quickly make alterations without the risk of losing time or losing work.

It is extremely customizable to perfectly suit various coding styles. Because Webstorm comes prebuilt with so many coding languages understood, it allows for deep customization so that each language and section feels unique without feeling separate. 

It offers a built-in debugger for client-side code and Node.js apps. Most impatiently, Webstorm comes with a built-in debugger app that keeps apps healthy and keeps development going strong without testing interruptions. The debugging and testing environments make Webstorm an ideal tool for tending developers to take full advantage. 

CodePen

It offers to build components to use elsewhere later, it includes some awesome features to write CSS faster, it allows live view and live sync, prefill API feature allows adding links and demo pages without the need to code anything.

Sass

Sass is the most mature stable and powerful professional-grade CSS extension language. It is a straightforward and easy to use front-end tool to write any code. It supports language extensions such as variables, nesting, and mixins.

It provides many useful functions for manipulating colors and other values, advanced features like control directives for librarier and it offers well-formatted customizable output. The frameworks built with Sass are the following: Compass, Bourbon and Susy.