Uses

People often ask what I use to build things, so here it is in one place: my editor and the extensions I can't live without, the browser tools I debug with, the stack I ship with and how this site goes from my laptop to the internet. Nothing here is sponsored; it's just what works for me right now.

Editor & Extensions

Where I spend most of my day. A small set of extensions that quietly save me time.

• Visual Studio Code: My main editor for Angular, TypeScript, SCSS and JSON. Fast, free and the extension ecosystem covers everything I need. (read the post)
• Prettier: Formats on save so code reviews are about logic, not spaces and semicolons.
• Error Lens: Shows errors and warnings right on the line, so I fix them before I even save.
• Code Spell Checker: Catches typos in variable names, comments and content before they ship.
• Auto Rename Tag: Rename an opening HTML tag and the closing one follows. Small thing, huge time saver in templates.
• Auto Close Tag: Adds the closing tag as I type, so I never hunt for a missing </div>.
• Image Preview: Shows a thumbnail next to image paths, handy when a page has a lot of assets.
• Todo Tree: Collects every TODO and FIXME in one panel so nothing gets forgotten.

Browser & Debugging

Where I check that what I built actually works for real people.

• Google Chrome: My default browser for development and testing.
• Chrome DevTools: Elements, Network, Performance and device mode. Most bugs get solved here. (read the post)
• Lighthouse: A quick check for performance, accessibility and SEO before anything goes live. (read the post)

Stack

The tools I build with at work and on this site.

• Angular: My front-end framework of choice. This whole portfolio is an Angular app. (read the post)
• TypeScript: Types catch mistakes early and make refactoring a lot less scary.
• Tailwind CSS: Utility classes for fast, consistent styling, with light and dark themes.
• .NET & C#: For APIs and back-end work: reliable, fast and well supported.
• SQL Server: The database behind most of the business applications I work on.

Hosting & Workflow

How code gets from my laptop to this website, and how work stays organised.

• Git & GitHub: Version control for everything, with a beta branch for testing before production. (read the post)
• Netlify: Hosts this site. Every push builds and deploys automatically.
• Semantic Versioning: Every release of this site gets a version number and a changelog entry. (read the post)
• Google Drive: Stores blog content, images and documents, so I can update the site without a new deploy.
• ClickUp: Tasks, notes and planning for work and side projects in one place.