Uses

Hardware

Last updated 05/04/2021

MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)

This is my every day work machine. The M1 chip is insanely powerful and the upgrade was painless. By the time I got my hands on one, most of my software supported it natively (without Rosetta).

If you're looking to buy a MacBook, I'd definitely recommend buying an M1-based machine.

Keychron K8 Tenkeyless Wireless Mechanical Keyboard

This is the first macOS specific keyboard that I've ever owned. I've got the aluminium frame and brown switches, so it's tactile but quiet enough that it won't annoy people on Zoom calls.

I went with the hot swappable switches too so that I can replace them myself if need be.

Apple AirPods Pro

These headphones are perfect for Zoom calls. The noise cancellation is pretty good and the microphone quality is great for everyday usage.

Development

Visual Studio Code

Despite being a Laravel developer, I do work with a lot of other languages too. Having a multi-purpose code editor is perfect because it's not heavy on the PHP stuff and the extension ecosystem has lots of tools.

It's also free, so it's one less monthly / yearly fee for me to worry about.

Neovim

I used to use Neovim as my main editor, but I forgot how to exit it. Just kidding.

Neovim is only used for quick editing in the terminal - normally dot files or small config changes. Vim is also installed on most UNIX servers so knowing how to use a tiny text editor (that isn't Nano) can be really handy.

TablePlus

After Sequel Pro development went quiet, I was looking for a more stable database client. TablePlus covers all the bases, including Redis and SQLite.

The connection management is great and it feels like a solid macOS app. If I'm ever working on a Linux machine, I can get it there too.

iTerm 2

Customisable, pretty fast and easy to use. An all-rounder. Would recommend this terminal emulator to anyone using macOS.

Tinkerwell

When Tinkerwell was first released, I wasn't sure whether it would fit into my daily workflow. I have to say, I don't know where I'd be without it.

I'll always turn to Tinkerwell instead of the normal tinker command. I can save snippets of code related to projects, quickly dispatch events and jobs for testing without needing to manually trigger them with HTTP requests.

Any PHP developer, Laravel or not, should definitely have Tinkerwell in their tool belt.