A better tool doesn’t make a better craftsman, but a good tool makes working a pleasure.

– Oliver Reichenstein, Information Architects

These are the tools I use to make my working more pleasurable. More pleasurable work leads me to more work since I’m not being bothered by detail that doesn’t feel right. The quantity of work often leads to better understanding toward the work, thus help me to have a better quality of work.

Therefore, in a long term and if it is used correctly, better tool does help the craftsman to be a better craftsman. These are the tools I use in my front end & WordPress theme development work:

Machine

• MacBook Pro 13″
  The machine for  web development. Sharp typography, industry standard, awesome apps, and less time wasted to take care of bothering thing like viruses. I upgraded the RAM to 8 GB so there are less time to be wasted by the beachball.
• Dell Mini White
  The netbook i used before i migrated to Mac. It has Windows 7 starter & Ubuntu 10.4 installed. If there’s a thing that has to be tested on windows environment, there it is.
• iPhone 4S
  It’s important to check the site on mobile view since people become more and more accustomed to access website using mobile phone.

Software

• Google Chrome
  I mainly use Google Chrome. It’s fast and its developer tools rock.
• MAMP
  Localserver. Simple setup, simple use.
• Dropbox
  File syncing, file backup, file sharing. Who doesn’t use it these days?
• Coda 2
  Integrated code editor with FTP uploader and Git UI. It has a beautiful interface, looks right and I just hate having lots of apps opened at the same time. Still wondering why.
• Git
  Great and simple version control system.
• ForkLift
  FTP app. I used to use Filezilla, but ForkLift’s sidebar to remember most used server / directory just had me.
• GitX
  Coda 2’s git functionality is very very limited. It even unable to see previous commits. Since I’m not terminal guy, i prefer to use GitX to interact with Git.
• Photoshop CS5.1
  When it comes to web design, Photoshop is the de facto standard.
• Pixus
  A simple Adobe Air app to measure thing in pixels.
• SASS & Compass
  Super awesome CSS preprocessor & CSS authoring framework. Because repeating things, remembering hexacode of color and hardcoding sprite files is a waste of time.
• jQuery
  An easy to use and supported by wide community + freakin awesome documentation javascript library. Cross browser compatibility javascript, handled.
• WordPress
  There are lots of CMSes out there and i frequently choose to develop WordPress theme. It’s frequently updated with latest web technology, it has strong and wide community, it is easy to be extended through its hooks and filters, its documentation is pretty awesome and the UX is really user friendly.
• GuideGuide
  Photoshop extensions for creating pixel accurate guides. Super handy.