7 Must-haves in Every Programmer’s Toolkit

It is known to those in the computing field about the importance of the knowledge of programming languages and other useful computing tools for a successful career in Computer Science. It happens in many instances when the students who want to begin their career in Computer Science are searching for the list of tools that they should be conversant with. The list of useful tools which is given below, will enlighten and guide them to get an overview of the tools and jumpstart their careers.  

1. SQL: SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is one of the most essential tools that works in connection with the database. Different operations on data such as updation, deletion, fetching of data can be accomplished using SQL. Without database support, an application is incomplete. It is one of the pillars of application development. The learning of SQL begins with the understanding of basic keywords or commands such as select, update, insert and delete. Furthermore, the learner gains an understanding of writing complex queries called sub-queries, using joins and aggregate functions.
2. Python: Python is a powerful and versatile programming language, which is object-oriented and high-level. Python has numerous applications, ranging from accessing the file system, desktop GUI, to machine learning and deep neural network applications. What makes Python so famous is its simplicity, readability of code and ease of learning due to its English-like commands.
3. Text-editing software: It is very essential for every programmer to be well-conversant with at least one text editor. Notepad is one of the most common text-editing software. In addition to Notepad, there are a number of other text-editing software which are advanced and come with a lot more features like Sublime Text and Notepad++.
4. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): An IDE is a software suite that combines all the required developer tools into a single GUI. A single sophisticated interface for application development is the IDE. The IDE makes the application development more structured and organized. The programmer should be familiar with the various tools available in the IDE for writing, compiling and testing code in the programming language one is skilled in. Some of the IDEs available are Eclipse, NetBeans, MySQL Workbench, CodeBlocks, DevC++ and many others.
5. Linux Commands: Knowledge of Linux commands is essential as we may have to work in a Linux machine some time or the other. This knowledge helps to trace the activities running in our Linux machine and troubleshoot any technical issue with our running applications in a Linux machine. In addition, to get the essence of cross-platform compatibility, it is necessary to be skilled in Linux commands.
6. HTML, CSS and JavaScript: For Web application development, the knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript is essential and it eases our job of building a website.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for displaying documents in a web browser. It is used along with technologies such as CSS and JavaScript. HTML is equipped with simple mechanisms for text formatting, creating tables, links and lists, inserting images, audio and video, etc.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language which describes the presentation of a document coded in a markup language such as HTML. CSS is a keystone technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript. Style Sheets allow web page designers to modify the appearance of their web pages in an efficient manner. 

JavaScript is a programming language of the web. It is applied for adding dynamic behavior to the web page, request-response handling and storing data. It is used to handle regular expressions which is used to perform pattern matching, searching and replacing of strings. This can check the input data in a web page before it is sent to the server for processing.

7. Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office is developed by Microsoft which is a family of client and server software and services. The Microsoft Office suite of applications has a wide range of tools ranging from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Outlook etc. Needless to say, these are useful tools for any kind of documentation work that the programmer has to do frequently.

Let us see what the applications of some of these tools are.

• Microsoft Word: The Microsoft Word application is useful for creating project reports, CVs, questionnaires, surveys, tables and many other types of documents. The advanced formatting tools and user-friendly layout of this tool make it one of the most popular options for documentation. For programmers especially, they have to write the software requirement specification (SRS), feasibility reports etc. for the project they are working for. Knowing this tool makes them competent to create the necessary documents with perfect format and meaning.
• Microsoft Excel: The Microsoft Excel application is useful for creating tables, charts for data representation and analysis, pivot tables and charts, macros to name a few. It can be used to store data in a table format with filtering, sorting, conditional formatting and data validation features.
• Microsoft PowerPoint: The Microsoft PowerPoint application is useful for creating PowerPoint presentations for projects, meetings and seminars. It is one of the essential tools for creating powerful and customizable presentations and adding effectiveness to the presentations.