Every now and then I like to share my current tech stack, not that I think I’m doing anything special in my day to day, but I know I enjoy reading about other devs and their stacks as it’s a great way to get introduced to tools I may want to adopt myself. As far as I can tell, the last time I did this was back in 2020 and things have certainly changed for me. So without further ado, here’s what I’m using.

Operating System – OSX

I’m back to Mac. To be honest, this was part frustration and part practicality. I’ve been on Windows for maybe 7 or 8 years now and generally happy with it. I usually did most of my work in WSL (Ubuntu) and as most of what I did was web or API based, the OS didn’t really matter.

About two months or so ago, my new personal laptop, a pretty cool Predator one with light up keys (yes, that’s not helpful for development but it made me happy) started to crap the bed really, really badly. No amount of tweaks would help. Acer was willing to let me ship it back but as I was doing contracting, I’d be without any hardware to actually do work. I was frustrated so I returned it, got a decent Macbook Pro, and figured it was time to switch back for a while.

Honestly, the only issue I ran into was muscle memory for key combos. Outside of that, it just works, and I’ve got greater confidence on the hardware.

Writing Code

I write code primarily in three tools:

• Visual Studio Code is my primary editor for most "real" work. In the past I’ve shared my extensions but I don’t think I’m doing anything special or noteworthy there. I’ve got extensions for Python, BoxLang, Astro, the stuff I’m learning, and one specifically for sharing blog posts via PDF – Mardkwon PDF. I use one of the random dark themes and I couldn’t tell you which one – just the default I believe.
• RunJS – RunJS is a very handy app (Windows or Mac) that lets you quickly run and test JavaScript code. Yes, you can write in your browser console, but I find it difficult to organize anything more than a line or two there. Yes, you can make a ‘scratch’ file locally and run that, but RunJS just does all of this simpler and easier to handle. Oh, it also lets you quickly install npm packages as well which is handy. RunJS is not free, but is well worth your money imo!
• CodePen – CodePen is my primary place for web demos that can be run well in a simple window. That’s kinda vague but what I mean is, I’m not typically building PWAs/SPAs in CodePen, but rather using it to demonstrate a particular web-based API/feature.

Code

As for the code I write, it’s basically web platform stuff (HTML, JavaScript, and CSS) and Python (nearly all of my AI stuff). This year I started playing with BoxLang, a dynamic JVM-based language from the fine folks at Ortus. For a new language, it’s moving really fast and adding a lot of impressive features quickly. While I don’t do much ColdFusion anymore, I’ll still dabble from time to time. I even built a fun little submission for Adobe’s Hackathon earlier this year. I lost, but it was fun to build. 🙂

Browsers

For years I used Microsoft Edge but decided to switch back to Chrome. There wasn’t any particular reason for this, Edge wasn’t acting up or anything, I just switched. It could be based on how much AI in Chrome work I was doing, but for whatever reason, I’m on Chrome again. I use multiple profiles – one for my personal use, one for work, and one for presentations.

I also use Firefox for my social media usage and Reddit. I like having it in a completely separate app which helps me not use social media too much. Speaking of, you can find me on Mastadon (https://mastodon.social/@raymondcamden) and Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/raymondcamden.com). I’ve gone back and forth between which I prefer. I’m leaning more towards Bluesky as it feels more active, but generally when I post something, I’ll post to both. I use openvibe typically when I do that.

Front-End / Back-End

Vanilla JavaScript FTW! I’ll still go to Alpine.js for more complex needs, but I don’t use Vue anymore and I definitely don’t use React if I can help it. (Although I may end up doing a bit for work.)

On the back end, I’m still rocking, and loving, Eleventy, but have been learning Astro lately (again, for work) and really dig it. I’ll probably do most of my blog posts on that at work, but some may show up here as well.

Everything Else

And here’s a small list of other tools I use:

• Microsoft To Do – this is still my primary way of managing lists of things I need to – well – manage as well as my place to store ideas for writing.
• Microsoft OneNote – I got off the Evernote platform a few years back and honestly, it’s been a struggle. I was looking for a solution that worked for me and my wife, that was crucial, as we both needed to share information. OneNote is far from perfect, but works well enough. I may still migrate my own stuff off there in the future.
• For my mobile phone, I’m using a Samsung S24 Ultra.
• Lastly, I host on Netlify, who graciously host my content (and inane ramblings). I truly appreciate their support!

Raymond Camden