VM’s Tools

Here are a few of my (other) favorite things

The website uses.tech compiles a list of configurations, software, and setups that other engineers / developers use. So, here’s a list of what things I regularly use.

Software

• Operating Systems:
  • Linux Distros: the choice doesn’t matter much if you’re not a power user, but I still prefer binary packages over universal ones.
    • Favorite: Fedora
    • New User Recommendations: Pop!_OS, Linux Mint
    • If All Else Fails: Debian
  • Microsoft Windows
• Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox Notable Extensions:
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlacklist
• Graphic Design Tools:
  • SVG Editor: Inkscape
  • Pixel Art Editor: LibreSprite
  • Diagramming Tools:
    • Freeplane
    • JGraph draw.io
    • PlantUML
• Citation Manager: Zotero
• E-Book Manager: Calibre
• Note-Taking Application: Obsidian
• Circuit Simulators:
  • ngspice
  • logisim-evolution
  • CircuitJS

Development

Here’s my arsenal of programming tools that I use for software, firmware, and hardware development.

• Graphical IDEs:
  • Visual Studio Code. Notable Extensions:
    • PlatformIO
    • Python Snippets 3
    • Teros HDL
  • AMD Xilinx Vivado for AMD/Xilinx FPGAs
  • Intel Quartus for Intel/Altera FPGAs
• Terminal Text Editors & IDEs:
  • Neovim & Vim
    • LazyVim Neovim Distribution
  • GNU nano
• Version Control System: Git
  • Commit Hook Manager: Pre-Commit
• Spelling / Grammar Checkers:
  • LTeX (which uses LanguageTool)
  • cspell

Tools By Programming Language

• Python Tools:
  • Formatter: Ruff
  • Code Style: Black
  • Environment Manager: Rye
• Julia Tools:
  • Formatter: JuliaFormatter.jl
  • Code Style: BlueStyle¹
• Multiple Languages:
  • Formatter: Prettier

Website “Tech Stack”

These are the main tools that I use to publish and write my website.

• Publishing System / Site Generator: Quarto. Notable Dependencies:
  • Diagramming Libraries: Mermaid and GraphViz
  • Math Equation Display Engine: MathJax
  • Document Converter: Pandoc
  • Front End Toolkit: Bootstrap
    • Light & Dark themes are palette swaps of the “Solar” Bootswatch theme.
  • Commenting System: Giscus
• Profile picture picrew: bluef00t OC maker by bluef00t
• Fonts:
  • Sans Serif: Rubik
  • Monospace: JetBrains Mono
• Hosting Service: Neocities
• Guestbook:
  • Current: smartgb
  • Archived: 123guestbook (RIP)
• Color Palette: Gruvsite Light / Gruvsite Dark.
  • If you want to know more about how I made this color palette, see my article on it!

Shared Foreground & Background Colors

$dark0_hard: #1d2021 !default;
$dark0: #282828 !default;
$dark0_soft: #32302f !default;
$dark1: #3c3836 !default;
$dark2: #504945 !default;
$dark3: #665c54 !default;
$dark4: #7c6f64 !default;
$gray: #928374 !default;
$light0_hard: #f9f5d7 !default;
$light0: #fbf1c7 !default;
$light0_soft: #f2e5bc !default;
$light1: #ebdbb2 !default;
$light2: #d5c4a1 !default;
$light3: #bdae93 !default;
$light4: #a89984 !default;

Dark Theme Foreground Colors

$a11y_gray: #ab9e8f !default;
$red: #fc6758 !default;
$green: #b8bb26 !default;
$yellow: #fabd2f !default;
$blue: #83a598 !default;
$purple: #d3869b !default;
$cyan: #8ec07c !default;
$orange: #fe8019 !default;

Light Theme Foreground Colors

$a11y_gray: #76604b !default;
$red: #9d0006 !default;
$green: #716800 !default;
$yellow: #975700 !default;
$blue: #076678 !default;
$purple: #8f3f71 !default;
$cyan: #20754c !default;
$orange: #af3a03 !default;

Hardware

• MIDI Controller: Arturia MiniLab mkII

Stationery

• Journal: Leuchtturm1917 A5

Rubik’s Cubes

• 3x3x3: GuoGuan Yuexiao v1
• 4x4x4: MoYu AoSu WR M
• Megaminx: X-Man Galaxy v1

Footnotes

1. Not to be confused with the similarly-named blue style guide for Python, which I don’t use.