This is an opinionated article that focuses on general-purpose modules and utilities that I’ve found invaluable to NodeJS and frontend JavaScript development. It won’t be exhaustive or include any special-purpose modules, as those types of awesome lists are indeed awesome but tend to be a bit overwhelming.
Yeahhh we all love npmmmmm huzzahhhhhh!!! (Image Credit: npm)
Let’s get started with some extremely useful command line tools.
np - A better npm publish.
If you’re an npm author, I’d highly recommend checking out np, as it makes the process of bumping versions, adding git release tags, and publishing to npm a breeze, especially once you start having more than a couple of modules to maintain. It’s also worth noting release by Zeit as a solid alternative.
Image Credit: np by Sindre Sorhus
yarn - A better package manager compatible with npm.
Although npm v5 is a lot faster than previous versions, I still find yarn to be preferable to npm for local development for its speed and consistency. Either way, you’re working with the same database of npm modules under the hood, and imho there’s no clear winner between the two. You should pick whichever package manager best suits your project’s needs.
As a JS developer in 2018, I would, however, make sure that you’re at least familiar with both npm and yarn and be comfortable switching off between them.
prettier - An opinionated code formatter.
Prettier enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re-printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary.
I love eslint and have been a long-time user of JavaScript Standard Style in particular, but the idea behind automatic code formatters like prettier and gofmt is undeniably attractive.
As developers, we spend way too much time and mental energy worrying about code presentation and styling, whereas prettier alleviates the need for those thought processes and allows you to focus on what you’re writing instead of how you’re writing it.
Image Credit: prettier
now - Extremely simple deployments.
Now is absolutely the best free deployment system that exists today in terms of simplicity, reliability, and feature set. It‘s great for testing static and dynamic deployments and scales up nicely if and when you require more servers. Aaaaaaaaaand did I mention that it’s free until you want to scale up?!
It plays extremely well with Node.js and JS-powered webapps. I’d also highly recommend checking out the rest of Zeit’s offerings as well, as their team is comprised by some of the best JS devs the community has to offer.