What are the essential tools and technologies for server software development?

I started in IT engineering with a focus on hardware, never expecting to delve into programming. Yet, the practical need for automating repetitive tasks led me to explore BASH scripting. This was my first foray into the world of coding, and it unexpectedly captured my interest. As I became more proficient, I ventured into Python, finding it versatile and powerful. This progression naturally extended to web development. Learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, I began to see the potential of combining my hardware knowledge with software skills. What started as a necessity transformed into a passion for the full spectrum of technology.

Choosing the right programming language for server software requires aligning with your project's specific needs. For startups and indie entrepreneurs, PHP with Laravel Framework is best for its comprehensive ecosystem, enabling rapid development. As your project evolves, consider transitioning performance-intensive components to Go, known for its efficiency in handling large-scale operations. This hybrid approach allows for swift initial development with PHP while scaling up performance with Go as needed. Your selection should factor in the software's complexity, target platform, support availability, market demand, and team proficiency. Also in my opinion, Python and Ruby are slower in performance compares to PHP.

Having self-taught development from practically nothing I have to say that I wouldn't actually advise learning any programming language first - learn Git. Git, or some form of version control software, is absolutely essential to managing development across distributed servers and environments in any language. Learn and practice Git even with a repo of just a couple of plain text files, or a hello world script in your chosen language, and you'll set yourself up with incredibly strong foundations.

En mi experiencia es siempre considerar la arquitectura y patron que se va implementar en el proyecto y establecer que tipo de lenguaje utilizar para con ello organizar un equipo con esas habilidades.

To choose the right language for developing server software, we must pay attention to the time, project needs, and most importantly, the available expert staff.The programming language should be fast in terms of development and deployment and I found it on Golang.

I love IntelliJ IDEA! ?? I've been using IntelliJ since I started working on server software development. In my opinion, it's the most robust and easy-to-use editor on the market. I adore the palette of plugins integrated with IntelliJ, and the developer user experience is awesome. ?????

For Python, nothing matches PyCharm's tailored functionality. Its intuitive interface and powerful features streamline Python development. However, when handling multiple languages, VSCode is my top choice. Its versatility and extensive language support make it ideal for diverse projects. In contrast, when working in the terminal, VIM and NeoVIM stand out. Their efficiency and simplicity in a terminal-based environment offer a seamless coding experience, especially in server settings. This toolkit, comprising PyCharm, VSCode, VIM, and NeoVIM, equips me to tackle a wide range of development tasks effectively. Note that to make VIM really useful, you'll need to learn the key bindings but once you do, you'll love the flow.

One thing made my life much easier especially when dealing with complex setup is using dev environment with Docker Desktop and VsCode. It makes it straightforward to onboard a developper and have him/her up and running in no time with fully tested environment.

Besides these IDEs and editors, there are also other options for server software development that you can choose from. For example, you can use Vim with plugins-atom, a hackable and customizable code editor that supports many languages, packages, and themes. You can also use PyCharm, a professional and intelligent IDE that supports Python and other languages, frameworks, and tools. Another option is WebStorm, a smart and lightweight IDE that supports web development with JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, and other technologies. These IDEs and editors can help you create, edit, debug, and deploy your server software with ease and efficiency.

I started with IntelliJ, then later moved to VSCode due to improved performance and almost has all the tools needed for job. Now using NeoVIM for over 2 years and Loving it. Good editor experience make you enjoy the programming.

In my experience, especially in corporate environment, you need to pay extra attention to the license that comes with the library you're trying to use. You might find yourself in a situation where you spend precious time learning to use a library to be forced to reconsider your choice because of a restrictive license that doesn't match your company policy.

Laravel stands out in server software development with its robust, first-party supported ecosystem, offering out-of-the-box features like authentication and profile management. Its flexibility suite of first-party packages like message queuing, Stripe billing/subscription, social logins, browser automation tests and many more, make it superior from other frameworks. This combination of features, along with its established ecosystem, positions Laravel as a more comprehensive and reliable choice compared to the fragmented and bloated JavaScript ecosystem. Also Composer is the best package manager across all programming languages. Looking at you NPM.

We should only use the framework / libraries that are essential and well reputed. Avoid using libraries which are not actively maintained. I prefer to give birds eye view to the code before using it, if it's only small or i needed only just part of it, I usually create my own file with logic or sometimes improves it.

In server software development, Django is my top choice. It's not just for robust backend development; its versatility shines in frontend tasks too. For frontends, Svelte stands out with its concise yet powerful approach. React, widely adopted in the industry, offers a wealth of extension libraries, making it a practical choice for many projects. HTMX has revolutionized how I use HTML, effortlessly integrating AJAX and CSS Transitions. It's a key player in creating dynamic user interfaces with the simplicity of hypertext. AlpineJS is a frequent companion to HTMX, enhancing its capabilities. Together, they seamlessly integrate with Django, forming a powerful, simple, and flexible toolkit for web development.

In addition to these frameworks and libraries, there are also other options for server software development that you can consider. For example, you can use Ruby on Rails, a framework that simplifies the development of Ruby-based server applications with models, views, controllers, migrations, testing, and other features. You can also use ASP.NET Core, a framework that simplifies the development of C#-based server applications with routing, controllers, models, views, dependency injection, authentication.

Another aspect of testing that might be worth mentioning is more about the design of the code itself. A modular, concise code that respects the single responsibility principle will make the code easily testable

Learn how to do test driven development. Describe your changes in a test, run the test to ensure it fails (ie functionality does not exist yet) and then write just enough code to get your test to pass. Commonly, testing is avoided as a developer may say 'how do I know what I want when I haven't written any code yet?'. If thats the case, you should stop and consider what you are trying to achieve. When approaching production bugs, build out a test case that produces the same error as you have found on live, then change your code to make the code no longer produce that error. Running tests often will ensure your new code does not break existing functionality and give you confidence that it will work when pushed live.

Testing is good but I am not a great fan of it, I had done 90%+ coverage projects. but for debugging I usually use console outputs for debugging tools. only used 1% of time while using IntelliJ.

In my experience, everyone knows testing is necessary, but nobody likes it. To make your life easier in this regard, employ black box testing as much as possible, to avoid your tests becoming broken every time you make a minor adjustment to the code. As far as debugging goes, use whatever the default debugger is for your language. Don't be afraid to use one, since the alternative is a mess of random print statements that are easy to forget to delete afterwards.

Testing and debugging is important process for me to make sure the development is on the right track also it helps engineer to understand the code itself. Every time I open a new project, The first thing that I need to make sure is to be able to run, test and debug it locally.

Kubernetes is a powerful tool, but it's overkill for 95% of businesses with less then 5 millions global users (YAGNI principle). For those in the PHP ecosystem, Laravel Forge is an ideal choice, offering straightforward server management with just a few clicks. This simplifies the deployment process significantly. Alongside, leveraging GitHub for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), team collaboration, project management and advanced features like code scanning and enterprise level security for most deployment and hosting needs.

Kubernetes, AWS and Jenkins are great, but they can be overkill for your project. Distributed systems require them, but your website doesn't. I've deployed apps on a VPS without issue, it all depends on the scale you go for. 99% of apps will never reach the size of Facebook, so I'll dare say 99% of apps don't need all these bells and whistles.

Finally, software applications can be deployed and hosted either with on premises server or cloud. If you are using the containerization and container-orchestration based approach, I would prefer for Docker/Kubernetes to deploy. Furthermore, OpenShift Can also be an option for provider to host the Kubernetes Configured Applications and Helm shouldn't be a missed if you are working with microservice architecture applications and Containerization. In addition to Bamboo/Octopus can be a good alternative to Jenkins for CI/CD

These are depends upon the user base, if its small we can use a simple EC2 instance in start then move to Kubernetes for scaling. In MVP phase i like to use Lambdas but they are not price friendly as user grows. So creating own cloud independent architecture is good.

I believe that architecture and overall design has to come first. Each of those drive the underlying technology requirements. Do you use on-prem or cloud because of cost and or scaling issues. Third party or custom software or a combination of both. As a result, those initial decisions impact the programming language, testing and deployment strategies.

First thing first, software is engineered followed by development meaning overall design and architecture needs to be good and maintainable. Performance matters a lot for the effectiveness of the software and one owning them should consider more later the bug higher will be the cost.