Comment by ChrisMarshallNY
1 year ago
"Hesitant about" -not the same thing as "refuse to"
I use Xcode. Arguably, it's "free," if you ignore the fact that I run it on a $4,000 computer, but it is also the OS maker's tool of choice.
But each tool I add, each dependency in my workflow, is another rusty link in the chain.
I feel that we have gotten a bit too comfortable with adding ingredients to the stew.
A font isn't really that big a deal (unless you sell them). Things like documentation generators and linters, are more substantial (and I just had to remove both from my workflow, because they don't seem to have survived the shift to Xcode 15).
Sorry, the question is: what third party software are you talking about?
Oh. Got it.
I don't want to "name names," because that doesn't often end well. It's a personal decision, on my part to use, or not use, software. Many of the more esoteric tools that I use are "nice to have" addons, as opposed to "critical path" stuff.
I will say that I use Xcode, because I write native Swift apps, and it doesn't really make sense to use anything else. I try to limit extensions and whatnot. Most of the dependencies that I use in my projects were written by Yours Truly. I've written a boatload of them. I publish them as open source, but I don't think anyone else uses them; which is fine, by me.
I also use Git, because Linus writes code that I don't mind depending on. It has completely transformed the way that I do configuration management.
Back when I taught myself Android, I used Android Studio/Java (so you know that was a while ago), for the same reason that I use Xcode/Swift. It was the tool supported by the OS maker.