What Software/Hardware should I buy for a web development team?

[liam_uk7]

I'm looking to find a couple of web developers to hire. I'm curious to know what software / apps / hardware etc would be best suited for programmers?

I'm not talking about the design side of things, just the programming side of things. - Basically I'd like to know what generally would be an ideal set up for a web developer to walk into.

Any idea's and suggestions would be great, anything from software, to hardware and anything in between.

[Thing]

Why not hire a developer to help you with this decision? It really depends on what exactly you are doing.

[dvduval]

I would expect most of the time they already have everything setup the way they need it and won't need you to buy anything initially, especially if they are doing Linux based web development.

[mobyme]

One of the best investments I ever made in software was Zend Studio and the other a huge Italian coffee machine.

[bbolte]

One of the best investments I ever made in software was Zend Studio and the other a huge Italian coffee machine.

Amen to the coffee machine.

on that though, it really depends on the developer and the language/platform they'll be working in. i have preferences that my co-worker doesn't necessarily have and vice-versa. however, a good Version Control System is a necessity.

[jessebhunt]

Why not hire a developer to help you with this decision? It really depends on what exactly you are doing.

I totally agree. The software needed will depend on several things...

1. The task that needs to be completed.

2. The developers preferences/ experience.

3. What software the developer already has & is willing to use while working for you.


You'd probably be better off to wait until you've hired the developer to decide on which software to buy for them.

[ramone_johnny]

Id say at a guess the majority of developers will have their own "preferences" as to what tools/software they wish to work with.

Up to you whether or not you want to go in this direction, but Id think seriously about a standardised environment.

Interoperability and compatibility is key when developing as a team.

No point in having two developers using ACME, one on BIGWIZ, and the others on FRITZ.

I can only imagine it would be a nightmare to support/manage.

RJ

[Kailash Badu]

Developer might and do have their own preferences but if you want to make your team more efficient, train them to use common tools. Also, it would be pointless to favor one tool over the other without first discussing it with the developers. Find what opinions and preferences they have about essential they have about web development tools and try to figure out a common collection of kits that most of them tend to agree with. This invariably would require some of them to stop using some of their favorite tools and become familiar with new ones. However, productivity gained from having a consistent development environment across the team more than makes up for that. Three tools that you'd find extremely useful:
1. IDE
2. Version Control
3. Bug tracker.

[Dan Grossman]

The tools never mattered much to me... I've been happy with my jobs when I got along with coworkers and had good bosses.

Off Topic:

At the Math Forum, I walked in to "your desktop here was one of our old Linux servers. It's got RedHat 9 on it now. Get yourself a browser, then download NetBeans and CVS and start helping with this code."

At DuPont, I walked in to "here's your Dell. You're not allowed to touch anything since the software's controlled by corporate. Get PuTTY, and choose vim or emacs."

At Microsoft, I walked in to "here's your laptop, desktop and development server. Get online and do a network install of Visual Studio and Source Depot. Then schedule yourself for an interesting training class or two."

[raymo]

A big monitor is important I think.
I'm still on my old 17" Sony Trinitron CRT which is getting a bit long in the tooth for development work for today's standards - particularly the graphics side of things if you are designing for a minimum of 1024x768. I am soon to get a 22" or 24" widescreen LCD which will allow me to have two (or more) rows of Illustrator palettes (or Photoshop, if that's your tool of choice) on screen and show the website design at 100% simultaneously.

In short - for optimum efficiency and practicality, website graphic designers or WYSIWYG webdesigners should have a monitor capable of running a significantly higher resolution than the minimum resolution they are catering for.

[liam_uk7]

Thanks, some nice advice all round. Cheers guys.