Recommended Software for Mac and Linux

The software list below is only a recommendation. I worked several years with the software on that list.

Mac OSX:

1Password
    Description: Password store that is also able to share containers to dropbox
    Website: https://1password.com/

BetterTouch Tool
    Description: Configurable gesture for mouse and trackpad. I'm using it, for better window handling
    Website: https://www.boastr.net/

Dash
    Description: Offline Api Documentation Browser and Snippet Manager.
    Website: https://kapeli.com/dash

Homebrew 
    Description: Package manager for OS X
    Website: http://brew.sh/

iStat Menus
    Description: An advanced mac system monitor for your menubar
    Website: https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/

iTerm2
    Description: An advanced terminal emulator
    Website: https://www.iterm2.com/

Parallels Desktop
    Description: Desktop emulator
    Website: http://www.parallels.com/

Skitch
    Description: Creating screenshots with easy ways adding comments or marking things on in.
    Website: https://evernote.com/intl/de/skitch/

Tunnelblick
    Description: OpenVpn Ui Client for free
    Website: https://tunnelblick.net/

Vagrant Manager
    Description: Manage vagrant boxes from within the menubar
    Website: http://vagrantmanager.com/

zsh (installation with brew package manager)
    Description: More powerful shell. Very popular for developers
    Website: http://www.zsh.org/

Linux:

Shutter
    Description: Feature-rich screeshot tool
    Website: http://shutter-project.org/

Terminator
    Description: Terminal-Multiplexer that allows you to run multiple terminals in one window
    Website: http://gnometerminator.blogspot.de/p/introduction.html

zsh
    Description: More powerful shell. Very popular for developers
    Website: http://www.zsh.org/

Plattform Independent:

Atom Editor
    Description: A editable and hackable text editor
    Website: https://atom.io/

Dropbox
    Description: Store some of your data in dropbox cloud
    Website: https://www.dropbox.com/

FileZilla
    Description: Graphical ftp client.
    Website: https://filezilla-project.org/

Gimp
    Description: GNU Image manipulation program. It is not that famous like Photoshop, but i like it.
    Website: https://www.gimp.org/

MysqlWorkbench
    Description: A unified visual tool for database architects, developers, and DBAs
    Website: https://www.mysql.de/products/workbench/

PhpStorm
    Description: This is my favourite IDE for coding PHP and Javascript
    Website: https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/

VirtualBox
    Description: VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware.
    Website: https://www.virtualbox.org/

Chrome Extensions:

DomListener
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/domlistener/jlfdgnlpibogjanomigieemaembjeolj?hl=de

EditThisCookie
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/editthiscookie/fngmhnnpilhplaeedifhccceomclgfbg?hl=de

postman
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/postman/fhbjgbiflinjbdggehcddcbncdddomop?hl=de

React Developer Tools
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/react-developer-tools/fmkadmapgofadopljbjfkapdkoienihi?hl=de

Redux DevTools
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/redux-devtools/lmhkpmbekcpmknklioeibfkpmmfibljd?hl=de

Sense
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sense-beta/lhjgkmllcaadmopgmanpapmpjgmfcfig?hl=de

xdebug helper
    Description: Good interface for performing request against you api's
    Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xdebug-helper/eadndfjplgieldjbigjakmdgkmoaaaoc?hl=de

PHP CLI increase memory limit

Sometimes, when you are running a PHP script from command line interface(CLI), a higher memory limit may be required in order for the script to be successfully executed.
This can be done by using the "-d" or "–define" option in the command. 

php -d memory_limit=2048m bin/phpunit

In my case, I want to run a project's tests that have high memory consumption.

Here is the link to the php manual's command line features and also directly for the command line options

XDebug - Step into debugging from different executions

I think this article is more a note for myself then a real serious blogpost.

For configuring php storm

here a a link with a good desciption: https://www.jetbrains.com/help/phpstorm/2016.1/configuring-xdebug.html?origin=old_help

Here is my current xdebug config taken from xdebug.ini

[xdebug]
zend_extension="/usr/local/opt/php56-xdebug/xdebug.so"

xdebug.profiler_output_dir=/tmp
xdebug.profiler_enable_trigger=1
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_autostart=0
xdebug.remote_connect_back=0
xdebug.remote_host="localhost"
xdebug.idekey=XDEBUG
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.remote_handler="dbgp"

Running from a browser with Extension

For the chrome browser you can install this extension:  xdebug-helper

Running from Postman

Postman is a nice tool for performing requests and see what comes back.

Add a simple query parameter to your url:

?XDEBUG_SESSION_START=PHPSTORM

Running from Console

Sometimes you want to debug scripts that were executed from console for that you can pass a parameter:

-dxdebug.remote_autostart=On

For example: a call for the symfony console could look like this:

php -dxdebug.remote_autostart=On bin/console

Keep in Mind

For all these options you have to keep in mind, that you should tell your IDE to be in debug mode and you should also set at least one meaningful debugging point