Survey of Software · the workshop

Which five?

a chooser · driven by measured data, not run on yours

A Python or JavaScript project needs five tools that all read your source code: a formatter, a linter, a type checker, a parser and a test runner. Answer six questions and this picks a set, names the runner-up, and says why they differ.

It will probably tell you something you did not come for. Most people arrive asking which tool is fastest. On most codebases the speed difference is real, measured, and too small to feel — and something else decides. Change the answers below and watch which inputs move the recommendation and which do not. That is the actual lesson here.

Your five

Where these answers come from

Five surveys, and the tags above say which recommendations have a measured number behind them and which are argued from architecture:

• 1.253 Code Formatting — measured both architectures, two corpus sizes
• 1.250 Linters & Static Analysis — measured for Python; the JavaScript trio is unsettled and says so
• 1.251 Type Checkers — reasoned, no timings published
• 1.252 Code Parsing & AST — not a choice for most readers
• 1.254 Testing Libraries — reasoned, no benchmark

The benchmark behind the formatter and linter picks is a pinned container you can run yourself: How fast is it, really?