Ask HN: What are some tools that you use to build web app?

I did mine. My tool concat all js files from my source tree and remove comments.

The output for standalone HTML page looks like that: https://p.sicp.me/aQ5S3.js

I generate also a standalong shell file (for node app): https://p.sicp.me/pAALV.js

I have gone back and forth with a lot of different tools from Django to Vert.x, React, Vue, etc etc. But these days my default stack is more and more to use Grails (because although ridiculously heavyweight it's the most feature complete yet self-contained full-stack framework for extremely rapid develoment) and VueJS (because it straddles well between light-weight, inject a component or two use case and the full on webpack build setup).

If by tools you mean stack, here are my typical ones, with examples: Github pages (mostly react apps, e.g. [1, 2]), GAE (python backends, e.g. [1]), Google Spreadsheet (data backend, e.g. [2]), Firebase (e.g., [3]).

[1] http://priceeth.github.io/

[2] http://hasgluten.com/

[3] http://distrosheet.com/

Personally, I am a big fan of Python, so usually I use Heroku and Django/Flask. When it comes to static webstites, Jekyll does great job and I host it at Github Pages. However I plan to move to Nelify, mostly because of the lack of SSL with custom domains at GP.

pet projects: Groovy, sometimes grails ( lately, ratpack ) hibernate, postgresql ( sometimes mongodb ), vue.js and lit css. On bitbucket private repositories. Home machines are Linux && FreeBSD.

daily job: Spring 4, Java, Oracle, AngularJS 1.5 and (argh!) subversion. Office machines are Windows 7 Enterprise (aaaargh!) with cygwin.

( both cases, conding on IntelliJ-Ultimate )