Epic Install Post is Epic
How I Set Up My Mac for Development
This is just the way I do it. It’s a good way. It’s not perfect. It probably could be automated more, but this is good enough for me. Hopefully it’s a good starting point for you, too! Make sure to think about if you need all of these pieces yourself before blindly following my instructions.
Wot, you actually use CAPS LOCK? Geezer!
First off, gotta have my Control-a working and easy. I change caps lock to control (keyboard icon in system prefs)
Install Homebrew
Homebrew is the best and most up-to-date package manager for the Mac. Follow the instructions on the bottom of their site, but it should be:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
This should install the XCode command line tools for you on Yosemite, but you may also have to run xcode-select --install first.
Install All My Mac App Store Apps
via the Mac App Store app:
- Evernote
- OneNote
- Buffer
- ReadKit
- Slack
- Browser Fairy
- OneDrive
- Viewfinder
- Mouseposé
- Textastic
- MindNode Pro
- Jump Desktop
- Tweetbot for Twitter
- Boom
- Dash
- Divvy
- Fantastical
- iKeyboard
- Xcode
- Base
- Patterns
- Growl
- iNet Network Toolbox
- Byword
- Pomodoro
- Chill
- Skitch
- GeekTool
- Go2Shell
- HTTP Client
- The Unarchiver
- CloudApp
- Caffeine
- Kindle
Use Brew Cask for Non Mac App Store Apps
Also, some apps are more powerful if you use the non-mac app store version, so that’s why they are listed here.
Install Brew Cask
Follow the instructions in the README, but it should be:
brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask
BREW CASK ALL THE APPS
brew cask install rubymine webstorm rubymine intellij-idea acorn alfred arq atom bartender base brackets cloudup default-folder-x dropbox firefox flux gitbook gitter google-chrome google-drive istat-menus iterm2 java limechat marked omnifocus onepassword pdfpen qlmarkdown qlprettypatch quicklook-json screenflow soulver sourcetree sublime-text3 textexpander transmission transmit vlc vmware-fusion xquartz
Now, if only there was an easy way to automatically install all the licenses… wishful thinking!
Bash Is Old, Oh-My ZSH!
Install “oh-my-zsh” according to the instructions in their README
I have a custom color scheme. I add my branch of oh my zsh as a remote to ~/.oh-my-zsh and git pull ivanoats master
BREW ALL THE THINGS
Homebrew makes installing all the development tools and utilities easy. Here’s what I install
brew install python git hub tmux tree chruby ruby-install nvm the_silver_searcher ack macvim reattach-to-user-namespace cowsay heroku-toolbelt maven sqlite watch go gnupg2 siege ttyrec
Clone Your Dotfiles
You keep your dotfiles on Github, right? I do. They are in a private repo but eventually I will open source them. Let me know if you’re interested in specific parts.
- Clone my dotfiles into ~/dotfiles
- Set up my standard directories:
mkdir ~/bin mkdir ~/dev
Set up Vim
I use the a vim plugin manager called Vundle because it’s the best.
- install vundle following the directions on their README.
Set up Powerline
Powerline gives me my cool prompt that lets me see current git branch and other neat stuff, especially in tmux and vim. Powerline requires some special fonts. I love Inconsolata and also use the Powerline version. Install it by double-clicking on the .otf file after it downloads.
pip install git+git://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline
pip install psutil
Set up tmux and config files
I keep these in my dotfiles, if you are interested in them, let me know, and I will gist the details.
ln -s ~/dotfiles/bin/safe-reattach-to-user-namespace ~/bin/safe-reattach-to-user-namespace
ln -s ~/dotfiles/.tmux.macosx ~/.tmux.macosx
ln -s ~/dotfiles/tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf
Databases
Which databases do you want? postgres, mongo, redis ? They are all available via brew install
brew install postgres mongo redis
Set up Ruby and Gems
I use chruby because it fucks with me the least. Strange but true. Also helpful is its companion, ruby-install.
Once they are installed (via homebrew, of course, above)
ruby-install ruby 2.1.5
Make sure something like this is in your .zprofile or .zshrc
source /usr/local/opt/chruby/share/chruby/chruby.sh
chruby ruby-2.1.5
Open a new terminal and gem update to make sure you have the latest gems.
I usually install at least: gem install coderay lunchy travis pry gist foreman sass minitest
Set up Node Version Manager
It’s nice to have more than one version of NodeJS available.
mkdir ~/.nvm
nvm install 0.10
nvm alias default 0.10
npm install -g jshint bower nodemon secretkey
Set up Solarized colors
Solarized is a color-scheme tailored for readability. “Precision colors for machines and people” by Seattle’s own Ethan Schoonover. There’s so much useful stuff in there that I usually just clone the repo into my ~/dev folder.
git clone git@github.com:altercation/solarized.git
It’s got an apple color scheme for your built-in color picker, Terminal colors, iTerm colors, IntelliJ colors, and much more.
ONE MORE THING
Congrats, you did it! Now you can run:
cowsay EPIC INSTALL $USER !