5 ms·

Ask HN: What's your Mac/OSX web development software set-up?

26 points by spxdcz 16y ago

After over 10 years of becoming gradually removed from development (as a director of a 50+ person company), I've taken a head-first dive back into it while I travel around the world and freelance. What tools/software do you currently use for web development, on a Mac platform? I'm not attached to anything, and want to use whatever will make me most efficient (even at an initial cost). Here's my current set-up (mostly PHP development). I should also note that, because of intermittent wi-fi access while traveling, I usually prefer native desktop apps to web apps. * MacBook (aluminium) with a small Verbatim back-up drive and hard case (I'm traveling the world at the moment), plus Time Machine * DropBox for real-time backing up my ~/Sites/ and other important directories * MAMP Pro for easy administration of the LAMP stack * Quicksilver (I find it fractions-of-a-second faster than Spotlight, which makes a difference) * InstantShot and Paparazzi! for website screenshots (for pitches, etc) * SimpleTask (for To-Do list) * Mail.app (managing multiple accounts, including Gmail) * TextWrangler (as my main text editor / IDE - I'm especially not tied to this) * Filezilla (SFTP/FTP/etc) * Terminal (love the multi-tabs; always have a tab open with a grep -R ready for searching; find it much faster than using an in-IDE search across files) * Chrome (with the Web Developer extension) as my main browser; also Firefox, Safari * Parallels with Windows 7 (to run Internet 8/7 natively with debugging tools; prefer it to WineBottler, etc) * Skype (for cheap/free conversations and screen-sharing with clients) * OmniGraffle Pro (UX, Wireframing, sketching) * Fireworks (Graphics work) * Flux (for making late-night work semi-comfortable) * Silverback (usability testing) Anything I should switch-out or add? I'm looking for efficiency and speed over detailed configuration, open source / licensing or price. Thanks in advance, HN'ers!

Travis 16y ago
I'm a big fan of Coda for the actual IDE. Well, more of a text editor, similar to TextWrangler. Not free, but it has the built in SFTP client, so it covers that. Also suggest balsamiq as an alternative to omnigraffle; both are excellent products. Might want to try balsamiq (free for a month) just so you know what else is out there.
dglassan 16y ago
I've been working with MAMP and Coda for about 8 months now and I love it. I'm just working on personal projects so I don't have a need for a whole suite of tools
- spxdcz 16y ago
  Well that's two votes for Coda, I should definitely give it a go. I've just this second installed Aptana too (for an AIR project that I've been asked to look at). I like to keep things as simple as minimal as possible too, so if MAMP and Coda works for you, I suspect it might for me too. Thanks.
  - happybuy 16y ago
    Another vote for Coda & MAMP. Coda is great to have text editing, browser preview, SVN, file transfer and reference documentation all in a single polished application. Have found that MAMP is so much easier to setup and manage than trying to struggle with changing the inbuilt OS X services into a apache/php/mysql development environment.
- c23gooey 16y ago
  I also use Coda, however i have found XAMPP to be more robust and more up-to-date than MAMP. Other things i use: Gimp and Seashore (for graphics) Transmit (for FTP/SFTP) Terminal
- frytaz 16y ago
  I also use Coda with PHP & Web Toolkit plugin, Transmit, Sequel Pro, DTerm (grep for fast search through files) and Xcode for iOS development
tjpick 16y ago
ies4osx and macports are handy.
- spxdcz 16y ago
  Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that - I have installed Macports, but find ies4osx a little slow/crappy (compared to Parallels), but it was definitely handy before I splashed out on parallels.
  - iamclovin 16y ago
    I'd recommend brew over macports any day of the week. http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew much faster and much more momentum
- waterside81 16y ago
  I've found that ies4osx doesn't reproduce the behaviour of IE browsers closely enough - always a corner case here or there. If you can get VMware and a copy of Windows or as the OP mentioned, Parallels, it's the more desirable way to test IE.
pedoh 16y ago
DTerm. http://www.decimus.net/dterm.php http://www.decimus.net/dterm.php
billturner 16y ago
My setup is quite a bit like the OP's. Macbook pro with: * TextMate for code editing (with the Ack in Project/AckMate bundles for searching through a large codebase, and updated bundles for Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Cucumber, Shoulda, etc) * rvm for Ruby version and gem management * Terminal (nothing special added here) * Quicksilver for quick tasks and app launching * Transmit for SFTP or simple Amazon S3 management * Photoshop when graphics work is needed (or sometimes Acorn when it's a simple resizing) * Skype for co-worker coordination and calls * OmniGraffle for wireframing * Chrome & Firefox with web dev related plugins (web dev toolbar, firebug, rulers, color pickers, etc) * Mail.app for all email * GitX for easier viewing of repo history/diffs (one of the alternate forks with added features) - still mainly use CLI for day-to-day operations * SequelPro - a great, free MySQL app for mgmt, queries, etc * pgAdmin - the same as above, but for Postgres * and iTunes for the background music
- czcar 16y ago
  Have a look at GitY if you haven't its a pretty neat Gitx replacement (in my opinion...)
jonah 16y ago
FileZilla for Mac is a disaster. I was pretty happy with it on Windows but the OSX build has some serious issues. CyberDuck is another OSS FTP client that's a bit more reliable for me, but it lacks the two-pane synchronized browsing of FileZilla. I think I'm going to break down and buy Panic's Transmit. +1 for f.lux, OmniGraffle, and Dropbox A major hardware mod you should consider is an SSD. Really really noticeable improvement.
kls 16y ago
I've taken a head-first dive back into it while I travel around the world and freelance. First let me say welcome to the good life. I did almost exactly the same. Personally I use Netbeans it is a great all around IDE, for a good portion of languages not only is it a great development environment but, in some cases it actually is best of class. I use the same IDE for Java, Javascript (supports jQuery and Dojo out of the box), it has good clojure support, scala, C, PHP, Python, Ruby well the list goes on. I suggest trying it for 2 weeks and I can gurantee you will be sold. I do web, and Android development in Netbeans. For OSX /iPhone/ iPad I use xCode for obvious reasons. Join the developer program and get the beta of 4 it is infinitely better. For wire-framing I use OmniGraffle Pro, it is best of class out of all offerings both mac and PC. for screen-shots I use command + shift + 3 for full screen and command + shift + 4 to do a box lasso of a portion of the screen, I don't use a tool. To-Do-List I just use iCal wired up to Google calendar. Web browser I use Firefox and firebug as my main browser and Javascript debugger. I also have Safari, Chrome and Opera virtulization I use Virtual Box, it is free and as good as the rest of them. I used to use VMware fusion, but virtual box was just as good. Skype yep probably the best developer collaboration tool out there. I work with 6 other freelancer as a co-op and we would not be as efficient as we are without skype. We are distributed across the globe. I use Photoshop for graphics. I think you have the big ones covered and the small ones are preference really. Other than the IDE I would not change a thing, You should really give Netbeans a try it is not just a Java IDE and specifically for Java it is far Superior to Eclipse. Here are some other tools you may want to look at as well: http://www.panic.com/transmit/ http://www.panic.com/transmit/ http://www.ragesw.com/index.php http://www.ragesw.com/index.php http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ http://www.advancedwebranking.com/
samratjp 16y ago
TextMate + Visor + Growl make my coding a lot easier for most Ruby and Python needs - TextMate & visor is a must for anyone who writes code for a living on the Mac! TextMate Bundles is awesome + get ZenHtml and ZenCSS to make your life even more easier. Besides, cmd+T on TextMate is reason enough to switch and the fact you can invoke TextMate from terminal. Eclipse/NetBeans for java. Xcode for iOS. {Chrome & Firefox} + firebug saves the day for js. Cyberduck is awesome though SCP does the trick well from terminal. *I loved QSilver, but google quick search box is just as OK but mainly less CPU hoggin'But QSilver shortcuts are amazing for quick iTunes playback.
d_r 16y ago
Cyberduck is a beautiful replacement for Filezilla. Also open source. For text editing, TextMate is powerful albeit not free.
sr3d 16y ago
USB Overdrive to correct mouse acceleration curve. Divvy is amazing to quickly organize your desktop. Cloudapp for screenshots (or Scrup). http://Drop.io/ http://Drop.io/ for files sharing Evernote for saving info. PTHPasteboard for clipboard manager. CoRD for remote desktop to windows machines. TextMate with the "Disable Refresh Refresh on Regaining Focus" plugin installed. Sometimes I use MacVim as well. Got a bunch of plugins setup for it. But I still use Textmate 99% of the time. Zen-Coding for both TextMate and VIM. Photoshop Balsamiq for screen mockup. Virtualbox for IE testing stuff. I do have another Windows laptop so I rarely run this virtual machine. No QuickSilver -- Spotlight is good enough as an app launcher. iTunes with Volume Logic, Last.fm, TunesText to lookup lyrics. I have a little more than 25,000 songs and TunesText is pretty awesome. Colloquy for IRC SequelPro and MySQL Query Browser (which can do tabs while Sequel Pro can't) Acorn for quick image editing/color dropping. http://unfuddle.com http://unfuddle.com for my SVN needs, and Github for public repos. Of all of those above, USB Overdrive and Divvy are probably the most essential tools. Check out my other post on this topic here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1523763 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1523763
- stu 16y ago
  Check out the nightly builds of Sequel Pro for tabs. They'll be included in the next major release (0.9.9): http://nightly.sequelpro.com/ http://nightly.sequelpro.com/
  - sr3d 16y ago
    I downloaded the latest nightly build (2568) and found the new tab feature. It looks promising. However, I really like the way MySQL Query Browser creates new script/query tabs sharing the same session (http://cl.ly/4c353b77cac746d51698 http://cl.ly/4c353b77cac746d51698). It's more convenient to have multiple query tabs that can be quickly created, switched to or closed down, then having to create a new connection every time for a new tab. PS: also the shortcuts to switch between tabs weren't working for me.
Throlkim 16y ago
* TextMate (I also own Coda and Espresso - both good alternatives) * Terminal * RVM for Ruby management * Git * Colloquy for IRC * Namely (http://amarsagoo.info/namely/ http://amarsagoo.info/namely/) for application launching (I don't need the full power of Quicksilver) * SequelPro for MySQL * MongoHub * Chrome Mac developer branch * Homebrew for package management About to get a new Mac and I'll hopefully clean out all the cruft from years of trying new things and just settle with what I listed above :)
tjogin 16y ago
> I'm not attached to anything, and want to use whatever will make me most efficient (even at an initial cost). Here's my current set-up (mostly PHP development). If efficiency is important to you, might I suggest you use a better language/platform, or are you attached to PHP, after all?
desigooner 16y ago
I had: Espresso and TextWrangler as IDE Cyberduck for FTP Skitch and Cloud App for Screenshot sharing Chrome with Web Developer Plugin + Firebug Light Sequel Pro for MySQL management FileMaker 10 Pro Advanced ToodleDo Fluid App for To-do List OmniGraffle + OmniPlan On a sidenote, Does anyone have recommendations for some alternatives on a windows platform? I made a new post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620115 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1620115) since i just got a new Windows machine
fdiotalevi 16y ago
Some other tools I use everyday: * Balsamiq Mockups for web application mock-ups * Evernote for notes (synchronized with iPad) * Things for todolist (synchronized with iPad) * Intellij/Pycharm for java/python dev * Pomodoro (http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/ http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/) for productivity/GTD
lovskogen 16y ago
Photoshop and Coda. And a good cup of coffee.
jumpidea 16y ago
* Balsamiq Mockups * TextWrangler * Things * Pomodoro * 1Password * CloudApp * Skype * Adium * Socialite (Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook) * Virtualbox (+Terminal, iTunes, iCal, Safari, Mail, iPhoto, iMovie)