3 ms·

Ask HN: For a first-time Apple owner, what development tools do you recommend?

10 points by rodly 14y ago

I'm buying a new 15" MBP w/Retina on Friday and I'm very foreign to the Apple software ecosystem. I'm planning on using Vim/Sublime Text 2 for my editors unless someone has a contender in mind.

fg2chhn 14y ago
我认为这需要看你过去的习惯，如果你已经熟练使用VIM了，那么VIM是一个明智的选择。
dougireton 14y ago
1. Xcode: you'll need this to compile open source software on your Mac 2. Homebrew - Awesome Mac package manager: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew 3. iTerm2 - Replacement for Mac terminal: http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home 4. zsh - replacement for bash shell 5. oh my zsh!: config scripts for Zsh: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh 6. MacVim (brew install MacVim) 7. QuickSilver (Mac app launcher): http://qsapp.com/index.php http://qsapp.com/index.php 8. Git (brew install git)
- Tyr42 14y ago
  What does iterm2 have to offer over the built in terminal? Also, more line-breaks would be nice...
  - achompas 14y ago
    For starters, iTerm 2 has great profile/color management, split panes (horizontal or vertical) within the same window, and not-so-broken ANSI coloring.
    - Tyr42 14y ago
      Terminal has profile/colour management, and screen does any pane splitting for me, and what's wrong with and ANSI colouring?
      - achompas 14y ago
        I found colors in Terminal to be lacking, and heard great things about iTerm 2. Sounds like you have your setup exactly as you want it, though.
- bhousel 14y ago
  I think Alfred seems to have replaced Quicksilver as the app launcher du jour.
Tyr42 14y ago
Sublime 2 and vim are great choices, I use them myself. I started developing on linux, and it's really carried over to my mac, so I use the Terminal command line frequently and never really use xcode. I strongly recommend homebrew [1], it's great for installing stuff, and I've never had a problem with it. Another neat tool is Dash [2], which is a documentation searcher/viewer. If you like that kind of thing, it's great. One thing I bought which was really useful was Witch [3], which brings back a more traditional alt-tab (command-tab) menu, where you can switch between windows instead of applications. It also lets you quit selected applications from the command-tab menu, among other things. Worth getting. Another little app I sometimes use it Go2Shell [4] to open a terminal window in the current directory from finder. And you can use the built in `open` command to do the reverse. `open` is quite useful, so you can use whatever default application to open a file from the command line. Another neat tool is `pmset noidle` (power manager set no idle), which stops your computer from sleeping or dimming the screen. Saves you from this situation (http://xkcd.com/196/ http://xkcd.com/196/) [1]: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ [2]: http://kapeli.com/dash/ http://kapeli.com/dash/ [3]: http://manytricks.com/witch/ http://manytricks.com/witch/ [4]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go2shell/id445770608?mt=12 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go2shell/id445770608?mt=12
- taligent 14y ago
  Just to add to this. Two tricks I use every day: 1) You can drag file/folders to the Terminal and it will put the path. 2) open -e "/etc/hosts" will open the hosts file in TextEdit.
  - z92 14y ago
    Great tips! Didn't know any one of those.
- bhousel 14y ago
  To do the same thing as 'pmset noidle', I install Caffiene, free from the Mac App Store.
  - 14y ago
taligent 14y ago
I use Coda quite a bit on Mac and iPad. It is handy if you do a lot of editing config files/HTML on remote servers. And the Git integration albeit clunky is handy to have.
taligent 14y ago
In terms of utilities. Would recommend: 1) iStat Menus 2) Menu Meters 3) Hazel 4) Going to System Preferences -> Languages & Text -> Input Sources and checking the "Keyboard and Character View" in the list and the "Show input menu in menu bar" checkbox. This will give you quick access to the Unicode characters. 5) In the /System/Library/CoreServices folder is some 'hidden' system apps e.g. Wi-Fi Diagnostics. 6) Growl and Hiss for Notifications.
- yackfou 14y ago
  4) In most programs you can reach the Characters View via [alt][cmd][t]. Avoids clutter in the menu bar.
one-two 14y ago
Textmate, Transmit, and Navicat ALL DAY
mcrider 14y ago
Are you a web developer or otherwise? If you're a web developer, I recommend (in addition to Sublime Text 2 and other apps mentioned by other people here) Sequel Pro if you work with MySQL; TextWrangler/BBEdit for searching and editing text files; PHPStorm (Or Eclipse) for a good IDE with debugging capabilities; Keepass for password management; and 'On the job' for time tracking/invoicing.
- rodly 14y ago
  I do a lot of web development so thank you!
  - mcrider 14y ago
    Also I love TotalTerminal and TotalFinder for a quick keyboard stroke away from tabbed terminal and finder visors.
thechut 14y ago
It would have been more helpful if you said what kind of development you were trying to do. I'll assume you are talking about web development... Others have mentioned good editors and the such. For FTP I would say Forklift over Transmit, but most of those tools are just preference. Find one that you like. However, the ABSOLUTE BEST DEVELOPMENT TOOL for OS X has to be Sequel Pro [1]. I have not found a single other program like it on any operating system. I'm serious, I use a Mac at work solely for Sequel Pro, and my Linux box for everything else. If you are doing a lot of MySQL administration it is an invaluable tool. It gives you an extremely powerful GUI along with direct console access. Better yet its free! [1]: http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ On a side note, if anybody knows of anything even close to as good as Sequel Pro for Linux, I will literally send you 1 Bitcoin right now. EDIT: Don't say Workbench or Emma, because I've used them and they don't come close.
- rodly 14y ago
  I do a lot of web development (student job) but also general programming (CS major). Definitely going to check this out, thanks.
nihonjon 14y ago
I've been doing ruby on rails development building a web app for 3 months now and use the below which weren't too hard to pickup and assist noobs like us. iTerm2 terminal replacement http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home SublimeText editor http://www.sublimetext.com/ http://www.sublimetext.com/ Solarized themes (terminal defaults burn your eyes out) http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized Keyboard-based window moving/resizing tool http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ If you're planning on doing Ruby on Rails web dev then get this 1-click installer to simplify setup: http://railsinstaller.org/ http://railsinstaller.org/
- ianox 14y ago
  > If you're planning on doing Ruby on Rails web dev then get this 1-click installer to simplify setup: http://railsinstaller.org/ http://railsinstaller.org/ Also, YMMV, but you might want to look at Ruby version managers such as rvm [1] or rbenv [2] [1]: https://rvm.io/ https://rvm.io/ [2]: http://rbenv.org/ http://rbenv.org/

10 points by rodly 14y ago

I'm buying a new 15" MBP w/Retina on Friday and I'm very foreign to the Apple software ecosystem. I'm planning on using Vim/Sublime Text 2 for my editors unless someone has a contender in mind.

fg2chhn 14y ago

我认为这需要看你过去的习惯，如果你已经熟练使用VIM了，那么VIM是一个明智的选择。

dougireton 14y ago

1. Xcode: you'll need this to compile open source software on your Mac 2. Homebrew - Awesome Mac package manager: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew 3. iTerm2 - Replacement for Mac terminal: http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home 4. zsh - replacement for bash shell 5. oh my zsh!: config scripts for Zsh: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh 6. MacVim (brew install MacVim) 7. QuickSilver (Mac app launcher): http://qsapp.com/index.php http://qsapp.com/index.php 8. Git (brew install git)

Tyr42 14y ago
What does iterm2 have to offer over the built in terminal? Also, more line-breaks would be nice...
- achompas 14y ago
  For starters, iTerm 2 has great profile/color management, split panes (horizontal or vertical) within the same window, and not-so-broken ANSI coloring.
  - Tyr42 14y ago
    Terminal has profile/colour management, and screen does any pane splitting for me, and what's wrong with and ANSI colouring?
    - achompas 14y ago
      I found colors in Terminal to be lacking, and heard great things about iTerm 2. Sounds like you have your setup exactly as you want it, though.
bhousel 14y ago
I think Alfred seems to have replaced Quicksilver as the app launcher du jour.

Tyr42 14y ago

Sublime 2 and vim are great choices, I use them myself. I started developing on linux, and it's really carried over to my mac, so I use the Terminal command line frequently and never really use xcode. I strongly recommend homebrew [1], it's great for installing stuff, and I've never had a problem with it. Another neat tool is Dash [2], which is a documentation searcher/viewer. If you like that kind of thing, it's great. One thing I bought which was really useful was Witch [3], which brings back a more traditional alt-tab (command-tab) menu, where you can switch between windows instead of applications. It also lets you quit selected applications from the command-tab menu, among other things. Worth getting. Another little app I sometimes use it Go2Shell [4] to open a terminal window in the current directory from finder. And you can use the built in `open` command to do the reverse. `open` is quite useful, so you can use whatever default application to open a file from the command line. Another neat tool is `pmset noidle` (power manager set no idle), which stops your computer from sleeping or dimming the screen. Saves you from this situation (http://xkcd.com/196/ http://xkcd.com/196/) [1]: http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/ [2]: http://kapeli.com/dash/ http://kapeli.com/dash/ [3]: http://manytricks.com/witch/ http://manytricks.com/witch/ [4]: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go2shell/id445770608?mt=12 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go2shell/id445770608?mt=12

taligent 14y ago
Just to add to this. Two tricks I use every day: 1) You can drag file/folders to the Terminal and it will put the path. 2) open -e "/etc/hosts" will open the hosts file in TextEdit.
- z92 14y ago
  Great tips! Didn't know any one of those.
bhousel 14y ago
To do the same thing as 'pmset noidle', I install Caffiene, free from the Mac App Store.
- 14y ago

taligent 14y ago

I use Coda quite a bit on Mac and iPad. It is handy if you do a lot of editing config files/HTML on remote servers. And the Git integration albeit clunky is handy to have.

taligent 14y ago

In terms of utilities. Would recommend: 1) iStat Menus 2) Menu Meters 3) Hazel 4) Going to System Preferences -> Languages & Text -> Input Sources and checking the "Keyboard and Character View" in the list and the "Show input menu in menu bar" checkbox. This will give you quick access to the Unicode characters. 5) In the /System/Library/CoreServices folder is some 'hidden' system apps e.g. Wi-Fi Diagnostics. 6) Growl and Hiss for Notifications.

yackfou 14y ago
4) In most programs you can reach the Characters View via [alt][cmd][t]. Avoids clutter in the menu bar.

one-two 14y ago

Textmate, Transmit, and Navicat ALL DAY

mcrider 14y ago

Are you a web developer or otherwise? If you're a web developer, I recommend (in addition to Sublime Text 2 and other apps mentioned by other people here) Sequel Pro if you work with MySQL; TextWrangler/BBEdit for searching and editing text files; PHPStorm (Or Eclipse) for a good IDE with debugging capabilities; Keepass for password management; and 'On the job' for time tracking/invoicing.

rodly 14y ago
I do a lot of web development so thank you!
- mcrider 14y ago
  Also I love TotalTerminal and TotalFinder for a quick keyboard stroke away from tabbed terminal and finder visors.

thechut 14y ago

It would have been more helpful if you said what kind of development you were trying to do. I'll assume you are talking about web development... Others have mentioned good editors and the such. For FTP I would say Forklift over Transmit, but most of those tools are just preference. Find one that you like. However, the ABSOLUTE BEST DEVELOPMENT TOOL for OS X has to be Sequel Pro [1]. I have not found a single other program like it on any operating system. I'm serious, I use a Mac at work solely for Sequel Pro, and my Linux box for everything else. If you are doing a lot of MySQL administration it is an invaluable tool. It gives you an extremely powerful GUI along with direct console access. Better yet its free! [1]: http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ On a side note, if anybody knows of anything even close to as good as Sequel Pro for Linux, I will literally send you 1 Bitcoin right now. EDIT: Don't say Workbench or Emma, because I've used them and they don't come close.

rodly 14y ago
I do a lot of web development (student job) but also general programming (CS major). Definitely going to check this out, thanks.

nihonjon 14y ago

I've been doing ruby on rails development building a web app for 3 months now and use the below which weren't too hard to pickup and assist noobs like us. iTerm2 terminal replacement http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/home SublimeText editor http://www.sublimetext.com/ http://www.sublimetext.com/ Solarized themes (terminal defaults burn your eyes out) http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized Keyboard-based window moving/resizing tool http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ If you're planning on doing Ruby on Rails web dev then get this 1-click installer to simplify setup: http://railsinstaller.org/ http://railsinstaller.org/

ianox 14y ago
> If you're planning on doing Ruby on Rails web dev then get this 1-click installer to simplify setup: http://railsinstaller.org/ http://railsinstaller.org/ Also, YMMV, but you might want to look at Ruby version managers such as rvm [1] or rbenv [2] [1]: https://rvm.io/ https://rvm.io/ [2]: http://rbenv.org/ http://rbenv.org/