5 ms·

Tools for Switching from Windows to Mac Development

31 points by digitalmaster 13y ago

minamea 13y ago
I'm trying to do windows development and I'm learning that if you don't try to force it into a unix-lixe env, it works fine. I installed chocolatey [1] a package manager. With that I install python, git, and vim and I'm up and running. My vimrc and gitconfigs almost worked copied straight out of linux. I use cmd. My advice is not to use cygwin and the other stuff like it... [1] http://chocolatey.org/ http://chocolatey.org/
- eropple 13y ago
  I don't agree with this advice at all. That you are stuck with cmd is really all that needs to be said. On the other hand, Cygwin's gotten to the point where it, plus mintty, are actually pretty good--Cygwin used to be a real pain to work with (I mean, bad) but it's improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years. You can get a bash or zsh shell that work remarkably closely to OS X or Linux and just about every tool you're likely to run into will work as you expect. Contrast this to direct Windows ports of your software, which are frequently compromised to work in the fairly deranged environment of the Windows shell.
  - digitalmaster 13y ago
    I'm afraid i'm going to have to agree. Cygwin is wayyyy better that vanilla cmd on windows.
Steveism 13y ago
My personal 10 tools for Mac dev (in no particular order): 1. Sublime Text 2 2. Tower 3. Kaleidoscope 4. iTerm2 5. Oh-my-zsh 6. Xcode 7. MAMP Pro 8. CodeKit 9. Homebrew 10. CodeRunner Honorable mention to: xScope, Sequel Pro, Transmit
- ktsmith 13y ago
  Any particular reason for Kaleidoscope over filemerge?
  - Steveism 13y ago
    I'm a big fan of Filemerge. I also really like Changes. I just prefer Kaleidoscope's UI better. It has all the features for my needs in the recent version 2 release. Black Pixel makes fine software and Kaleidoscope is no exception.
    - digitalmaster 13y ago
      Indeed.. but $70 is a hard pill to swallow for a pretty file comparison utility. I was thinking somewhere more around $30.
- digitalmaster 13y ago
  Nice stack.. i'll check these out too!
cschmidt 13y ago
You'll probably want a graphical diff tool. I use Araxis Merge, because I've used it for 15 years or so, but I'm sure there lots of other good options. I can still remember the day our lead developer (at my previous job) led a mutiny and we switched from Windows to Macs. A great day in my life. ... I'm sure you'll enjoy developing on your Mac.
- joejohnson 13y ago
  If you use Xcode, it has a visual difftool that is pretty good. I never use anything for git besides cli and Xcode.
  - shaggyfrog 13y ago
    That would be FileMerge, which also does folder diffs -- although not as good as Beyond Compare (one of the few apps I miss having from Windows dev).
  - digitalmaster 13y ago
    Thanks didnt know xcode had a visual diff tool build it! I'll give that a shot!
- sillysaurus 13y ago
  git diff | gvim - Autocoloring is enabled by default. Green for newly added lines, red for deleted lines. Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B jumps forwards/backwards by a page. Do other diff tools offer more functionality than this?
acanby 13y ago
I'd like to mention SourceTree[0] for a GUI DVCS. I typically drop to the terminal for git usage, but every so often use SourceTree when I need something that is easier achieved with a mouse. [0] http://sourcetreeapp.com/ http://sourcetreeapp.com/
- shaggyfrog 13y ago
  SourceTree makes staging chunks/lines in git a snap -- I use it to do that every day. I couldn't imagine the tediousness of doing that on the command line.
gradstudent 13y ago
The only development tools you'll ever need: a terminal, vim and the GNU toolchain (gcc, gdb, make, screen etc).
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- vacri 13y ago
  Not making any graphical assets?
  - mattdw 13y ago
    Or websites, apparently.
  - gradstudent 13y ago
    I don't understand your point. You can make UIs with CLI tools as well as IDEs? My post was trying to say that the GNU toolchain is portable across all major systems. Switch to it and you never need to ask what tools you should be using to develop on XYZ.
    - vacri 13y ago
      Images/icons/video.
      - gradstudent 13y ago
        I thought we were talking about development not graphic design
acanby 13y ago
As someone who uses Terminal.app, what are the benefits of using iTerm2? After looking at the features of iTerm2[1], I see a lot of it as superfluous. That said I can see a usecase in the Growl notification feature for testing etc. [1] http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/features http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/features
- masterleep 13y ago
  It is far faster at scrolling with non-ASCII characters, helpful when scanning logs of such characters. It has a better find interface. It is almost exactly like Terminal.app in most respects, which I appreciate.
  - digitalmaster 13y ago
    Thanks for pointing these out m8. Cheers.
- Pent 13y ago
  I love it for visor mode. Basically in the preferences you can set it up to toggle the terminal (slides down from top of screen..) with a global hotkey. It manages themes nice as well.
tonetheman 13y ago
And remember clicking the red X does not kill the process...
- cobralibre 13y ago
  That's true except when it's not true. Some apps are single window applications, and clicking the red x will in fact quit the app. For example, System Preferences.
- Pent 13y ago
  You get really good at using cmd+q on everything
TallboyOne 13y ago
Don't forget MACVIM. Vim on windows is terrible. Now that you're on OSX it's going to be fantastic. <3 Vim
- eropple 13y ago
  MacVim's pretty nice, but I've never had a serious problem with the Windows versions of GVim.
- hrayr 13y ago
  Can someone please explain to me the advantages of using MacVim over Vim through terminal?
  - philwelch 13y ago
    I'll second this question. Terminal Vim has always been there for me, and when you're used to it, there's nothing stopping you from coding over an ssh connection.
  - dkuntz2 13y ago
    It comes with a gui? There isn't really any huge advantage (at least for gVim, I run linux...), it's just nice to detach it from the terminal. Mostly, I can change the window size without it affecting the size of my terminal, and add some extra tweaks if wanted.
shaggyfrog 13y ago
Not mentioned yet: HexFiend for hex editing, Cocoa Packet Analyzer and Wireshark for packet inspection.
hfz 13y ago
Dash app[1] is brilliant. It's an all-in-one place for language documentations. Very useful. [1]: http://kapeli.com/dash http://kapeli.com/dash
- digitalmaster 13y ago
  I think if i had known about this before it would have been in my top 10! This is awesome! #thanks
brandon_wirtz 13y ago
I am the lone Windows user in my office. I could use a post on how to go from Mac Development to Windows. Only half kidding. I don't want to make this a Win vs. Mac thread, but I think it is important for both sides to understand there are things that are good about each. The Mac guys get a closer to Linux environment, which makes much of the stuff that is happening on Web servers behave more closely in dev to the way they do in production. Windows has a long history of dev tools, so there are some really great Large File (>4 GB) editors, memory inspectors, inspection proxies (Fiddler for example) which make my Mac devs jealous from time to time. But I am routinely jealous of how easy it was when I was on a Mac to do installs of Libraries using Yum and such. Plus since we are a mostly Python Shop that is quite a bit easier on a Mac. I am a long time user of Visual Studio, but there are a lot of great IDE's now so you do have choices, and because many of those are Multiplatform you do have more choice, even if your team mates don't share that choice. (Sublime, Pycharm, Eclipse)
- landr0id 13y ago
  The one thing that I absolutely cannot stand about my OS X workflow is that to this day, I still have not found a good hex editor. On Windows I used HxD, but there's nothing that really fits the bill. That, IDA Pro (I don't have an OS X license and from what I hear the OS X version isn't too spectacular anyways), and Visual Studio are what make me occasionally boot into Windows.
  - mattdw 13y ago
    HexFiend[1] doesn't do the trick? (I have only occasionally need for a hex editor, but it serves well when the need arises.) [1] http://ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend/ http://ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend/
    - landr0id 13y ago
      I believe I tried it once, but the UI wasn't very appealing to me. The key features I'm looking for are: fixed width of 16 bytes, clean interface, process inspecting (not sure how easy that is to do to be honest) and raw disk access.
frozenport 13y ago
I disprove. If you wanted a Unix environment you could have installed Linux.
- r00fus 13y ago
  OSX == Unix. [1] OSX != Linux. [1] http://arstechnica.com/apple/2007/08/mac-os-x-leopard-receives-unix-03-certification/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2007/08/mac-os-x-leopard-receiv...

31 points by digitalmaster 13y ago

I'm trying to do windows development and I'm learning that if you don't try to force it into a unix-lixe env, it works fine. I installed chocolatey [1] a package manager. With that I install python, git, and vim and I'm up and running. My vimrc and gitconfigs almost worked copied straight out of linux. I use cmd. My advice is not to use cygwin and the other stuff like it... [1] http://chocolatey.org/ http://chocolatey.org/

eropple 13y ago
I don't agree with this advice at all. That you are stuck with cmd is really all that needs to be said. On the other hand, Cygwin's gotten to the point where it, plus mintty, are actually pretty good--Cygwin used to be a real pain to work with (I mean, bad) but it's improved by leaps and bounds over the last few years. You can get a bash or zsh shell that work remarkably closely to OS X or Linux and just about every tool you're likely to run into will work as you expect. Contrast this to direct Windows ports of your software, which are frequently compromised to work in the fairly deranged environment of the Windows shell.
- digitalmaster 13y ago
  I'm afraid i'm going to have to agree. Cygwin is wayyyy better that vanilla cmd on windows.

Steveism 13y ago

My personal 10 tools for Mac dev (in no particular order): 1. Sublime Text 2 2. Tower 3. Kaleidoscope 4. iTerm2 5. Oh-my-zsh 6. Xcode 7. MAMP Pro 8. CodeKit 9. Homebrew 10. CodeRunner Honorable mention to: xScope, Sequel Pro, Transmit

ktsmith 13y ago
Any particular reason for Kaleidoscope over filemerge?
- Steveism 13y ago
  I'm a big fan of Filemerge. I also really like Changes. I just prefer Kaleidoscope's UI better. It has all the features for my needs in the recent version 2 release. Black Pixel makes fine software and Kaleidoscope is no exception.
  - digitalmaster 13y ago
    Indeed.. but $70 is a hard pill to swallow for a pretty file comparison utility. I was thinking somewhere more around $30.
digitalmaster 13y ago
Nice stack.. i'll check these out too!

cschmidt 13y ago

You'll probably want a graphical diff tool. I use Araxis Merge, because I've used it for 15 years or so, but I'm sure there lots of other good options. I can still remember the day our lead developer (at my previous job) led a mutiny and we switched from Windows to Macs. A great day in my life. ... I'm sure you'll enjoy developing on your Mac.

joejohnson 13y ago
If you use Xcode, it has a visual difftool that is pretty good. I never use anything for git besides cli and Xcode.
- shaggyfrog 13y ago
  That would be FileMerge, which also does folder diffs -- although not as good as Beyond Compare (one of the few apps I miss having from Windows dev).
- digitalmaster 13y ago
  Thanks didnt know xcode had a visual diff tool build it! I'll give that a shot!
sillysaurus 13y ago
git diff | gvim - Autocoloring is enabled by default. Green for newly added lines, red for deleted lines. Ctrl-F/Ctrl-B jumps forwards/backwards by a page. Do other diff tools offer more functionality than this?

acanby 13y ago

I'd like to mention SourceTree[0] for a GUI DVCS. I typically drop to the terminal for git usage, but every so often use SourceTree when I need something that is easier achieved with a mouse. [0] http://sourcetreeapp.com/ http://sourcetreeapp.com/

shaggyfrog 13y ago
SourceTree makes staging chunks/lines in git a snap -- I use it to do that every day. I couldn't imagine the tediousness of doing that on the command line.

gradstudent 13y ago

The only development tools you'll ever need: a terminal, vim and the GNU toolchain (gcc, gdb, make, screen etc).

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
vacri 13y ago
Not making any graphical assets?
- mattdw 13y ago
  Or websites, apparently.
- gradstudent 13y ago
  I don't understand your point. You can make UIs with CLI tools as well as IDEs? My post was trying to say that the GNU toolchain is portable across all major systems. Switch to it and you never need to ask what tools you should be using to develop on XYZ.
  - vacri 13y ago
    Images/icons/video.
    - gradstudent 13y ago
      I thought we were talking about development not graphic design

acanby 13y ago

As someone who uses Terminal.app, what are the benefits of using iTerm2? After looking at the features of iTerm2[1], I see a lot of it as superfluous. That said I can see a usecase in the Growl notification feature for testing etc. [1] http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/features http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/features

masterleep 13y ago
It is far faster at scrolling with non-ASCII characters, helpful when scanning logs of such characters. It has a better find interface. It is almost exactly like Terminal.app in most respects, which I appreciate.
- digitalmaster 13y ago
  Thanks for pointing these out m8. Cheers.
Pent 13y ago
I love it for visor mode. Basically in the preferences you can set it up to toggle the terminal (slides down from top of screen..) with a global hotkey. It manages themes nice as well.

tonetheman 13y ago

And remember clicking the red X does not kill the process...

cobralibre 13y ago
That's true except when it's not true. Some apps are single window applications, and clicking the red x will in fact quit the app. For example, System Preferences.
Pent 13y ago
You get really good at using cmd+q on everything

TallboyOne 13y ago

Don't forget MACVIM. Vim on windows is terrible. Now that you're on OSX it's going to be fantastic. <3 Vim

eropple 13y ago
MacVim's pretty nice, but I've never had a serious problem with the Windows versions of GVim.
hrayr 13y ago
Can someone please explain to me the advantages of using MacVim over Vim through terminal?
- philwelch 13y ago
  I'll second this question. Terminal Vim has always been there for me, and when you're used to it, there's nothing stopping you from coding over an ssh connection.
- dkuntz2 13y ago
  It comes with a gui? There isn't really any huge advantage (at least for gVim, I run linux...), it's just nice to detach it from the terminal. Mostly, I can change the window size without it affecting the size of my terminal, and add some extra tweaks if wanted.

shaggyfrog 13y ago

Not mentioned yet: HexFiend for hex editing, Cocoa Packet Analyzer and Wireshark for packet inspection.

hfz 13y ago

Dash app[1] is brilliant. It's an all-in-one place for language documentations. Very useful. [1]: http://kapeli.com/dash http://kapeli.com/dash

digitalmaster 13y ago
I think if i had known about this before it would have been in my top 10! This is awesome! #thanks

brandon_wirtz 13y ago

I am the lone Windows user in my office. I could use a post on how to go from Mac Development to Windows. Only half kidding. I don't want to make this a Win vs. Mac thread, but I think it is important for both sides to understand there are things that are good about each. The Mac guys get a closer to Linux environment, which makes much of the stuff that is happening on Web servers behave more closely in dev to the way they do in production. Windows has a long history of dev tools, so there are some really great Large File (>4 GB) editors, memory inspectors, inspection proxies (Fiddler for example) which make my Mac devs jealous from time to time. But I am routinely jealous of how easy it was when I was on a Mac to do installs of Libraries using Yum and such. Plus since we are a mostly Python Shop that is quite a bit easier on a Mac. I am a long time user of Visual Studio, but there are a lot of great IDE's now so you do have choices, and because many of those are Multiplatform you do have more choice, even if your team mates don't share that choice. (Sublime, Pycharm, Eclipse)

landr0id 13y ago
The one thing that I absolutely cannot stand about my OS X workflow is that to this day, I still have not found a good hex editor. On Windows I used HxD, but there's nothing that really fits the bill. That, IDA Pro (I don't have an OS X license and from what I hear the OS X version isn't too spectacular anyways), and Visual Studio are what make me occasionally boot into Windows.
- mattdw 13y ago
  HexFiend[1] doesn't do the trick? (I have only occasionally need for a hex editor, but it serves well when the need arises.) [1] http://ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend/ http://ridiculousfish.com/hexfiend/
  - landr0id 13y ago
    I believe I tried it once, but the UI wasn't very appealing to me. The key features I'm looking for are: fixed width of 16 bytes, clean interface, process inspecting (not sure how easy that is to do to be honest) and raw disk access.

frozenport 13y ago

I disprove. If you wanted a Unix environment you could have installed Linux.

r00fus 13y ago
OSX == Unix. [1] OSX != Linux. [1] http://arstechnica.com/apple/2007/08/mac-os-x-leopard-receives-unix-03-certification/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2007/08/mac-os-x-leopard-receiv...