

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

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.
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Tyr42
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/>)

[1]: <http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>

[2]: <http://kapeli.com/dash/>

[3]: <http://manytricks.com/witch/>

[4]: <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/go2shell/id445770608?mt=12>

~~~
bhousel
To do the same thing as 'pmset noidle', I install Caffiene, free from the Mac
App Store.

~~~
Tyr42
Hey, in Mountain Lion, they added a caffeinate command to do the same thing
from the command line, but with timers and stuff.
[http://apple.blogoverflow.com/2012/07/interesting-new-
unix-c...](http://apple.blogoverflow.com/2012/07/interesting-new-unix-
commandsbinaries-in-os-x-mountain-lion/)

------
thechut
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/>

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

------
nihonjon
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>

SublimeText editor <http://www.sublimetext.com/>

Solarized themes (terminal defaults burn your eyes out)
<http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized>

Keyboard-based window moving/resizing tool
<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/>

~~~
ianox
> If you're planning on doing Ruby on Rails web dev then get this 1-click
> installer to simplify setup: <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/>

[2]: <http://rbenv.org/>

------
dougireton
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> 3\.
iTerm2 - Replacement for Mac terminal: <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> 6\. MacVim (brew install MacVim)
7\. QuickSilver (Mac app launcher): <http://qsapp.com/index.php> 8\. Git (brew
install git)

~~~
Tyr42
What does iterm2 have to offer over the built in terminal?

Also, more line-breaks would be nice...

~~~
achompas
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
Terminal has profile/colour management, and screen does any pane splitting for
me, and what's wrong with and ANSI colouring?

~~~
achompas
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.

------
mcrider
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
I do a lot of web development so thank you!

~~~
mcrider
Also I love TotalTerminal and TotalFinder for a quick keyboard stroke away
from tabbed terminal and finder visors.

------
one-two
Textmate, Transmit, and Navicat ALL DAY

------
taligent
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
4) In most programs you can reach the Characters View via [alt][cmd][t].
Avoids clutter in the menu bar.

------
taligent
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.

