

Ultimate Rails developer & power user tools for Mac (2011 edition) - masnick
http://www.maxmasnick.com/2011/12/29/developer_tools_for_mac_2011/

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kipsfi
This doesn't really seem to be an "Ultimate developer & power user tool" list.
It seems to be more of a "this is what I use".

According to you, your ultimate setup for Rails development includes a machine
that loads the Rails stack slowly (!), a 24-inch monitor (while you say you'd
love a 27-inch), and headphones that sound "ok".

You have an interesting definition of "ultimate".

~~~
masnick
The title is riffing off of the other two posts I mentioned at the top of my
post.

Regardless, all of these lists are personal opinion and limited by resources
and current technology. I prefer portability over speed, for example.

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tptacek
If you're an Emacs person, let me plug 'magit' real quick --- it turns out, a
near-optimal git UI fits nicely into Emacs UX/UI idiom. One of those rare
things that doesn't just nicely integrate Emacs and some-random-tool, but
actually makes Emacs and the tool _better_ in the process.

Wouldn't even consider a standalone OSX Git client, or, for that matter, using
git on the commandline anymore. Magit is just so much better.

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ericb
If you have a "knot" type pain in your shoulder blade area on the same side of
your body as your mouse hand, I cannot strongly recommend a track ball mouse
like this enough:

[http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-
det...](http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-
details.asp?EdpNo=6730806&);

I had a continual knot and painful spot in my shoulder blade from age 16 (when
I started using a computer regularly) until age 35 when I tried the trackball
mouse. Within a month or so of switching, the achey spot was entirely gone. I
started a new job and used their mouse, and the pain came back. I brought in
my mouse and it went away. Also, trackballs are faster once you get used to
them.

~~~
hopeless
Seconded. I've used that model and its predecessor for about 10yrs. Because my
forearm and wrist remain stationary, I found I don't get any RSI like pains
and I don't rub my wrist off the edge of the desk which was irritating the
metal plates in my arm.

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sandropadin
Great list. I'd like to mention I use Tower app for a Git GUI. I especially
like that it shows a diff right as you're looking at changes and lets you
stage chunks of code which I find very helpful.

~~~
masnick
Thanks!

I've actually tried Tower but I prefer the simplicity of Gitbox's UI.

If you like Tower, you should check out SourceTree
(<http://www.atlassian.com/software/sourcetree/overview>). It's free from the
Bitbucket people.

~~~
JangoSteve
I've used Gitx, SourceTree, and Tower each for more than a week exclusively.
So far, Tower by far comes the closest in most features. One key feature for
me was being able to easily switch between commit-list view and file-browse
view (the latter to get to a file and view its history). I haven't tried
Gitbox, because based on their feature list, it doesn't even come close to
SourceTree, which in turn had less features than Tower.

One of my biggest problems is that all of these programs seem to emphasize
pushing, pulling, merging, rebasing, etc. But I don't want any of that stuff,
the command line is awesome for all that. I just want to search, browse, and
compare commits a bit more easily.

There are a few small things Tower is still missing, but the Tower team have
been really responsive and receptive to implementing those changes when I
talked to them (which I think is a benefit of actually having to pay for the
app).

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ridruejo
If you are doing PHP or Ruby development on Mac you may be interested in
BitNami stacks <http://bitnami.org/stacks> (disclaimer I am one of the BitNami
developers) They allow you to have local, self-contained, pre-configured
development and test environments for Rails, PHP, WordPress, Drupal, etc.

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danneu
Since I spend most of my time in Vim, I moved from Chrome to Firefox just for
Pentadactyl which brings Vim bindings to Firefox, and it's much more powerful
than similar Chrome add-ons. Tabbing between Vim and Firefox, sharing
keybindings, and never touching the mouse have boosted my productivity
tremendously.

You should see how many more HN articles I can read per hour.

I'd add Guake (or whatever the Mac equiv is). Ctrl-Spacing a universal, auto-
focusing, half-screen terminal window at any time is a great tool. Right now,
I have my whole Tmux/Vim/RailsServer/irssi/ssh command center in the Guake
terminal that can be toggled whenever. Alt-tabbing is unmanageable.

~~~
jonnii
There's a chrome extension called Vimium which does the same thing.

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dimmuborgir
Pentadactyl is much more feature rich than Vimium and gives a more Vim-like
experience than Vimium does. (thanks to Firefox's flexibility)

~~~
JangoSteve
Case in point: vimium only works in chrome by loading a custom javascript file
(basically how all chrome extensions work). Which means if a page errors on
loading, that tab doesn't get vimium bindings. Which is quite annoying when
flipping through tabs, only to stop at the error'd tab and have to use the
mouse to get off that tab and continue flipping.

~~~
xiaomai
I agree that this is annoying, so instead of using the vimium tab-switch
bindings I use the standard chromium tab-switch keyboard shortcuts (no mousing
is necessary)

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rafaqueque
First of all, nice read.

I'm a PHP developer and I work everyday on a Mac environment and I was
wondering if there is any chance for you to write an article like "Ultimate
PHP developer & power user tools"?

~~~
masnick
Thanks. Pretty much all the tools I listed should work for PHP as well.

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dasil003
Sparrow more efficient than the native Gmail interface? Either they added a
lot more command keys and UI elements (list-view cursor) or you haven't yet
mastered the web UI.

~~~
jfb
It also supports IMAP, which is key for those of us who like the GMail
interface well enough but loathe Google.

~~~
dasil003
This seems unrelated to my point, but anyway, I don't understand why you would
use Gmail if you both loathe Google and prefer an IMAP client.

~~~
jfb
I don't use GMail. I like the interface of Sparrow.

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alwillis
And thanks for mentioning Greplin (<https://www.greplin.com>) —hadnt heard
about it, but already loving it.

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jcorbly
Just got an external monitor today to use with my MacBook snd ran into
ergonomic considerations.

I like the pic of the monitor and laptop in stacked configuration. Gonna try
that with mine, but I wonder if I'll get tired of moving my head upp and down.
I might also put the MacBook side-by-side with the monitor, keeping that at
desk level.

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alwillis
Nice write-up. I would just add iTerm2 (<http://www.iterm2.com/>), which has
made using the command line all day a much nicer experience even after all of
the improvements in Lion's Terminal app.

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vishnumenon
Like Rubinius, I also use RubyRegexpMachine (Mac Only,
<http://rubyregexp.sourceforge.net/>) for regular expressions. Its pretty
cool, you can describe expressions in english.

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odilontalk
Which font are you using on your terminal ?

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namidark
Another Amazon link bait post! -.-

~~~
masnick
There are no affiliate links in my post. Check before you accuse/troll.

