Setting up my Dev Environment on a Mac

I recently started a new job and spent hours looking up how to install all of the tools I use for development on my personal MacBook. I came across Tania Rascia's macOS Catalina: Setting up a Mac for Development, which inspired me to create some documentation on the tools I use so I can streamline the process in the future.

This is intended to be a "living document" of my development environment. I would highly recommend Tania's article for more of a tutorial on many of the tools.

I'm always looking for tools that make my life easier. I'd love to hear what you're using!

Tools

• homebrew: package manager

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

• git: version control
• make: builds executable programs
• pyenv: python manager

brew install git make pyenv

After installing git, don't forget to configure it:

vi ~/.gitconfig

After installing pyenv, install the latest Python version:

pyenv install 3.9.1
pyenv global 3.9.1
pyenv version
# update shell path (ZSH on Catalina)
echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc
# ensure pip uses pip3 (ZSH on Catalina)
echo "alias pip=/usr/local/bin/pip3" >> ~/.zshrc 

• nvm: node manager

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash
nvm install node
# restart terminal
nvm use node

GUI Applications

I'm a simple person. I rely on generic macOS apps like notes and terminal and use the Teams, Spotify, and GitHub web apps.

• VSCode: IDK
• Chrome: Main browser
• Firefox: Secondary browser
• Postman: API testing
• Docker: VM containers

brew cask install \
  visual-studio-code \
  google-chrome \
  firefox \
  docker \
  postman

Extensions

Chrome

• uBlock Origin: Adblocker
• React DevTools: Debugging for react apps
• Augury: Debugging for Angular
• Grammarly: Grammar/spellchecker
• Dark Reader: Dark mode for any website
• Last Pass: Password manager
• JSON View: Beautify JSON docs

VS Code

Languages

• Go
• Python
• C/C++
• JavaScript and TypeScript Nightly
• YAML
• dotENV

Linters

• ESLint: JavaScript ESLint
• Prettier: Opinionated code formatting
• Grammarly: Grammar/spellcheck for Markdown files

Tools

• Night Owl: Dark theme for VS Code
• Kubernetes: Cluster management, debugging, etc.
• Docker: Container management
• Jupyter: Jupyter notebook in VSCode...not a huge fan :(

Productivity

• TabNine: AI auto-complete
• Markdown All-in-One: Markdown preview/shortcuts
• Auto Rename Tag: Auto rename HTML tags

Cover photo by Alexander Shatov

Comments

[Viktor]

TabNine is just amazing :)

[Tabnine]

Thank you for a great article! Happy to read that Tabnine is part of your productivity setup ♥️