Finally getting around to writing the part 2! Sorry for the delay my friends. Here is a link to part 1 if you haven’t read that yet: https://dev.to/ikey2244/beginner-s-guide-to-a-developer-work-environment-part-1-ibk
Here is how I actually use the tools from part 1 in my day to day.
1. Xcode
How often I use it: Never
Only installed this to make sure our macs are set up correctly for development. If you are doing an IOS development this is what you would interact with.
Common Workflow: None
2. Homebrew
How often I use it: Occasionally
You don't have to use Homebrew. It's just a nice thing to have. It makes it really easy to install applications and tools etc.
I sometimes will use Homebrew to run servers/databases in the background. For instance I might have a MongoDB database running with Homebrew. That might look something like this.
- Installed mongoDB
- run command
brew services start mongodb
that's pretty much it.
3. ZSH(Oh-my-zsh)
How often I use it: Everyday
So technically I use this everyday but really if you are using you Iterm you are using ZSH. Once again ZSH just offers a nice way to interact with your terminal. Tab completion/suggestions etc.
2. Iterm
How often I use it: Everyday
Common commands I use daily:
mkdir
creates a new folder
Example: mkdir code
creates a new folder called "code"
cd
stands for "change directory".
Example: You just created a new folder called "code". In order to get inside that folder you have to type cd code
and hit enter. You then will be taken inside that directory.
..
allows you to move up in the in the directory.
Example: you are in a directory called code/my-sick-project
. Now you just want to be inside the code
directory. By hitting ..
you will move up in the directory and thus be in the code
folder.
ls
lists everything within a directory/folder.
touch your-file-name
creates a new file.
Example: touch index.html
creates a new html file called index.html in your project.
clear
to clear the console (just cleans up what you've done previously)
⌘ + d to add another window to terminal.
Side note: When you first open your terminal you will most likely see a symbol that looks like this ~ this just indicates that you are in the home directory of your computer. If you run the command pwd
in your terminal you will see directory you are currently in. This can be helpful if you get lost.
Common Workflow:
- Open Iterm
- run command
mkdir new-project
-
cd
into that project by typingcd new-project
-
touch index.html
to create a new index.html file in the project. - run command
code .
(this opens VS code. We will get to that later).
Extras:
Hitting ctrl + r in your terminal will pull up a search for all your previous commands you ran! It's extremely useful if you forget what command to run. let's say you only remember the first part of a command. For instance you remembered the touch
but don't know what to do next. Hit Ctrl + r in your terminal and type touch
this will bring up the last time you typed that command and show you what you did.
3. Visual Studio Code
How often I use it: Everyday
In the Iterm section I mentioned running this command code .
By running this command in a directory VS code will open and you can start editing files. This is very useful when creating a new project!
Here is how you make that work:
- Open VS code.
- Press ⌘ + ⇧(shift key) + p: this opens the command palette
- In the command palette type "shell command" it will show something like this
- Press enter on this option
- That's it!
Now go into a project you created in Iterm or create a new directory(this would be good practice) and run the command code .
VS code should open and you should see the name of your project on the left hand side in the file explorer.
Link to further information about this: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/mac
As you can imagine programming would be really hard if you had to do everything manually. Luckily VS code gives us a ton of hotkeys and shortcuts to make our lives easier! Let's check it out.
I used to use Atom(another code editor like VS code). I still love Atom but VS code has captured my heart. Relearning hotkeys for VS code would be a pain. Fortunately VS code has an extension called "Atom Keymap" that pulls all the hotkeys from Atom and sets them for VS code. Brilliant!
You don't actually need this but if you want to use my hotkeys then you will need this extension:https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.atom-keybindings.
Install by going clicking on this icon. and search for Atom Keymap. Hit install button and you should have it.
Common hotkeys I use everyday:
- copy ⌘ + c
- paste ⌘ + v
- cut ⌘ + x
- delete single line of code ⌘ + ⇧(shift key) + k
- duplicate highlighted code ⌘ + ⇧(shift key) + d
- Hold ⌘ command key and click to have multiple cursors.https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/tips-and-tricks#_editing-hacks
- undo ⌘ + z
- redo ⌘ + ⇧
- search for a file in your project ⌘ + p
- ⌘ + right-arrow end of line
- ⌘ + left-arrow beginning of line
- ⌘ + top-arrow 1st line of code
- ⌘ + down-arrow last line of code
- while holding ⌘ + ⇧(shift key) + arrow key will highlight the line of code corresponding to the direction.
- Jump between words. hold alt key while using arrows to jump to each word.
Needless to say there are a lot of hotkeys. Hopefully this list will get you up and running. For a full list checkout the documentation in the Atom Keybindings extension.
Make it pretty
VS code out of the box is pretty ugly. Let's make it pretty!!
I really love the Palenight theme
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=whizkydee.material-palenight-theme
Install it
- click icon
- search for Palenight theme
- Install
- reload
- be amazing
There are a lot of different themes. Make it your own! Being comfortable with your editor is really important.
That's all folks!! Hopefully that helped some new comers. Please let me know if you see any errors or have any critiques. I welcome all correction. :) Remember everyone is a beginner at something so don't ever feel bad about not knowing something. Ask questions and fail often. That's the only way to get better.
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