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

10 points by rodly ↗ HN
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.

25 comments

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[dead] fg2chhn
我认为这需要看你过去的习惯，如果你已经熟练使用VIM了，那么VIM是一个明智的选择。
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.
bhousel
I think Alfred seems to have replaced Quicksilver as the app launcher du jour.
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

taligent
Just to add to this. Two tricks I use every day:

1) You can drag file/folders to the Terminal and it will put the path.

2) open -e "/etc/hosts" will open the hosts file in TextEdit.

z92
Great tips! Didn't know any one of those.
rodly
Thank you for your thorough reply. I'm going to look into all of those tools.
instakill
"Cmd + ~" lets you switch between windows instead of apps.
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.

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