Software Development for macOS Users - a Few Pointers

macOS is based on UNIX, from which Linux is derived. To access it on the command line, use the Terminal: the app is in the Applications > Utilities folder, or you can find it with Spotlight. Apple’s official guide to using the Terminal is here, and worth reading in its entirety. If you are unfamiliar with UNIX/Linux commands (e.g., ls, cd, pwd, rm, rmdkir, mkdir, touch, etc.), an excellent, Terminal-specific one, is here.

Pointers:

  1. First, the basics:
    1. Configure the Dock so that it automatically hides (System Preferences » Dock)
    2. Show file name extensions (Finder Preferences » Advanced)
    3. Drag commonly-used folders to a Finder window sidebar
    4. Drag commonly-used applications to a Finder window toolbar
    5. Change the Terminal profile to something cool (like Homebrew): Terminal » Preferences » Profiles » Homebrew (or whatever profile strikes your fancy), then click on Default
  2. To go back and forth between the Terminal and Finder is easy:
    1. In the Terminal, type open . to open the current directory as a folder in the Finder
    2. Right click on a folder in the Finder and choose Services » New Terminal At Folder to open a terminal in directory that corresponds to the folder

  3. The default shell on Terminal is zsh, so if you spend a lot of time in the Terminal (as you should!) check out this discussion

  4. If you visit any of these sites on a Mac, you will get a Mac binary (otherwise just go to downloads)
    1. Visual Studio Code
    2. git
    3. node.js

  5. Drag Visual Studio Code to a Finder window toolbar. Then, to open up any other folder, just drag it over the Visual Studio Code Icon

  6. Install Xcode - it comes with some helpful development toolchains