DEV Mac Setup

This is a list of commands I use to setup my new Macs for development. Sharing here for anyone else to use / get started. Please feel free to adapt / improve this list.

Install Homebrew (package manager of Mac OS)

You will need this to install alot of other stuff. Installing homebrew will also setup much needed xcode tools on your machine needed for various compilers / other dev tools.

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

or follow instructions on the official website

Install iterm2 (Terminal replacement)

Iterm2 is highly customizable and comes with a lot of useful features.

Now that you have homebrew installed:

brew install --cask iterm2

Let's open up iterm!

open /Applications/iTerm.app

Switching Shells to ZSH

Next we are going to switch out shells from bash to zsh and make it look amazing with syntax highlighting, autocomplete, interactive directory exploration, et al.

We are going to make your shell look something like this:

You can either follow instructions below or follow instructions on the Oh My Zsh wiki

brew install zsh

To set zsh as your default shell, execute the following assuming a default install of Homebrew

chsh -s /usr/local/bin/zsh

Install oh-my zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

We will come back to themeing zsh, for now lets move on to installing an my favourite ide

Installing VSCode (the last ide you will ever need)

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Now you can use code (file_path|dir_path| ) to open a file, directory, or just the ide itself.

Pre-emptively fix font in vscode integrated terminal.

cmd + shift + p
Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)

Once settings.json is open add/edit the following keys

"editor.fontFamily": "Source Code Pro for Powerline"

The font isn't available right now; but we will install it below. You may update this to whatever powerline font you want to use.

Theming your terminal

Make iTerm your default Terminal

From menu: Iterm2 -> Make iTerm2 default...

Install Shell Integration

From menu: Iterm2 -> Install shell integration

Enable some cool features

From menu: View -> Show Curson, Show timestamp, Show Autocommand completion

Colors/Fonts/Session Bar

Firstly, we will need to install some custom fonts. We will chose powerline.

# clone
git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts.git --depth=1
# install
cd fonts
./install.sh
# clean-up a bit
cd ..
rm -rf fonts

From menu: Iterm2 -> Settings -> Profiles -> Default -> Colors -> Color Presets -> {Chose a preset or visit the online gallery to see more}

** You may want to uncheck Brighten Bold Text

In the same profiles section: _Iterm2 -> Settings -> Profiles -> Default -> Session -> Status Bar Enabled -> Configure Status Bar

Mine looks like this:

In the same profiles section: _Iterm2 -> Settings -> Profiles -> Default -> Text -> Font -> {Choose a Powerline supported font we just installed}

** I use Source Code Pro for Powerline

Ensure you see the same output when running echo "\ue0b0 \u00b1 \ue0a0 \u27a6 \u2718 \u26a1 \u2699"

Changing Theme

You .zshrc file contains all information on zsh plugins and themeing. We will now edit it to make your terminal pop!

code ~/.zshrc

Now, that vscode has opened up with your ~/.zshrc file, edit the ZSH_THEME to a theme of your liking. The best theme in my opinon is agnoster Add DEFAULT_USER env var while you are at it!

# See https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Themes
ZSH_THEME="agnoster"
DEFAULT_USER=`whoami`

Install custom python versions

Mac OS' default python versions are unreliable. It is usually better to install fresh python versions globally to ensure things install/execute adequately.

I recommend using pyenv to manage python versions

brew install pyenv

echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc

Before you install python; ensure you install python build dependencies

brew install openssl readline sqlite3 xz zlib

Install the latest py2 and py3 versions. Yes, sadly somethings still need py2 even though support has been dropped officially...

At the time of writing python 3.7, and 2.7.9 or higher.

If you run into any issues with installing python you can checkout https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv/wiki/common-build-problems

pyenv install 3.7.7
pyenv install 2.7.14