Back in grad school, even during my time in undergrad, I would always do a fresh OS install once the academic year was completed. This was to remove software I no longer needed (when I was mainly using Windows) that were now bloatware and to extend the life of my precious machine. It’s now become a habit for me unfortunately.

The downside to a fresh OS install is that I needed to re-configure everything again - my entire development environment! Although I’ve since started using git to store my config files, and Dropbox to backup other essentials tools/hacks I’ve amassed over the years, I’ve often had to look up many of the installation instructions. In my attempt to journal my scientific quest, the aim of this post is to help me install necessary development tools.

On OS X, I’m mostly using homebrew to install the majority of the applications.

Install iTerm2

First thing, install my favorite terminal: iTerm. Once it finishes downloading, extract it into the Applications folder. Finally, I use the Dracula theme with iTerm.

Installing command-line tools

So the easiest way to install anything is to use homebrew. With this must-have package manager, I can install Java, Mavin, Ruby, r.p.m., and about anything I want. For OS X, it is arguably the easiest package management tool out there. Prior to adapting homebrew I used macport.

Before installing this what I need to install the xcode command line tools

xcode-select --install

Installing homebrew

So what is homebrew? Homebrew is a free and open source software package management system that simplifies the installation of just about all software.

So how does it work? Normally you can install Java and go through the whole process of downloading and moving it and doing all the hard work. But instead if you install homebrew you just run a simple command like brew cask install java and install Java. So it’s pretty amazing!

All right so installing homebrew is super easy. Head over to brew.sh and then just simply follow the instructions. So copy and paste the line into your terminal then hit return to accept everything.
Give it the sudo access and within few seconds, the installation will conclude. Validate the installation with brew help.

Miscellaneous Applications and Utilities

Couple of my favorite applications like Sublime Text 3, slack, Skype, and Google hangouts.

brew cask install sublime-text3

This may raise an error No available cask for sublime-text3. If so, run brew install sublime-text3 to search for correct brew formulae and follow the instruction.

  • To install Google hangout: brew cask install google-hangouts
  • Now for Slack: brew cask install slack
  • Finally for Skype: brew cask install skype

Java Stack

All right now let’s go through and install the Java stack: java, intellij, eclipse, maven and ant. Since we installed homebrew, it just make a super easy:

  • brew cask install java
  • brew install maven
  • brew install ant

All right using the Java stack you’ll need a couple of IDEs. Usually people will choose between Intellij or Eclipse. I’ve come to prefer Intellij.

Ruby Stack

Install RVM

For the Ruby stack, let’s go ahead and install RVM: Ruby version manager. Head over to rvm.io. On the site, follow the installation via

curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --rails

and source the appropriate script.

A couple of quick commands we can do is we can take rvm install 2.3.0 to install ruby version 2.3.0. Running rvm list will list all the different versions of ruby available for use on the system: rvm use ruby-2.3.0 to activate and use the specified version.

So installing different versions of Ruby rvm is the best tool to switch interchangeably.

There’s a bunch different IDEs for Ruby. But just like Java with Intellij, my favorite for Ruby is RubyMine from JetBrains and my favorite theme is always Dracula.

Version Control

Git

brew install git

And what’s really cool about this is it installs the keychain helper git-credential-osxkeychain. Once you put your credentials in it will remember them. Though I use ssh keys with git.

Mardown

MacDown is an open source Markdown editor for macOS, released under the MIT License.