- Best Mac For Developers
- Best Mac Developer Tools
- Best Mac For App Development
- Best Mac Terminal For Developers
- Best Mac Apps For Developers
- Best Programs For Mac
A guide to setting up an Apple Mac for DevOps and software development. This is current for macOS 10.14 (Mojave).
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Log in once, run Software Update, and ensure that the operating system is at the latestpoint release. After all of the updates have been applied, restart the computer.
Log in again and create an Admin user account for your use. If other people will beusing the machine, create Standard accounts for them. Log out of the initial account,and log in to the Admin account that you have just created.
Always log in with this new Admin account. The benefit of leaving the initial accountuntouched is that it ensures that you always have a working account to login with.
Admin accounts have sudo privileges: All Admin accounts on a Mac may use sudo to runcommand-line utilities with administrative (root) privileges.
You should also find an external hard drive. Begin using Time Machine as soon aspossible, as it provides the most easy method for backing up your system.
Configuring The Trackpad
To make the trackpad behave correctly, ensure that these settings are enabled:
- System Preferences > Trackpad > Tap to click
- System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Trackpad Options… >Enable dragging
Creating a Private Applications Folder
Once you have logged into your account, create a folder called Applications withinyour home folder. Whenever you are prompted to drag a new applications into the globalApplications folder, put it in this private Applications folder instead. Someapplications have to be installed to global folders, but in most cases you can keep thesystem directories clean by storing third-party products in your private Applicationsfolder.
Securing the Safari Browser
Whether or not you regularly use Safari, you should open it once, and adjust thesettings in case that you use it later.
First, choose Safari > Preferences > General and deselect the option Open “safe” files after downloading.
Second, go to Safari > Preferences > Search. Decide which search engine that you want to use. Ensure that Safari Suggestions is not enabled.
Then, check the plug-in settings. Go to Safari > Preferences > Security > Plug-in Settings… and review the plug-ins and settings.
Apple provide quite secure operating systems, but unfortunately convenience has won outover security in a few places. These can easily be corrected by changing a few settings.If you are using a laptop then you should probably make all of these changes as soon aspossible.
Basic Settings
Select System Preferences > Security & Privacy, and set the following:
- Under General, set require a password after sleep or screen saver begins toimmediately
- Click Advanced… and select Require an administrator password to accesssystem-wide preferences
- Under Firewall, click Turn Firewall On.
- Under Privacy, select Analytics and ensure that the options are not enabled.
Disable Spotlight
By default, Spotlight sends queries to Apple. Unless you want this feature, turn it off.
Select System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, and ensure that Spotlight Suggestions is not enabled.
Enable File Vault NOW
Current versions of macOS include File Vault 2, a full-disk encryption system that haslittle in common with the much more limited File Vault 1. You should enable File VaultNOW, because it is the only protection against anyone with physical access to yourcomputer. All other security measures will be completely bypassed if someone withphysical access simply restarts the computer with a bootable pen drive.
File Vault really is secure, which means that you can permanently lose access to yourdata if you lose the passwords and the recovery key.
Set a Firmware Password
Set a password to stop access to theRecovery mode. Otherwise, any maliciousindividual can change the firmware settings to boot from a disc or device of theirchoosing. If you did not enable File Vault, then the attacker will have complete accessto all of the files on the system.
Apple Knowledge Base article HT204455provides full details.
Setting Up Time Machine Backups
Time Machine is simple to set up. Just take a suitably large external hard drive, plug itin to your Mac, and agree when prompted. The drive setup process will reformat the harddrive. The only settings that may need to change are the exclusions.
Choose System Preferences > Time Machine, and click Options. Add to the exclusionslist any folders that contain ISO disk images, virtual machines, or database files (suchas Entourage). If the external hard drive is short of space, exclude the Systemfolder.
The first step is to install a compiler. The easiest way to install one is with theXcode Command Line Tools package.
Once you have the compiler that is provided by Xcode, you can useHomebrew to install everything else that you need.
Getting Xcode
Apple now provide the Xcode suite as a free download from the App Store. To installXcode Command Line Tools, install Xcode from the App Store, then open a Terminal windowand enter the following command:
Setting Up Homebrew
Homebrew provides a package management system for macOS, enabling youto quickly install and update the tools and libraries that you need. Follow theinstructions on the site.
You should also amend your PATH, so that the versions of tools that are installed withHomebrew take precedence over others. To do this, edit the file .bashrc inyour home directory to include this line:
You need to close all terminal windows for this change to take effect.
To check that Homebrew is installed correctly, run this command in a terminal window:
To update the index of available packages, run this command in a terminal window:
Once you have set up Homebrew, use the brew install command to add command-line software to your Mac, and brew cask install to add graphical software. For example, this command installs the Slack app:
Installing the Git Version Control System
The Xcode Command Line Tools include a copy of Git, which isnow the standard for Open Source development, but this will be out of date.
To install a newer version of Git than Apple provide, use Homebrew. Enter this command in a terminal window:
If you do not use Homebrew, go to the Web site and follow thelink for Other Download Options to obtain a macOS disk image. Open your downloadedcopy of the disk image and run the enclosed installer in the usual way, then dismountthe disk image.
Always set your details before you create or clone repositories on a new system. Thisrequires two commands in a terminal window:
The global option means that the setting will apply to every repository that you workwith in the current user account.
To enable colors in the output, which can be very helpful, enter this command:
Text Editors
Installations of macOS include older command-line versions of bothEmacs and vim, as well asTextEdit, a desktop text editor. TextEdit is designed for light-weight word processing,and has no support for programming. Add the code editors or IDEs that you would prefer to use.
If you do not have a preferred editor, consider using a version of Visual Studio Code. Read the next section for more details.
To work with a modern Vim editor, install Neovim.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a powerful desktop editor for programming, with built-in support for version control and debugging. The large range of extensions for Visual Studio Code enable it to work with every popular programming language and framework. It is available free of charge.
The Microsoft releases of Visual Studio Code are proprietary software with telemetry enabled by default. To avoid these issues, use the packages that are provided by the vscodium project instead.
Once you have installed Visual Studio Code or VSCodium, read this article for more information about using the editor.
Neovim
If you would like a modern Vim editor with a good default configuration, set up Neovim.
Setting The EDITOR Environment Variable
Whichever text editor you choose, remember to set the EDITOR environment variable inyour ~/.bashrc file, so that this editor is automatically invoked by command-linetools like your version control system. For example, put this line in your profile tomake Neovim (nvim) the favored text editor:
Setting Up A Directory Structure for Projects
To keep your projects tidy, I would recommend following theGo developer conventions. These guidelines may seemslightly fussy, but they pay off when you have many projects, some of which are ondifferent version control hosts.
First create a top-level directory with a short, generic name like code. By default Gouses a directory called go, but you can change that when you set up a Go installation.
In this directory, create an src sub-directory. For each repository host, create asubdirectory in src that matches your username. Check out projects in the directory.The final directory structure looks like this:
Creating SSH Keys
You will frequently use SSH to access Git repositories or remote UNIX systems. macOSincludes the standard OpenSSH suite of tools.
OpenSSH stores your SSH keys in a .ssh directory. To create this directory, run these commands in a terminal window:
To create an SSH key, run the ssh-keygen command in a terminal window. For example:
Use 4096-bit RSA keys for all systems. The older DSA standard only supports 1024-bitkeys, which are now too small to be considered secure.
JavaScript Development: Node.js
Homebrew provides separate packages for each version of Node.js.To ensure that you are using the version of Node.js that you expect, specify the versionwhen you install it. For example, enter this command in a Terminal window to install theNode.js 12, the current LTS release:
Add the bin/ directory for this Node.js installation to your PATH:
If you need yarn, enter this command in a Terminal window toinstall it:
Go Development
Use Homebrew to install Go:
This provides the standard command-line tools for Go.
The current version of Go includes support for dependency management with modules. Use modules for new projects. Some existing projects still use dep, or an older tool.
Setting a GOPATH
Current versions of Go do not require a GOPATH environment variable, but you should set it to ensure that third-party tools and Terminal auto-completion work correctly.
Set a GOPATH environment variable in your ~/.bashrc file:
Then, add this to your PATH:
Close the Terminal and open it again for the changes to take effect.
Java Development: AdoptOpenJDK
Which Version of Java?
Many vendors provide a JDK. To avoid potential licensing and support issues, use the JDK that is provided by the AdoptOpenJDK project. The versions of Java on the OpenJDK Website are for testers, and the Oracle JDK is a proprietary product that requires license fees.
Use the LTS version of the OpenJDK, unless you need features that are in the latest releases.
Once you have installed a JDK, get the Apache Maven build tool. This is provided by the Maven project itself, and is not part of the OpenJDK.
Use jEnv if you need to run multiple JDKs, such as different versions of the same JDK.
Setting up Java with Homebrew
Run these commands in a terminal window:
This installs version 11 of the OpenJDK, from the AdoptOpenJDK project.
Best Mac For Developers
Run this command in a terminal window to install Maven:
Setting up jEnv
Run this command in a terminal window to install jEnv:
Next, add this to your PATH:
Add this to your ~/.bashrc file:
Open a new terminal window, and run this command:
This enables jEnv to manage the JAVA_HOME environment variable.
To avoid inconsistent behaviour, close all the terminal windows that you currently have open. The jEnv utility will work correctly in new terminal windows.
Lastly, run this command to register your current JDK with jEnv:
To see a list of the available commands, type jenv in a terminal window:
Manual Set up of AdoptOpenJDK
To manually install a copy of the JDK:
- Download the version of the JDK that you need from AdoptOpenJDK
- Unzip the download
- Copy the JDK directory to /usr/local/lib
- Edit your ~/.bashrc file to set environment variables. For example, to use jdk-11.0.3+7 as the Java version:
To manually install a copy of Apache Maven:
- Download the latest version of Maven
- Unzip the download
- Copy the Maven directory to /usr/local/lib/
- Add /usr/local/lib/MAVEN-DIRECTORY to your PATH environment variable
Replace MAVEN-DIRECTORY with the name of the directory that Maven uses, such as apache-maven-3.6.0.
Maven is written in Java, which means that the project provides one package, which works on any operating system that has a supported version of Java.
Python Development: pipenv
Unfortunately, macOS includes a copy of Python 2, so you will need to install Python 3 yourself.
To maintain current and clean Python environments, you should also use pipenv. This builds on two features of Python: the virtual environments and the pip utility.
Enter this command to install Python 3 and pipenv using Homebrew:
Use pipenv to manage your Python projects. The pipenv tool itself will automatically work with the copy of Python 3 from Homebrew.
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To use the Python 3 interpreter outside of projects that are managed by pipenv, specify python3 on the command-line and inyour scripts, rather than python:
If you need to run the pip utility, rather than setting up a development environment with pipenv, always use the command pip3:
The Python Guide tutorialshows you how to work with pipenv.
Rust Development: rustup
The official rustup utility enables you to install the tools for building softwarewith the Rust programming language. Click on the Install button on the front page of theRust Website, and follow the instructions.
By default, the installer adds the correct directory to your path. If this does notwork, add this to your PATH manually:
This process installs all of the tools into your home directory, and does not add anyfiles into system directories.
Ruby Development: RVM
All macOS systems include a copy of Ruby, but it is outdated. To maintain current andclean Ruby environments, use the RVM system.
RVM relies on Git, so you must have a working installation of Git before you can set upRVM.
By default, RVM downloads copies of Ruby that have been compiled for your operatingsystem. If there is no compiled version, RVM then falls back to downloading the sourcecode and then compiling it on your computer. Enter this command to ensure that therequirements for compiling Ruby are on your system, using Homebrew:
Finally, you can speed up installation of gem packages by disabling the generation oflocal documentation. To do this, create a file in your home directory with the name.gemrc and put this line in it:
Minikube sets up and manages Kubernetes on a single system, so that you can develop and test without needing a set of servers.
To install Minikube with Homebrew, run these commands in a terminal window:
By default, Minikube uses a virtual machine manager. If you do not need VirtualBox, install hyperkit, which provides a minimal virtual machine manager.
To install Helm with Homebrew, run this command in a terminal window:
To install Skaffold with Homebrew, run this command in a terminal window:
This article explains Minikube in more detail.
Consider using containers to run the databases that you need. If you prefer to install servicesdirectly on to your workstation, Homebrew provides packages for PostgreSQL, MariaDB and MySQL.
Installing PostgreSQL
To install PostgreSQL using Homebrew, enter this command in a terminal window:
This command installs the server, the command-line tools, and the client libraries thatare needed to compile adapters for programming languages.
Homebrew also provides some commands for managing your PostgreSQL installation. Forexample, to start the server, follow the instructions that are displayed after theinstallation process is completed. If you upgrade your copy of PostgreSQL, you shoulduse the postgresql-upgrade-database command that Homebrew gives you.
Installing MariaDB or MySQL
To install MariaDB using Homebrew, enter this command in a terminal window:
To install MySQL using Homebrew, enter this command in a terminal window:
These commands install the server, the command-line tools, and the client libraries thatare needed to compile adapters for programming languages. To start the server, followthe instructions that are displayed after the installation process is completed.
For compatibility, MariaDB uses the same names for command-line tools as MySQL.
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Remember to set a password for the root accounts. First, login with the mysqlcommand-line utility:
The -q Option Disables Command History: By default, the command-line client storesthe full text of every command in a history file. If you know that you are going torun statements that include passwords or other sensitive data, use the -q option.
Run these statements to change the password for root access:
You now need a password to login to the installation as root. To login with root again,use this command:
Enter the password when prompted.
You should also remove the anonymous accounts and test database that MySQL automaticallyincludes:
If you intend to duplicate a production environment for testing, create a configurationfile on your Mac. Production installations of MySQL should be configured withappropriate SQL modes to enable data integrity safeguards. By default, MySQL permitsvarious types of invalid data to be entered.
Database Management Tools
Best Mac Terminal For Developers
- Azure Data Studio for Microsoft SQL Server
- pgAdmin for PostgreSQL
- LibreOffice suite: brew cask install libreoffice
- VirtualBox virtual machine management: brew cask install virtualbox
- Docker container management: brew cask install docker
Apple offer overviews and task-orientated help on theirsupport Web site for new macOS users.
Every new user should probably readHow to switch to the Mac, by Rui Carmo.
The macOS Privacy and Security Guide by Dr Doh provides extensive information about those topics.
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is software that consolidates the basic tools needed for software testing and writing. Without IDE, a developer would have to select and manage all these tools separately, but IDE brings all these tools together as a single framework or service. Needless to say, IDE helps a web developer’s work to be more precise and quicker.
In this guide, we will introduce you to 10 best IDE web development options, which include feature-rich support with multiple code languages.
But before starting, let’s answer the common question“What is an IDE?” in more detail as well as how to pick the best IDE for your specific needs.
Let’s dig in.
What is an IDE?
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a software that you can load onto your computer. They’re designed to streamline the web development process as mentioned earlier.
An IDE includes these main features:
- Text editor – An IDE is a text editor that includes several other specific features.
- Compiler or Interpreter – An integrated program that translates your code into a computer-readable language. This lets your code run, referred to as having your script executed. An interpreter is a program that’s included. Its purpose is to execute code without it needing to be compiled first.
- Build or Make Integration – These are included ways to automate necessary processes.
- Debugger – An included program that tests your code for errors so you can resolve them.
- Syntax Highlighter – Parts of your code are displayed in colors that correspond with different elements such as properties, tags, attributes, and all the rest. This helps make your code visually easier to scan and see where you made small errors such as forgetting to close a tag.
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) – This is a screen that’s human-readable and that’s straightforward to navigate as well as accomplish tasks. It can include buttons, a menu, and other similar elements instead of just text and the option to enter a text command.
- Other possible features – Many IDEs develop and include new features that other IDEs may not offer.
How to Find the Right IDE for You
When deciding on an IDE that you want to use, it’s essential that you first determine what you need out of it. This is so because each IDE can differ between the features that are offered.
That also means your favorite IDE may differ from that of your peers so just pick the one that works for you at the end of the day.
Features You May Need in Your Pick for Best IDE
Here’s a short list of the possible features you may need outside of the typical components of an IDE as listed earlier:
- Programming language support – The IDE you choose should support the code languages you need for your projects.
- Customizable text editors – Some IDEs offer the ability to edit the GUI.
- Unit testing – This is the option of being able to add mock objects to sections of your code so it can be tested straight away without having to complete that section first.
- Source code library – Some IDEs have resources that include scripts and source code you can use.
- Error diagnostics and reports – If you need errors to be detected and listed for you, then this is a feature to consider in your pick for best IDE web development projects need.
- Code completion – Many IDEs can intelligently finish your code for you. For example, an IDE can detect when you’re ready to close a tag and will close it for you to save you time.
- Integrations and plugins – with GitHub and Apache’s Subversion
- Code search – You can search through your code quickly for whatever element you want.
- Hierarchy diagrams – Your files can be set up and displayed in a hierarchy for larger projects containing many files and scripts that all work together in a specific way. Displaying a hierarchy diagram can help you see the order in which files are executed as well as which files and scripts are related to each other.
- Model-driven development (MDD) – This is a process where a developer creates a model of what they want to code, then the IDE helps you code it. After that, the IDE automates debugging and testing to some degree so it’s easier for you to do some more debugging and testing on your own.
Be sure to make note of what features you need when you check out the best IDE for web development below.
The 10 Best IDE for Web Development
This list focuses on the most popular, powerful, feature-rich, and as a result, the best IDE options.
1. Visual Studio
The Visual Studio IDE is one of the most popular and best IDE web development options available. It uses AI to learn from your edits as you code so it can finish your sentences – er, lines of code.
On top of that, you can collaborate with your team, live, when you’re editing and debugging. You can also share servers, terminals, and comments.
Visual Studio supports web, mobile, app, and game development, ASP.NET, Python, Node.js, C++, Unity as well as support for Azure.
You can also create development environments in the cloud and a lot more while being available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, web, and in the cloud.
2. IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA is certainly one of the best IDE for Java. It focuses on features to help you be as productive as possible without cluttering up the GUI.
It indexes your code to give you relevant suggestions, and to complete your code for you. IntelliJ IDEA also automates several tasks that would otherwise be annoyingly repetitive.
It’s all that and a bag of chips, er, computer chips because it has an amazing out-of-the-box experience and doesn’t just have to be used for Java.
While it’s focused on it, it’s still great for SQL, JPQL, HTML, JavaScript, and other languages including when you inject a language into a string literal. You still get all the benefits of this IDE.
3. Aptana Studio 3
Aptana Studio 3 is one of the best IDE web development options available and it’s also open source.
You can customize the GUI, it has a built-in terminal, Git integration, a debugger as well as a deployment wizard. Autocomplete is also available for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
4. PyCharm
PyCharm is primarily one of the best IDE for Python, but the premium version also supports other languages for web development.
It checks for errors as you code and also has autocomplete. It has a sleek, minimal GUI for uncluttered development, and also checks the quality of your code to make sure it’s up to snuff.
5. PhpStorm
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PhpStorm is another option to consider for one of the best IDE for web development. It’s focused on PHP, but front-end languages are also fully supported including HTML 5, CSS, Sass, Less, JavaScript, and more.
It also includes support for major software to create websites such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, Laravek, and others.
It’s easy to navigate, has code autocomplete, debugging and testing tools as well as quick (and safe) refactoring.
6. WebStorm
WebStorm is on the list as one of the best IDE for web development because it’s excellent for JavaScript. It includes not only code autocompletion and live error-detection, but it also has a debugger, unit testing, and many integrations such as Git, GitHub, Mercurial, and others.
It loads quickly on startup and can automate many tedious tasks for increased productivity.
7. NetBeans
You can’t have a list of the best IDE for web development without including NetBeans. It’s among one of the most popular options for the best IDE because it’s a no-nonsense software for Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML 5, CSS, and more.
It also helps you create bug-free websites by highlighting code not just syntactically, but also semantically. It also has a lot of powerful refactoring tools while being open source.
8. Eclipse
This article also wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Eclipse. It’s an open-source and community-driven IDE for Javascript, mainly, but there are tools, for example, HTML, CSS.
Its contributors include Google, Netflix, Facebook, GE, and Walmart. So, you can be sure you’re getting one of the best IDE for web development.
9. RubyMine
RubyMine is focused on Ruby and Ruby on Rails, but it’s also tailored for JavaScript, CSS, Sass, Less, and more. It has syntax and error-highlighting, code completion, an advanced search for any class, file, or symbol, and fast navigation, to name just a few of the features.
10. Komodo IDE
Komodo IDE is one of the best IDE for web development, but it’s a premium option. It has a lot of features including autocomplete, visual debugger, unit testing, add-ons, team collaboration, project management tools, and more.
It supports Git, Mercurial, Subversion, CVS, Perforce, and Bazaar as well as all programming languages.
Which is the Best IDE for Web Development?
As mentioned earlier, when you want to know which is the best IDE for web development, it all comes down to your specific needs. Everyone’s needs are different for their projects. Your pick for the best IDE may not be the same as one of your colleagues.
That’s okay. Sometimes, the smallest feature makes a world of difference.
Best IDE Alternatives
If you’re looking at the list of features IDEs typically have and you’re thinking, “That’s just too much for me,” there are other options available.
Not only are there other IDEs out there, but there are also text editors that have some features in common with IDEs that are popular, quite powerful, and that you may find sufficient for your needs.
Here’s a short-list of the best IDE alternatives to check out:
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In your opinion, which is the best IDE for web development? What’s your pick for the best IDE for your specific needs? Still asking yourself, “What is an IDE?” Share your experience in the comments below.