Setting up a Mac for programmers [closed]

Answer 1

Install Windows using Boot Camp. You can then dual boot between OSX and Windows, use windows as normal for MS development, and OSX for your other non MS stuff.

Answer 2

I'd highly recommend MacPorts - you can quickly and easily install new packages with a simple

sudo port install package-name

Instead of having to deal with browsing a website to find the distribution, download a disk image, and run an installer, or downloading a tarball and untarring it, running a configure script, and running make, etc.

Answer 3

1. Install the latest version of Xcode (you will need this even if your not developing macintosh/iphone applications)
2. Install macports for most of your OSS tools (you'll need Xcode first)
3. To run tools that aren't OSS or are windows only install virtualbox I know there are alernatives (VM fusion is highly rated) but virtual box is free
4. Install an IDE if you do not want to use Xcode as your IDE (for example eclipse and netbeans)

Finally if you have some cash

1. Upgrade the ram if required (sw developers love ram especially if you are running a vm :) )
2. A second display, I can't imagine developing with less than two displays

Answer 4

Make sure you install Developer Tools (XCode) from your OS disc (and don't try and install GNU version over the top of it :P).

You've already done everything I have, except I'm using Virtual Box instead of VMWare.

Answer 5

My choice for a great all-around text editor would be TextWrangler.

Answer 6

Invest in a good text editor. See the following questions:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/100084/what-is-a-good-gui-text-editor-for-the-mac Mac text/code editor

And by 'invest' I mean both money and/or learning time.

XCode is a good enough editor for Objective-C, but I wouldn't use it as my primary editor for everything.

(MacVim is my choice)