Setting Up A Development Environment On Macos

10 Nov 2019 - Vincent

A guide covering the basics of setting up a development environment on macOS.

Xcode

Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS containing a suite of software development tools developed by Apple.

Download and install Xcode from the App Store or from Apple’s website.

Command Line Tools

The Command Line Tools package gives Mac terminal users many commonly used tools, utilities, and compilers, including make, GCC, clang, git, cpp and many other useful commands that are usually found in default linux installations.

Install Command Line Tools through terminal:

xcode-select --install

Homebrew

Homebrew is a free and open-source software package management system that simplifies the installation of software on Apple’s macOS operating system and Linux.

Install Homebrew through terminal (Homebrew depends on Apple’s Xcode package: Command Line Tools):

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

From: https://brew.sh

To confirm Homebrew installed correctly:

brew doctor

Python

brew install python

Alias

If you run these commands you’ll see that the command “python” points to the default macOS version of Python. You shouldn’t use it to develop Python projects.

python -V
which python

Python 2.7.16
/usr/bin/python

One could type python3 instead of python to use the Homebrew installed Python version. A lazier option is use aliases.

We want to point an alias to the copy of Python that Homebrew manages. To find the path to where Homebrew installed Python run this following command:

brew info python

To create the alias:

alias python=/usr/local/bin/python3

To confirm alias works:

python -V
which python

Python 3.7.5
python: aliased to /usr/local/bin/python3

Anaconda

Find the Anaconda bin folder.

/Users/vincent/opt/anaconda3/bin

export PATH="/Users/vincent/opt/anaconda3/bin:$PATH"

Now you should be able to use conda command.

Java

Download the last JDK (Java Development Kit).

Scala

Install Scala either by installing an IDE such as IntelliJ, or sbt, Scala’s build tool.

Make sure Java is installed.

brew update
brew install sbt

More info: https://www.scala-lang.org/download/

ScalaFX

Follow these instructions: http://www.scalafx.org/docs/quickstart/

My advice is to clone the Hello World ScalaFX project (especially for the build.sbt file):

https://github.com/scalafx/scalafx-hello-world

R

  1. Go to: https://www.r-project.org
  2. Click on the “download R” link
  3. Select a mirror site (ex: USA https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu)
  4. Click on the “Download R for (Mac) OS X” link
  5. Click on the .pkg file under Latest release section
  6. Install R

RStudio

Follow these instructions: https://rstudio.com/

Bonus

Night Shift

https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/HT207513

Alternative: F.lux

Gimp

Gimp

Inkscape

Inkscape

Latex

  1. Go to: https://www.latex-project.org
  2. Click on “get” link
  3. Click on “MacTeX” link under Max OS