As you begin developing for Mac OS X, you'll face major changes, lots of difficult decisions, and also some terrific opportunities. The Mac OS X Developer's Guide aims to do more than help you make the transition painlessly: It's dedicated to helping you capitalize on these opportunities and positively thrive in this new environment. Developed between 1997 and 2001 after Apple's purchase of NeXT, Mac OS X brought an entirely new architecture based on NeXTSTEP, a Unix system, that eliminated many of the technical challenges that the classic Mac OS faced. The current macOS is preinstalled with every Mac and is updated annually.
Using your iPhone development background, create Mac apps with Cocoa using the latest Swift 3 and Xcode 8 OS X Rating: 4.4 out of 5 4.4 (828 ratings) 5,707 students. Homebrew, iTerm2, and Visual Studio Code are probably your best bets out of the 31 options considered. 'Quick access to a large repository of open source software' is the primary reason people pick Homebrew over the competition. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision.
In this post, I have put together a ultimate web development toolkit for Mac OS X. These tools will help to set up web development toolkit for your Mac OS X. Some of the tools I mentioned here can be use in MS Windows as well.
Hopefully these lists could help introduce you to the right web development tools, particularly for those of you who are just getting started. When you setup your development environment, don’t forget to install these useful tools. This post will be updated continuously to introduce new and useful tools for web development.
Web Browsers
Safari web browser already installed on your Mac OS X. My preferred browser for web development is Google Chrome browser. Also Firefox web browser also comes with handy tool kit. BrowserStack is a pretty useful tool to test in cross browser platforms.
Chrome web browser is fast, secure, and free web browser built for the modern web. The Chrome Developer Tools, are a set of rich web authoring and debugging tools built into Google Chrome browser. The DevTools provide web developers deep access into the internals of the browser and their web application.
Firefox is created by a global non-profit developer team dedicated to putting individuals in control online. Firefox web browser is ready for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS platforms today.
BrowserStack is a testing platform for testing your website for cross browser compatibility on real browsers. BrowserStack having large number of devices added for instant access to multiple desktop and mobile browsers.
Text Editors / Source Editors
Atom Atom is a free and open-source text and source code editor for MacOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js. Atom also embedded Git Control, developed by GitHub. Most of the extending packages have free software licenses and are community-built and maintained.
Sublime Text is a advanced text editor for code, markup and prose. It has slick user interface and amazing performance.
Sublime Text Plugins
Sublime Text package manager that makes it exceedingly simple to find, install and keep packages up-to date. You can manage all the Sublime Text plugins, once you install this plugin on your Sublime text,
Phpstorm is a advanced PHP IDE for working with Symfony, Drupal, WordPress, Zend Framework, Laravel, Magento, Joomla, CakePHP, Yii, and many other PHP based frameworks.
Phpstorm Plugins
You can enhance the default Phpstorm capabilities by installing plugins.
Magicento is a PhpStorm plugin for Magento developers. Magicgento includes, navigate factories and template paths, autocomplete for factories, xml files and class names, documentation for xml nodes, evaluation of PHP code inside Magento environment.
File Sharing
Dropbox keeps your files and your team in sync. Anything you save in Dropbox can be easily accessed from all of your devices.
Google Drive is a secure cloud storage and file backup. You can access your files anywhere.
Password Management
1password is an online password manager and form filler that makes web browsing easier and more secure. Once you install their app, you can use this password manager for your all the cross devices.
Lastpass is a another online password manager and form filler that makes web browsing easier and more secure. If you have installed Lastpass, you don’t need to remember multiple passwords. Only you need to remember master password and Lastpass will help you to manage other online accounts passwords for you.
Custom Terminal
Iterm2 is a alternative for Mac OS X default terminal. Developers spending a lot of time in the terminal, so making sure they have the advanced toolkit for the development. ITerm2 is the one of the most popular terminal app for the Mac OS X.
Xcode
Xcode command line tools needs to install before Homebrew package manager for Mac OS. You can use Xcode’s mobile simulator for most of the Apple products. You can test your web application in your local environment using these tools.
Homebrew
HomeBrew is a package manager for macOS. This package manager simplifies the installation of software packages on Apple’s Mac OS X. Homebrew installs packages to it’s own directory and then symlinks it’s files into /usr/local.
Virtual Box
Virtualbox need to install if you need to have light weight portable development environments like Docker or Vagrant on your Mac.
Development Environments
Vagrant enables users to create and configure lightweight, reproducible, and portable development environments.
Docker is an open platform for developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run distributed applications, whether on laptops, data center VMs, or the cloud.
Database Management Application
Sequel Pro is a fast, easy-to-use Mac database management application for working with MySQL & MariaDB databases.
Sequel Pro is free and open source software, licensed under MIT.
Team Communication
Slack is team communication software. Slack comes with the rich tools you use come together to get things done.
Creative collaboration
Invisionapp is the digital product design platform powering best user experiences when you need to bring your team together to collaborate on a project. Invisionapp turn to freehand to sketch, draw, wireframe, share feedback, present designs, and so much more features in real time.
Digital Design
Sketch is a design toolkit built to help you create your best work from your earliest ideas, through to final artwork. You can share your files within the Invisionapp for team collaboration. Also web developer can experience huge benefit by accessing your designs through Invisionapp. For example developers can inspect elements on your design without downloading original Sketch files.
Version Controlling
Git
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance.
Refer this article to upgrade default Git version already installed on your Mac OS X.
GIT Clients
Tower
Tower is light weight powerful app app for version control with Git.
Source Tree
Sourcetree simplifies how you interact with your Git repositories so you can focus on coding. Visualize and manage your repositories through Sourcetree’s simple Git GUI.
I will add more useful tools to this web development toolkit in the future.
Would you like to develop software for Mac OS X or iOS? While it’s easy to develop apps for Linux and Windows on any platform, developing software for Mac requires a toolset called XCode, designed and built by Apple specifically for Mac OS X.
XCode is an incredibly powerful piece of software. Not only is it a complete toolset for developing Mac apps; it’s also an interface builder, testing application, and asset management toolkit.
In this simple guide, you’ll learn how to use XCode on Windows – something that’s normally impossible. All you’ll need is a Windows PC, a copy of Mac OS X, an Apple account, and an Internet connection.
Is this your first time using XCode? Learn how to program software for Mac and iOS with our 1 Hour XCode Introduction.
Installing a virtual PC application with Mac OS X
Since XCode only runs on Mac OS X, you’ll need to be able to simulate an installation of Mac OS X on Windows. This is surprisingly easy to do with virtualization software like VMWare or open source alternative VirtualBox.
For the purpose of this guide, we’ll be using VirtualBox. If you use a different virtual computer application, the process is much the same. Since VirtualBox is open source and free to use, it’s worth downloading it if you don’t already have a copy installed.
Have you never used VirtualBox before? Learn how to use this powerful virtual PC application by enrolling in our course, QuickStart! – Virtual Box. In addition to Mac OS X, VirtualBox can also be used to run Linux and other operating systems.
Running a virtual computer is quite a demanding process, and you’ll need to have a fairly powerful PC for it to operate successfully. You’ll also need a PC with hardware similar to that of a standard, Apple-constructed iMac, MacBook, or Mac Pro.
To successfully emulate a Mac using a Windows PC, you’ll need the following:
- A Dual Core Intel processor
- At least 2GB of RAM (4GB+ recommended)
- Hardware Virtualization
Is your PC too weak to emulate a Mac properly? Learn how to build a powerful PC for gaming, app development, and more with our Learn How to Build a Computer course.
You’ll also need an installation disc for Mac OS X. You can purchase this online from the Apple Store or, if you already own a MacBook, iMac, or Mac Pro, you can use the install disc you received with your computer.
Once you’ve installed VirtualBox, open the application and choose to install Mac OS X Server 64 Bit. Provide the virtual computer with at least 2GB of RAM (if you have more than 8GB of RAM, choose 4GB+) and more than 30GB of hard disk space.
VirtualBox will automatically configure the operating system, but you’ll still need to make a few changes manually. Open the Settings menu and carry out the following changes:
- On the System tab, uncheck Enable EFI
- On the Processor tab, select at least two CPUs
- On the Display tab, increase the video memory to at least 128MB
Installing Mac OS X and booting your virtual machine
Finally, you’ll need to download a Hackboot boot loader to install OS X. You can find a Hackboot install file by searching Google – in this case, you’ll need Hackboot 1 and Hackboot 2, as well as your OS X disc, to complete the installation.
Select your Hackboot 1 disc image, and then start the virtual machine. Your virtual machine will boot, and you’ll see an OS X screen. Using the menu at the bottom of the screen, launch the disc drive that contains your OS X installation disc.
From here, you’ll need to follow the installation instructions for Mac OS X. It takes several minutes to install the operating system. Once the process is finished, you’ll need to switch off your virtual machine and change your boot disc.
Reopen VirtualBox and, leaving all of your other settings the same, switch your boot disc from Hackboot 1 to Hackboot 2. You’ll boot into a screen with two icons. Select Mac OS X and press Enter to initiate the Mac OS X boot sequence.
During the Mac OS X configuration sequence, you’ll need to enter your Apple ID. This is necessary for downloading the XCode toolset later, so make sure you enter a valid Apple account when you configure your operating system.
Installing XCode on your Mac OS X virtual machine
Once you’ve configured your Mac OS X virtual machine, installing XCode is relatively easy. Before you install XCode, you’ll want to configure your virtual machine to your preferred resolution and settings using the System Preferences menu.
Is this your first time using Mac OS X? If you’re a PC user, finding your way around in the new interface can be a challenge. Enroll in Using Mac OS X for Windows Users to learn the basics of the OS X interface, from the Dock to features like Spotlight.
From here, installing XCode is simple. Open the App Store application from the dock and type XCode into the search bar. You might need to reenter your account details, or enter them for the first time if you didn’t do so during Mac OS X configuration.
Navigate to the XCode app and click Install Now to download it. If you don’t have an Apple account, you’ll need to create one in order to download the XCode toolset for your virtual machine.
XCode is quite a large application, and downloading it could take anywhere from a minute to several hours, depending on your Internet connection speed. Once your download is finished, open Applications and click XCode to launch the installer.
Once the installation process is complete, you’ll be able to use XCode within your virtual machine to program apps for Mac OS or iOS. You can also download other Mac apps to use on your virtual machine, although they may not run smoothly.
Mac Os Order
Developing iOS Apps and more using XCode
Mac Os X Download
XCode is an incredibly powerful toolkit for app development. It’s also refreshingly easy to use, especially for developers accustomed to cumbersome and complicated programming software for PC.
Learn more about how to use XCode by reading our iOS programming tutorial. It’s a great overview of the XCode interface, the programming characteristics of iOS, and much more.