• Best laptop for programming in 2020: top picks for coders, developers and sysadmins. The MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020)’s entry-level model may miss out on some of the lineup’s new toys.
• VMware Fusion: Powerfully Simple Virtual Machines for Mac. VMware Fusion Pro and VMware Fusion Player Desktop Hypervisors give Mac users the power to run Windows on Mac along with hundreds of other operating systems, containers or Kubernetes clusters, side by side with Mac applications, without rebooting.Fusion products are simple enough for home users and powerful enough for IT.
• Show the Developer tab in a Word document so you can write macros or add content controls, including check boxes, text boxes, and combo boxes. By default, the Developer tab is not displayed.

Ex-Google tech lead Patrick Shyu reviews Mac versus PC for programmers and software developers. For the tech field, is there a clear choice on which laptop/c. The Mac Pro will start at $5999, this autumn. (Expect that to be £5999). And the pro display will start at $4999, with an anti-glare version for $5999, and will also be available this autumn.

A guide to setting up an Apple Mac for DevOps and software development. This is current for macOS 10.14 (Mojave).

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.

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:

1. Download the version of the JDK that you need from AdoptOpenJDK
2. Unzip the download
3. Copy the JDK directory to /usr/local/lib
4. 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:

1. Download the latest version of Maven
2. Unzip the download
3. Copy the Maven directory to /usr/local/lib/
4. 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.

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.

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

• 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.

How fast does your MacBook need to be to comfortably code iOS apps with Xcode? Is a MacBook Pro from 2-3 years ago good enough to learn Swift programming? Let’s find out!

Here’s what we’ll get into:

• The minimum/recommended system requirements for Xcode 11
• Why you need – or don’t need – a fancy $3.000 MacBook Pro
• Which second-hand Macs can run Xcode OK, and how you can find out

I’ve answered a lot of “Is my MacBook good enough for iOS development and/or Xcode?”-type questions on Quora. A few of the most popular models include:

• The 3rd- and 4th-gen MacBook Pro, with 2.4+ GHz Intel Core i5, i7, i9 CPUs
• The 2nd-gen MacBook Air, with the 1.4+ GHz Intel Core i5 CPUs
• The 4th-generation iMac, with the 2.7+ GHz Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs

These models aren’t the latest, that’s for sure. Are they good enough to code iOS apps? And what about learning how to code? We’ll find out in this article.

My Almost-Unbreakable 2013 MacBook Air

Since 2009 I’ve coded more than 50 apps for iOS, Android and the mobile web. Most of those apps, including all apps I’ve created between 2013 and 2018, were built on a 13″ MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM and a 1.3 GHz Intel i5 CPU.

My first MacBook was the gorgeous, then-new MacBook White unibody (2009), which I traded in for a faster but heavier MacBook Pro (2011), which I traded in for that nimble workhorse, the mighty MacBook Air (2013). In 2018 I upgraded to a tricked out 13″ MacBook Pro, with much better specs.

Frankly, that MacBook Air from 2013 felt more sturdy and capable than my current MacBook Pro. After 5 years of daily intenstive use, the MacBook Air’s battery is only through 50% of its max. cycle count. It’s still going strong after 7 hours on battery power.

In 2014, my trusty MacBook Air broke down on a beach in Thailand, 3 hours before a client deadline, with the next Apple Store 500 kilometer away. It turned out OK, of course. Guess what? My current MacBook Pro from 2018, its keyboard doesn’t even work OK, I’ve had sound recording glitches, and occasionally the T2 causes a kernel panic. Like many of us, I wish we had 2013-2015 MacBook Air’s and Pro’s with today’s specs. Oh, well…

Learn how to build iOS apps

Get started with iOS 14 and Swift 5

Sign up for my iOS development course, and learn how to build great iOS 14 apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 12.

That 100 Mhz i486 PC I Learned to Code With

When I was about 11 years old I taught myself to code in BASIC, on a 100 Mhz i486 PC that was given to me by friends. It had a luxurious 16 MB of RAM, initially only ran MS-DOS, and later ran Windows 3.1 and ’95.

A next upgrade came as a 400 Mhz AMD desktop, given again by friends, on which I ran a local EasyPHP webserver that I used to learn web development with PHP, MySQL and HTML/CSS. I coded a mod for Wolfenstein 3D on that machine, too.

We had no broadband internet at home back then, so I would download and print out coding tutorials at school. At the one library computer that had internet access, and I completed the tutorials at home. The source codes of turn-based web games, JavaScript tidbits and HTML page snippets were carried around on a 3.5″ floppy disk.

Later, when I started coding professionally around age 17, I finally bought my first laptop. My own! I still remember how happy I was. I got my first gig as a freelance coder: creating a PHP script that would aggregate RSS feeds, for which I earned about a hundred bucks. Those were the days!

Xcode, iOS, Swift and The MacBook Pro

The world is different today. Xcode simply doesn’t run on an i486 PC, and you can’t save your app’s source code on a 1.44 MB floppy disk anymore. Your Mac probably doesn’t have a CD drive, and you store your Swift code in a cloud-based Git repository somewhere.

Mac Pro For Developer Windows 10

Make no mistake: owning a MacBook is a luxury. Not because learning to code was harder 15 years ago, and not because computers were slower back then. It’s because kids these days learn Python programming on a $25 Raspberry Pi.

I recently had a conversation with a young aspiring coder, who complained he had no access to “decent” coding tutorials and mentoring, despite owning a MacBook Pro and having access to the internet. Among other things, I wrote the following:

You’re competing with a world of people that are smarter than you, and have better resources. You’re also competing against coders that have had it worse than you. They didn’t win despite adversity, but because of it. Do you give up? NO! You work harder. It’s the only thing you can do: work harder than the next person. When their conviction is wavering, you dig in your heels, you keep going, you persevere, and you’ll win.

Winning in this sense isn’t like winning a race, of course. You’re not competing with anyone else; you’re only really up against yourself. If you want to learn how to code, don’t dawdle over choosing a $3.000 or a $2.900 laptop. If anything, it’ll keep you from developing the grit you need to learn coding.

Great ideas can change the world, but only if they’re accompanied by deliberate action. Likewise, simply complaining about adversity isn’t going to create opportunities for growth – unless you take action. I leapfrogged my way from one hand-me-down computer to the next. I’m not saying you should too, but I do want to underscore how it helped me develop character.

If you want to learn how to code, welcome adversity. Be excellent because of it, or despite it, and never give up. Start coding today! Don’t wait until you’ve got all your ducks in a row.

Which MacBook is Fast Enough for Xcode 11?

The recommended system specs to run Xcode 11 are:

• A Mac with macOS Catalina (10.15.2) for Xcode 11.5 or macOS Mojave (10.14.4) for Xcode 11.0 (see alternatives for PC here)
• At least an Intel i5- or i7-equivalent CPU, so about 2.0 GHz should be enough
• At least 8 GB of RAM, but 16 GB lets you run more apps at the same time
• At least 256 GB disk storage, although 512 GB is more comfortable
• You’ll need about 8 GB of disk space, but Xcode’s intermediate files can take up to 10-30 GB of extra disk space

Looking for a second-hand Mac? The following models should be fast enough for Xcode, but YMMV!

• 4th-generation MacBook Pro (2016)
• 3rd-generation Mac Mini (2014)
• 2nd-generation MacBook Air (2017)
• 5th-generation iMac (2015)

When you’re looking for a Mac or MacBook to purchase, make sure it runs the latest version of macOS. Xcode versions you can run are tied to macOS versions your hardware runs, and iOS versions you can build for are tied to Xcode versions. See how that works? This is especially true for SwiftUI, which is iOS 13.0 and up only. Make sure you can run the latest!

Pro tip: You can often find the latest macOS version a device model supports on their Wikipedia page (see above links, scroll down to Supported macOS releases). You can then cross-reference that with Xcode’s minimum OS requirements (see here, scroll to min macOS to run), and see which iOS versions you’ll be able to run.

Further Reading

Awesome! We’ve discussed what you need to run Xcode on your Mac. You might not need as much as you think you do. Likewise, it’s smart to invest in a future-proof development machine.

Whatever you do, don’t ever think you need an expensive computer to learn how to code. Maybe the one thing you really want to invest in is frustration tolerance. You can make do, without the luxury of a MacBook Pro. A hand-me-down i486 is enough. Or… is it?

Mac Pro For Developer Software

Want to learn more? Check out these resources:

Learn how to build iOS apps

Get started with iOS 14 and Swift 5

Mac Os Developer Beta

Sign up for my iOS development course, and learn how to build great iOS 14 apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 12.