Macbook Pro Net Development

May 25, 2020 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. 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 latest point release. After all of the updates have been applied, restart the computer.

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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.

The MacBook is a machine of compromises. Many believe it has a processor too slow—and a screen too small—for the demands of serious work. When people find out I own a MacBook, they all ask the same thing: is it any good for real work?

The short answer is yes, the longer answer is… well, the rest of this article. But before we go any further, let’s address some of the common slights levied against the MacBook:

Not enough power. The Macbook is the least powerful machine in the current Mac line-up. In fact, you’d have to go back a few years to find an Apple laptop of comparable speed. However, processing speed is less important than you think for development. Sure, the Swift compiler can take its time, but if you compare compile time on an average-sized project between the MacBook and a contemporary Apple laptop, you’ll find the difference measurable in seconds. Seconds.

The truth is, most modern hardware is perfectly well equipped for development — especially when paired with current solid state storage. It has been for a while. She’s a fast enough ship.

The keyboard is terrible. The keyboard on the MacBook is probably the most divisive hardware decision Apple has made this year. Some love it, others hate it. To be honest, I’m ambivalent after using it for a few months. I recommend you try it in a store before buying it. It’s a subjective decision, but here are a few facts regarding the keyboard:

1. Key travel is significantly reduced (boo)
2. Key size is noticeably larger (yay)
3. Key wiggle has been eliminated (yay)
4. The keys are slightly sculpted, instead of completely flat (yay)
5. San Francisco (double yay)

I would adore this keyboard if key travel was doubled. Just sayin’ Apple…

Screen is too small. The MacBook is meant to be a small computer and there is no design magic that can increase the size of the screen without also increasing the overall size. If you’re used to a MacBook Air 11” screen like me, this screen will feel like a revelation, especially since the MacBook is smaller! But there are many who feel they can’t work on a screen that small. It took me a few months to get used to diminished screen real estate and bend the tools to a useful state. A lot of these tips come from my earlier experience working on an 11” MacBook Air.

However, now that I have the tools working in the smaller screen, it allows me to take advantage of the MacBook’s smaller size and diminished weight for creative work while on the go.

The MacBook offers a smaller overall package and further weight loss over the already small MacBook Air. I love the MacBook and I want you to love it too. Let’s dig into how I learned to work with a smaller screen and became effective doing creative work on the MacBook.

Initial Setup

As I mentioned earlier, it’s the MacBook’s lack of screen real estate that poses the greatest challenge for development and design work. First I recommend you increase display resolution to the MoreSpace level in Display panel of System Preferences:

This gives you a canvas with a logical resolution of 1440x900 which is the same as the default size on a 15” MacBook Pro. Chances are you’re already accustomed to using Xcode with this resolution in the recent past.

You’ve probably already noticed I’m running the OS X 10.11 betas based on the screenshot above. While this article applies equally to users running OS X 10.10 “Yosemite”, you will notice a dramatic increase in UI performance once you put OS X 10.11 on your MacBook. Yes, it’s a beta — but we’re all developers, right?

Basic Principles

You want to consider a few basic principles when trying to reclaim screen real estate. A lot of applications default to settings that can be tweaked to increase screen real estate.

1. Try to eliminate, collapse, or minimize toolbars and sidebars. Use keyboard shortcuts, when possible.

2. Consider smaller font sizes for text windows. I use Inconsolata at 14pt in my Terminal and at 13pt in my Xcode windows. Since it's hinted for print, it looks great on the retina screen of the Macbook.

   In BBEdit (my editor of choice) I use Consolas for BBedit at 12pt, which gives me 120 lines of text while barely taking half of the horizontal screen real estate of the MacBook.

3. Organize your tasks into Spaces. You'll find the screen less crowded if you break your work out into task-specific desktops. I disable Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use so my spatial map of where tasks live doesn't change, plus I enable When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application so a quick command-tab takes me to the relavent space if I forget where I put the application.

If you really want to maximize screen real estate, hide your Dock and Menu Bar (requires OS X 10.11 beta). It sounds drastic, but I recommend trying it and seeing if you can get used to it. It’s a great way to force you to learn the keyboard shortcuts for each app. Between the spotlight launcher, the command-tab application switcher, and keyboard shortcuts, you don’t need any further UI crutches.

Setting Up for Xcode

Xcode has a lot of moving parts and pieces, so it’s easy to think you can’t reduce the amount of UI cruft enough to make it useful on a 12” screen — but you’d be wrong. To get the needed real estate down to something reasonable, you first need to break down each task and figure out which components are needed from Xcode to complete that task. Whether it’s creating a new class, debugging, working inside of a storyboard, running tests, or analyzing your code with Instruments, there are panels and editors you need open. The trick to working with a MacBook is to close them when you don’t need them.

Here are a few tricks to keep things trim.

Hide everything. There are many panels open when you start Xcode with a standard install. There are Navigators which you can toggle with the shortcut ⌘0, Utilities which you can toggle by adding option ⌥⌘0, and the Debug Area which you can toggle with ⇧⌘Y. Using these keyboard shortcuts you can cut down on the weight of your Xcode window dramatically.

Also note that each navigator and utility panel is numbered, so ⌘1 will open the ProjectNavigator and likewise ⌥⌘2 will open the QuickHelpInspector. If either side is hidden, typing the shortcut for that navigator or utility will show the appropriate panel.

Navigating with the Keyboard. With everything hidden, you can get your Xcode window down to a single editor. But what about when you want to navigate around your project? Opening and hiding panels just to click on files is not an ideal solution — fortunately the designers of Xcode provided some interesting alternatives.

First, there is the navigation bar across the top of the file. You can click into any part of the bar to navigate through your entire project… or you could use the keyboard shortcuts. ⌃2 lets you jump to recent files in your history, while ⌃5 shows you other files in the current group, and ⌃6 lets you navigate within the open file. If you want to open a file in the AssistantEditor, just add option (either ⌥⏎ or ⌥-click).

If you know the file you need to open, ⇧⌘O will open a dialog that works similar to Spotlight. Simply type in the name of the file (or class) you want to open, then hit return. Like above, adding option ⌥⏎ will open the file in the assistant editor. This is perfect for checking the method signature for an API you’re calling without leaving the editor, or opening a new window.

Setup Behaviors. Opening and closing panels can become tedious when context switching, e.g., switching from writing code to debugging an unexpected side effect. Since development is full of these context switches, I created a series of keyboard shortcuts for several window configurations using Behaviors. You can create your own by going to the Behaviors in Xcode preferences. Below I list the four I use regularly:

• Side by Side (⌃⌘,): This is my code writing workhorse. I hide navigator, debugger, utilities, and the toolbar, plus I open the AssistantEditor. Full-screen on the MacBook I get two code windows side-by-side (each 80 columns wide in my preferred 13pt Inconsolata).

• Standard (⌃⌘.): When you’re creating new files, it’s easiest to have the ProjectNavigator open. This will also switch to the StandardEditor, plus hide the debugger, and utilities. This is perfect when you have the simulator peaking behind it and need to switch quickly to it.

• Storyboard (⌃⌘/): Storyboards are screen real estate hogs, so I hide everything but the utilities and StandardEditor. Full screen there is enough space to add constraints to a view, but setting outlets with the AssistantEditor won’t yield a full-size code window. Fortunately you typically set them once and move on, so it isn’t terrible.

• Everything (⌃⌘;): This does what it says on the tin. It opens the navigator, debugger, utilities, and un-hides the toolbar if it was hidden. I don’t use this view often on my MacBook, but it comes in real handy on my desktop Macs. This is most useful when you’re learning where everything is, and can’t always remember. It’s a good reset, too, if someone accidentally committed their .xcuserstate into the repo.

Setting Up for Photoshop

Photoshop also presents its own assortment of UI panels, and like Xcode, they don’t need to be on screen for most tasks. Getting started with Photoshop, I hid all but the most necessary panels, leaving: Tools, Options, History, and Layers.

Above you can see Options laid across the top horizontally, with the Tools panel on the left with History stacked on top of the Layers palette on the right. I also take Photoshop full screen typing F twice to switch to the full screen mode. This removes several status bars that I find unnecessary clutter.

Zooming In & Out. With the smaller screen, it can be difficult to visualize a large file, like a Mac or iPad screen comp without zooming in to view details or zooming out to see the big picture. To quickly bounce between a 1-to-1 pixel view and a view fit to the screen bounds, you can use the shortcut ⌘1 for 100% and ⌘0 to fit the zoom level to the current screen size. You can zoom in beyond 100% with ⌘+ and zoom out with ⌘-.

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You can also use the Zoom Tool (Z) to draw a box you want to zoom into. There’s also the Hand tool that can be activated by holding down the spacebar and dragging the canvas to the desired position.

Sometimes the keyboard commands are a little too obtuse or perhaps you just want to know the current zoom level. For this, I group the Navigator palette with the History palette. Equally compact as before, but with a view that provides the current zoom percentage and a slider to alter the current zoom level.

Take Advantage of Tools. The only way the above setup could be more compact is by hiding the Tool palette. To do that you would need to know all of the single-letter keyboard shortcuts. Additionally, you would have to rely on the cursors to determine which mode you are in.

Macbook Pro Net Development Software

Personally, I try to strike a pragmatic balance so I keep the Tool palette visible. I use it to know which tool is selected, but still rely on their keyboard shortcuts to switch between them:

• Move Tool (V): This is my visual reset, since it’s the easiest way to move and resize layers, but also to locate layers by their bounding box. I instinctively hit V every time I open a new .psd. I also turn on the Show Transform Controls option which places a selection cage over the currently selected layer.

• Marquee Tool (M): Another reset tool. Since I show transform controls, I can’t get a preview of the current composition when the Move Tool is selected. To quickly toggle a preview, I’ll select this tool to remove decoration from the currently selected layer. I often type M followed closely by ⌘0 to review the entire comp.

• Type Tool (T): Beyond inserting new text layers, this tool presents options for the font including size, family, font-smoothing, and alignment. When a type layer is selected, switching to this tool puts those options in the Option bar along the top. This avoids the need to show the Characters palette.

Use Workspaces. Obviously this is the minimally viable setup for using Photoshop in a constrained space. If you connect a larger monitor and would like more panels open, Workspaces can help you quickly switch between different canvas configurations.

To setup a new workspace, simply hide and un-hide the panels you want to see, then arrange them on screen and select NewWorkspace from the menu above.

Don’t Forget…

In general the MacBook’s single port is a non-issue. Battery life is so consistently long, it feels foreign when you have to plug it in. However, the new USB-C does pose a dilemma for mobile developers: you need an adaptor to connect your iOS devices. That’s a bummer, having yet another adaptor to carry in your bag. I decided to combine a smaller Lightning cable with the single USB-CtoUSB adapter for smaller option:

This single solution produces an effective cable long enough to interact with the device while debugging, but compact enough to fit inside of a small bag. And at $26 USD it’s substantially cheaper than the bulkier multiport adapter. Since battery life is rarely a problem, I don’t often find myself wanting to charge the laptop while developing. Like my iPad and iPhone, I only plug in my MacBook at the end of the day.

The Promise of the MacBook

To some this might seem like a lot of extra work. Why bother trying to get an underpowered computer to work when there are less expensive options that provide a better value? For me, I wanted a small computer that I could take with me everywhere and I can’t write code on the iPad. The MacBook gives me a fully capable computer, running the Mac OS — an OS built for creative people. By getting the MacBook to work as a workbench for designing and developing applications, I can take my creative work more places.

It also provides a more focused work environment. In this article, I describe how I removed superfluous UI and hid window chrome out of the way. You only need to do this once, then only the essentials needed to complete the job remain. Uncluttered. Perfect.

The MacBook is a machine of compromises. If you embrace them, it will make you better, and more efficient.

Macbook Pro Net Development