The Essential System Setup for Beginner Coders
The other day I got setup on a new machine and I found myself scratching my head. How the heck did I get Ruby, Rails, Python and all those other tools set up? My command line tools weren’t even accessible. I am guessing this realization isn’t new to anyone in programming, but it was a new phenomenon to me. I decided the best solution was to draft up a short list of all the items I needed to install and how I would install them. For newbies looking to dive into coding, this should serve as a perfect checklist when getting your machine set up. Enjoy! PS I don’t go into detail explaining each one of these installs or why they are relevant. I just show you how to get stuff up and running with helpful links. I’ll leave the relevancy part to you, as its a good edification process.
Note: This installation & setup guide is only applicable for those running OS X. I personally was running Yosemite when I did the setup process again, but I went through all this stuff on Lion and Mavericks. Just make sure to pick your installations appropriately from the links provided.
Chrome
Really? REALLY? You’re not using Chrome? Come on.
Markdown Preview
I love writing in Markdown. This handy extension let’s you view files offline in Chrome.
Sublime Text Editor
Tons of text editors out there. This one is my favorite. If you install Sublime you should also install the subl CLI. Sublime talks about in their [documentation], but you can also find a read on it here.
Long story short:
# Check your PATH to verify that usr/local/bin is included
echo $PATH
ln -s "/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" /usr/local/bin/subl
You can replace the subl with sublime or anything you want really to call the command.
Latest Version of XQuartz
Just download and install the .dmg file.
Command Line Tools
xcode-select --install
gcc --version
sudo xcodebuild -license
HomeBrew
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
brew doctor
MacPorts
Make sure you have Xcode installed and the licensed accepted. Install the .dmg file corresponding to your version of OS X.
Ruby Version Manager (RVM)
brew install gpg
brew install gpg2
gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys D39DC0E3
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
I found that when I first started RVM was a bit confusing. There’s a great cheat sheet here that will help you keep on track.
Installing Ruby There are a few different ways to get Ruby. I’m going to explain a few, but only listen to the last one.
First, you could download the .tar.gz for the version you want to install. OS X Yosemite comes with ruby 2.0.0, but you can update it to the latest version or others from this link.
Another way to install Ruby is with rbenv found here.
brew install ruby-build
brew install rbenv
rbenv install 2.2.0
BUT, the way that I’m going to do it, and I recommend you doing it too, is with a Ruby manager, like RVM, which we JUST installed. At the end of installing a few essential version of Ruby, don’t forget to set RVM’s default. I like to use the most current stable build.
rvm install 1.9.3
rvm install 2.0.0
rvm install 2.1.5
rvm install 2.2.0
rvm use --default 2.2.0
Updating Git from the Pre-Installed OS X Version
This isn’t a requirement because Git comes pre-installed on Macs, but it is nice to have the latest stable build, so I’d recommend doing it. There are many ways. If you’re just starting Github has a nice process flow for it.
brew install git
git --version
which git
You should notice that there’s a difference here. The pre-installed OS X Git takes precedence, so let’s fix that. Tell bash to look in the correct path for the Homebrew managed version of Git. Restart your terminal after execution.
echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:~/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
When I first starting coding this is one thing that really got me. What the heck is $PATH? Simmer down. Check out this good read on environmental variables and all will be revealed.
CoffeeScript
npm install -g coffee-script
Node.JS
Follow the link to download. Or follow it with Brew.
brew install node
echo 'export NODE_PATH=/usr/local/lib/node_modules' >> ~/.bashrc
Get Ruby Gems & RAILS!
No Ruby would be complete without some GEMs. Here are a few to start.
gem install RubyGems
gem install rails
gem install jekyll
gem install json
Get Python!
Most experienced Python-ers know to pick 3.0; I still don’t know all the in’s &’ out’s and by no means an expert. I do know that 3 is gaining traction and 2 is not going to be used in the long-term horizon. But,if you’re just starting then stick with Zed Shaw in his AMAZING “Learning Python the Hard Way” and just go with 2. Python 3 is cool if you’re building up-to-date apps in Django.
Python Virtual Environment
sudo pip install virtualenvwrapper
cd
ls -a
cat << EOF >> .bashrc
export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Devel
source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh
EOF
source ~/.bashrc
Pip
Follow the link and click “Save As…” on the the .py file. Save it in your local directory or downloads. Next…
# If you saved it in ~/Downloads...
cd
mv ~/downloads/get-pip.py ~/get-pip.py
sudo python get-pip.py
Get Django
pip install Django==1.7.2