Recommended Hardware for Your Mac Developer Setup
While a standard Mac is powerful, these hardware choices can enhance your developer productivity and comfort.
- track-pad
- HHKB keyboard
- Apple studio-display
Optimizing macOS: System Configuration for Developers
Fine-tuning your macOS configuration is a key step in optimizing your Mac for programming and a smoother development workflow.
- mouse sensitivity config to your own preference
- track-pad: three finger drag for window move, two finger drag for scroll
iCloud
setup for all devices- instal fonts of your preference, for me
FiraCode
andJetBrains Mono
are the best
Essential Mac Apps for Developers & Productivity
Beyond the defaults, these Mac apps can significantly boost your productivity and streamline daily tasks for any developer.
- ππππ
Alfred
/ ππ Raycast for the basic system-level efficiency of Mac Spotlight ... - πππ
Arc
the best browser till-now to browse the Internet world -> Arc Browser and its pals - πππ
ClashX
v2ray core with its client, its configuration file can be found in the section ofdot-files
below SougouInput
orWechatInput
for Chinese input enhancement (especially sync with elder vocabulary library)DingTalk
/WeChat
/Slack
IM tools...- ππ
InfusePro
for media and NAS resource player DaisyDisk
disk cleaner and space visualizationBarTender
for menu bar managementiStat Menus
for system monitoringContexts
for window management and tabs accurately switchFlow
for Pomodoro working method
Setting Up Your macOS Development Environment
A well-configured development environment is crucial. Hereβs how to set up essential developer tools on macOS.
Core Web Development Tools on Mac
Google Chrome: Essential for web development, debugging, and testing.
iHosts: Useful for managing hosts files, especially for web developers working on multiple environments.
- π
Warp: A modern, Rust-based terminal that enhances the command-line experience for developers on Mac.
Essential CLI Tools for macOS Developers
Homebrew: The missing package manager for macOS, crucial for installing most developer tools.
Oh My Zsh: Enhances your Zsh shell experience with themes, plugins, and more, boosting terminal productivity.
commitizen
for git commit message standardizationnvm
/pnpm
for node version managementtree
for directory structure visualizationtldr
for command line help- ...
Customizing Your Mac Development Environment with Dotfiles
Dotfiles help maintain a consistent macOS configuration across different machines or setups, crucial for an efficient developer workflow.
.zshrc
oh-my-zsh config file as replacement forbash_profile
config.yaml
proxy config file for ClashX
For my own dot-file you can find it here: ποΈ Arno dot-files
Code Editors and IDEs for Mac Developers
Xcode: Essential for iOS, macOS, and other Apple platform development.
- βοΈ
Visual Studio Code (VSCode): A highly popular and extensible code editor, perfect for web development and many other programming tasks on Mac. Its rich ecosystem of extensions makes it one of the best Mac apps for developers.
- π
GitHub Copilot: An AI pair programmer that significantly speeds up coding, a valuable tool for developer productivity on Mac.
Other AI Coding tools see -> AI Coding Tools
Reference
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- 2025-05-13 upgrade more steps on configs and tool to setup my new Mac