Set up a new Macbook pro for development

Yesterday I replaced my old Macbook Pro with a new one. I got the new Retina MBP with the TouchBar, which meant that I have to take a bit of a risk, because the new TouchBar and the new keyboard were a bit of an unknown for me.

Why did I replace it? It seems that at my current workplace I will be able to use my own notebook due to an introduction of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy and my old one just doesn’t have the capability to run the environment I need to run there. I am working on reducing those requirements to a level where an 8GB notebook is enough, but it is probably still some months away. Also, the thing is 4 years old! Actually, I am very happy about that, and I do hope that this one will repeat that experience. I do hope that I’ll have 4 or 5 good years with this.

But anyhow, not it sits on my desk (and I am writing this post on it), and I wanted to share the setup process I am using to configure my primary development environment, so here it is.

First impressions

My first impressions on the new machine is that it is a very nice machine. There are some differences compared to what I am used to, but after a few hours it seems totally OK. I was worried about the keyboard, but after using it form a few hours, my worries are gone. About the TouchBar … eh, it needs some getting used to. I have no big trouble hitting the esc keys, but it’s not as firm as I’d want to. I kinda miss the feedback for hitting it right now. We’ll see how it works out in the end.

Setting it up

After the initial configuration (you know: iCloud, Touch ID, disc encryption, etc), and the update to High Sierra, I started to set up this as my primary develoment machine. Which means that I need a couple of things:

Command line tooling:
- Git
- Ruby for jekyll
- PHP for the occasions
- Java tooling: JDK, Maven, Gradle
Applications:
- Visual Studio Code
- Jetbrains Toolbox
- Spotify
- Slack
- Docker
- iTerm2
Fonts - because which font I use matters

Basics: SSH key

When I set up a new computer I always start with a new SSH key. I use mine to log in to Github and Gitlab, but I do not use PGP, so this method is suitable for me for now. Generating one is as simple as:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "my.email@address.com"

Afterwards I just update these keys on the respective sites and I am good to go.

Basics: git + iterm2

I still need to automate some things, but it’s getting better. I still have to manually download iTerm2, and configure git with:

git --version

so that XCode doesn’t get in my way anymore. But afterwards I can just use my dotfiles repository with the following command:

git clone --recursive git@github.com:sandor-nemeth/dotfiles.git

The --recursive part is important because that checks out all submodules which I have in the repository, therefore I get Vundle, oh-my-zsh and tpm (tmux plugin manager) right away. Afterwards I just need to link a few files to the home directory:

ln -s ~/dotfiles/zsh ~/.oh-my-zsh
ln -s ~/dotfiles/.zshrc ~/.zshrc
ln -s ~/dotfiles/zsh-theme/gitster.zsh-theme ~/dotfiles/zsh/themes/
ln -s ~/dotfiles/.tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf
ln -s ~/dotfiles/tmux ~/.tmux
ln -s ~/dotfiles/vim ~/.vim
ln -s ~/dotfiles/.vimrc ~/.vimrc

and my command line is all set up.

Brewing the Mac

Next step is to set up the applications I’ll need. For this I normally use homebrew, so first I install that:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

And then there is something I didn’t know before, but I added it now:

I can write a file called Brewfile residing in my home directory, and there I can define all the things I want to have installed from brew, which is pretty neat. Here is how my Brewfile looks like at the moment:

tap 'caskroom/cask'
tap 'caskroom/fonts'
tap 'homebrew/php'

brew 'zsh'
brew 'zsh-completions'
brew 'tmux'
brew 'git'
brew 'npm'
brew 'php71'

cask 'java'
brew 'maven'
brew 'gradle'

cask 'google-chrome'
cask 'spotify'
cask 'slack'
cask 'docker'
cask 'vlc'
cask 'alfred'

cask 'font-fira-code'
cask 'font-source-code-pro'
cask 'font-hack'

cask 'visual-studio-code'
cask 'jetbrains-toolbox'

This is pretty neat. With this file I practically installed everything I want to have, without any further configuration. It may be that later a few things will be added to the file, but initially this is a good start.