Saturday, May 9, 2015

Mac OS X setup for Web Development


Here's my current setup for programming and web development in Mac OS X. I recently set up my Macbook again, and set out to write this post to remember what to do next time. This is the first step towards having a nice script that sets all this up for me, in the vein of thoughtbot's `laptop` or GitHub's Boxen.

I'm looking for things that I could improve from this setup, or additional tools to enhance my workflow. If you have any, or just want to share your setup, comments are at the bottom.

  • Enable filevault encription on the initial Mac OS X setup:
  • remove docked apps from dock
  • Install homebrewruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
  • Install some command line apps with it:

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Independent Mouse and Trackpad scroll direction in Mac OS X

Problem: Mac OS X does not let you have different configurations for the Trackpad and Mouse scroll direction

Solution:
  • Download and install SteerMouse.
  • Use this configuration:

Install Windows 10 in your Mac

You'll need an 8+GB pen drive  and about 15 minutes. All the data in OS X will remain untouched, no worries.
  1. Download Windows 10 Technical Preview from here (you need to join the Insider program first) or directly from here.

Control your entire computer with the keyboard

I developed this set of solutions after a couple of weeks of suffering hand and arm pain due to work. I spent 8+ hours a day in front of my computer, so the combination of arm movement between the trackpad and keyboard, and the trackpad (later mouse) itself were provoking me a lot of inflammation related pain. A week of only using the keyboard, and it was gone!

Something like this is great for people with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or related ailments, I can vouch for it. If you need help setting it up, just say so in the comments, and I'll do my best to help.

Google Chrome

It's all about cVim, Vim for Chrome.
My favorite features:
  • j/k to move up/down, d/u for page up/down, gg for top of the page, G for bottom
  • :pintab to pin tabs with the keyboard (finally!)
  • f to follow links,
  • F to follow them on a new page,
  • gy to copy a link's URL to the keyboard
  • / to find text, v to select and copy it
  • .cvimrc to re-enable keyboard shortcuts in sites like twitter, github, and others, and make it compatible with JK Navigator. Here's mine, still tweaking it though.

Mac OS X

  • Enable cycling between all controls with Tab:
  • Use Caps Lock for Escape when pressed alone or Control when pressed with another key. Here's a great writeup on this using Karabiner, which also lets you increase the key repeat, and other fancy keyboard-related stuff.
  • Alfred, better Spotlight.