nicolashery/mac-dev-setup

This repository is a written guide for setting up a programming environment on a Mac from scratch. It was originally written for friends who were new to programming on macOS and has grown into a personal reference document that the author keeps updated. The guide walks through the process step by step: updating the operating system, adjusting system preferences, enabling basic security settings like full-disk encryption, and then installing the tools a developer typically needs. It starts with iTerm2 (a terminal application with more features than the default one), then moves through Homebrew (a package manager that makes installing software from the terminal much easier), Git (for version control), Visual Studio Code, Python, Node.js, Ruby, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Elasticsearch. For each tool, the guide explains what it is in plain terms, then gives the actual commands to run or steps to follow. It also covers smaller quality-of-life details: setting up a more readable terminal prompt with colors, creating useful command shortcuts called aliases, and using a tool called pyenv to manage multiple Python versions without them conflicting. The guide is a document, not an automated script. You follow it manually rather than running a single install command. This means you understand what each step does and can skip anything you do not need. The author notes that not every tool listed is necessary for every project, but having them set up tends to be useful eventually. The steps were originally tested on macOS High Sierra and the author notes they should work on more recent versions. The repository also includes shell configuration files (.bash_profile.bash_prompt.aliases) that can be downloaded as a starting point for your own terminal setup.