MacOS Settings and Installation

System Preferences

First, update MacOS to the most recent version. Go to Apple Menu > About This Mac > Software Update.

Users & Groups

• Setup Password, AppleID, App Store, iCloud, Find my Mac, etc.

General

• Appearance
  • Change appearance to Dark

Dock

• Position on Screen > Left
• Enable Minimise windows into application icon

Siri

• Disable Enable Ask Siri

Language & Region

• Change primary language to English

Security & Privacy

• Require password immediately after sleep or screen saver begins
• Enable FileVault
• Enable Firewall

Trackpad

• Point & Click
  • Enable Tap to click
• Scroll & Zoom
  • Disable Natural Scroll direction

Keyboard

• Touch Bar shows App Controls (also check *Show Control Strip)
• Press Fn key to Show F1, F2, etc. Keys

Date & Time

• Show date in menubar

Finder

• General
  • Change New finder windows show to your home directory
• Sidebar
  • Add Home and Programming directory
  • Uncheck Recents, Airdrop, Movies, Music, and iCloud Drive
• Advanced
  • Enable Show all filename extensions

Other

• Change default folder for screenshots
  • Create folder Screenshots inside Pictures to store screenshots
  • Run following commmand: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/USERNAME/Pictures/Screenshots/

Menubar

• Remove Display
• Change Battery to Show percentage

XCode

• Install XCode from the Apple Developer Website. This will include the XCode Command Line Tools necessary for compiling SDKs and applications.

Homebrew

Homebrew is the missing package manager for MacOS and it is essential for anyone who aspires to be a developer. You need the XCode Command Line Tools to run Homebrew, which also include compilers and other tools to build from source. You can install the Command Line Tools for XCode by running the following command:

sudo xcode-select --install

OR install Command Line Tools for XCode by going to https://developer.apple.com/download/more/?=command%20line%20tools. You'll be asked for your Apple Developer login during the install process.

Next, install Homebrew by following the installation instructions from the Homebrew homepage and copy the Homebrew installation command to your terminal.

After Homebrew is installed, restart your terminal and make sure everything is working by running:

brew doctor

If everything has been installed correctly, you'll be greeted with the message ready to brew!

iTerm2

Use Homebrew to download and install iTerm2:

brew cask install iterm2

Customization

• Change font size to 14pt
• Add following shortcuts to the Keyboard shortcuts:

shortcut	action	Esc+
⌘←	Send Escape Sequence	OH
⌘→	Send Escape Sequence	OF
⌥←	Send Escape Sequence	b
⌥→	Send Escape Sequence	f

Z-Shell

Use Homebrew to download and install the most recent version of zsh:

brew install zsh

To make zsh the default shell of iTerm2 open Preferences > Profiles > General > Command: /usr/local/bin/zsh (this is the default location of zsh installed & managed by Homebrew).

The configuration file for zsh is called .zshrc and lives in your home folder at ~/.zshrc.

Oh My Zsh

Install Oh My Zsh by running the installation instructions found on the Oh My Zsh GitHub Repo.

Theme

Powerlevel10K is a really great theme for zsh. Install:

brew install romkatv/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k

After installation, add the theme to your .zshrc file by running:

echo 'source /usr/local/opt/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme' >> ~/.zshrc

Restart zsh to initialize the Powerlevel10K theme. Type p10k configure if the configuration wizard doesn't start automatically.

Plugins

Enable plugins:

plugins=(
  git
  brew
  colorize
  docker
  docker-compose
  jsontools
  node
  osx
  pip
  python
  vscode
  )

Zsh-autosuggestions

To enable autosuggestions, run:

brew install zsh-autosuggestions

And add the following line to your .zshrc file:

source /usr/local/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh

Zsh-syntax-highlighting

To enable syntax highlighting, run:

brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting

And add the following line to your .zshrc file:

source /usr/local/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

Git

The most popular version-control system. Install it by running:

brew install git

Check whether the brewed version of Git is used by the command line by running:

which git

Which should output /usr/local/bin/git.

Define your Git user by running:

git config --global user.name "Your Name Here"
git config --global user.email "youremail@youremail.com"

HTTPS for GitHub (recommended)

Create a personal access token (recommended) to perform Git operations over HTTPS (see official documentation here.

SSH for GitHub

See the official documentation on how to connect to GitHub using SSH keys.

Tree

tree is a recursive directory listing command that produces a indented list of files of your current directory.

To install the latest version, run:

brew install tree

Python

Although macOS already comes with Python installed, you don't want to mess with the system Python. Therefore, you need to install your own version(s). My recommended ways to install Python on macOS are:

1. Homebrew
2. Pyenv

Homebrew Method

Python 3 is the default version when installing via Homebrew by running:

brew install python

Executable scripts from Python packages you install will reside in /usr/local/share/python, add this to your PATH.

Pyenv Method

pyenv is a Python version manager that can manage and install different versions of Python on one system. This is especially helpful when you need to test your code against several Python versions, or when you work with different Python versions in different projects.

To install pyenv using Homebrew, run:

brew install pyenv

pyenv works by inserting a directory of shims in front of your standard PATH. Therefore, add pyenv init to your shell to enable shims and automcompletion. Make sure it is placed towards the end of the shell configuration file since it manipulates PATH during initialization.

echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc

Restart your shell so the path changes take effect. You can check your path changes by running:

echo $PATH

It should include "$(pyenv init -)". To update pyenv in the future, use:

brew upgrade pyenv

Instead of install. You can check out all the available versions of Python by running:

pyenv install --list

Subsequently, install the desired Python versions, for example:

pyenv install 3.5.2

The above command will install Python version 3.5.2. All installed Python versions are located in ~/.pyenv/versions.

Visual Studio Code

Best editor, no questions asked. Install by running:

brew cask install visual-studio-code

After that, you can launch VS Code from the terminal / iTerm2 with:

• code . will open VS Code in the current directory
• code myfile.txt will open myfile.txt in VS Code in the current directory

Useful Extensions

• Python
• R
• ESLint
• Prettier
• Markdown preview
• GitLens
• Docker
• Paste JSON as Code