So imagine I go to ~/kyle/Desktop a lot - Z learns that and allow me to just type cd de or cd desk or really any portion of that path in order to go there. Z allows you to quickly access previously accessed directories, giving you fuzzy access to a directory based on a few letters from it. This one is a bit new to me ( shoutout to Takuya here!) but I already really love it. This basically saves a buffer of previously run commands, and if it detects you writing a similar command, will prompt you with an auto-suggested command that you can execute without needing to type the rest of it. These all basically just provide nice aliases for common commands related to running these applications. Here’s the Zsh plugins I use: Git / Dotnet /VSCode Oh My Zsh is sort of a way to manage that “more” - it provides access to a large plugin ecosystem for Zsh which most often means that you get little bits or terminal config for “free” based on the work other people did. Zsh contains a superset of Bash’s functionality (at least I’m 99% sure of this), meaning anything you could do in Bash you could also do in Zsh. Oh My ZshĪ few releases ago, Apple decided to switch the main terminal runtime from Bash to Zsh.
iTerm is probaly the Mac app I’ve used the longest, and don’t see that changing anytime soon. It’s not essentialy to operating a machine, but it definitely makes the experience much nicer.
The main benefit here is easy access to robust customization options, hotkey configurations, color themeing, and more. This means it replaces the default macOS Terminal.app.
This a list of software that I consider must haves for development on essentially any machine I use. They are ordered roughly based on importance for me to have on the machine. Below is a breakdown of the programs/apps I first installed that came to mind as must-haves, and a little writing on what each app does and why. So my setup leans definitely in the programmer-y/video-y/creative-y spectrum. Outside of games, I also write more general purpose software (and write blog posts about said software as well). I’m primarily a game developer, but also have a background in video and experimental media.
I got a new laptop! I’ve got a backlog of stuff I want to write, but to get this train rolling again I thought I’d dedicate a post to talking about how I setup a new computer. So without a laptop, my writing/blogging effectively stopped. Desktops don’t cut it (feel too “serious”), and though I have an iPad, something about the form factor of a laptop just feels like perfectly matched for the “size” of what I want to usually write. It sounds silly but I feel I’m best able to write on a laptop. The major reason is that the company I run is gearing up to release Cantata in less than two months (!) and the other is that I’ve been laptop-less for nearly ~6 months. The blog has been a little quiet recently, and there’s been two reasons for that, one major and one minor.
Configuring a new Macbook Pro for 2022 for game development + video editing