[thelist] Developing on OSX

[Hassan Schroeder]

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 12:10 PM, Fred Jones <fredthejonester at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am now a newbie to OSX (10.5.6)

Welcome, friend :-)

> 1. Is it recommended to install xAMP one piece at a time?
> 2. Is there a recommended Windows emulator

I would lump those together: get VMWare. Some people use Parallels
and there are other options, but I've had good luck with VMWare on a
variety of platforms.

Which means you can easily run Windows VMs (one each for IE6,
IE7, IE8, etc.) as required plus VMs that recreate your deployment
platform(s): Linux, BSD, Solaris, whatever.

Of course you can still install your web stack "natively" but having
a dev VM means you can install, clone it, and use them disposably.
Bring up a clean image, checkout your code from git/svn, and away
you go. Stuff gets totally messed up? No worries, discard and start
again.

Unsure about trying out some cool new software? Install to a VM,
test, decide.

Virtualization is a real time-saver/productivity-enhancer.

> 3. I need a time tracker app. I have been using this
> http://www.allnetic.com/ for years and it's great. Now I need a Mac
> app.

I use a command-line ruby gem called "punch" but that's probably
too minimalist for most people. Works great though, and easy to try:
prompt% gem install punch
:-)

HTH, have fun,
-- 
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder at gmail.com