Dotfiles

This is a guide to setting up my personal development environment. It's meant to get me up and running as fast as possible on a clean install of macOS. After running through the installation scripts and instructions, you'll have an environment configured with the following tools.

• Homebrew: A badass little package manager for macOS.
• Git: Everyone's favorite distributed version control system.
• Node.js: The JavaScript runtime.
• Neovim: The world's best text editor.
• Mackup: A utility for syncing application settings when they're not worth copying into the dotfiles.
• Ruby: A programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity.
• tmux: A utility that allows you to run multiple windows inside one terminal.
• Postgres: An open-source SQL database.

In addition, these dotfiles install a ton of small, useful utilities command-line utilities and system applications, which can be viewed in the Brewfile. They also add several custom commands.

These dotfiles are heavily based on the Thoughtbot dotfiles and Paul Irish's dotfiles.

Prerequisites

Before anything else, install the system updates.

softwareupdate -ia

Then, install the Xcode's CLI tools and accept the license.

xcode-select --install
sudo xcodebuild -license accept

1Password

Before you can do anything useful, you’ll need to install 1Password manually to get access to all of your passwords. You can download it here. Configure it by scanning the QR codes from another instance of the app.

Git

In order to connect with GitHub, you'll need to generate an SSH key. Follow the instructions on GitHub.

Dotfiles

Clone this dotfiles repo.

git clone [email protected]:LandonSchropp/dotfiles.git $HOME/.dotfiles

Most of the applications and utilities in these dotfiles (including Homebrew) can be installed by running the following command.

~/.dotfiles/bin/set-up

This executes the set-up-hook scripts, which install applications and configure the system. These scripts are idempotent, so feel free to run the set-up command as many times as you'd like.

macOS

Mathias Bynens maintains a script that configures several macOS system and application settings in one go. Because macOS is constantly updating, it's probably a good idea to pull it down an modify every once in a while. My latest local iteration is kept in the macos.sh script.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is an open-source SQL database and is installed via Homebrew. It can be started and stopped with the following commands:

brew services start postgresql
brew services stop postgresql

Keyboard

Currently, my keyboard is a Kinesis Advantage 360. (I'm not sure I'd recommend it.) This keyboard uses the ZMK firmware.

To update the keyboard configuration, start by editing the advantage-360.keymap file. The easiest way to manipulate this is to use Nick Coutsos's Keymap Editor. To use it, select "File System" as the source, click "Select...", and then click on "Import Keymaps". When using the file picker, you'll need to type Command + Shift + . to toggle hidden files.

Once you've completed your updates, you'll next need to compile the firmware. You can do this by running bin/generate-keyboard-firmware. This will produce two files: firmware/left.uf2 and firmware/right/uf2.

Next, you'll need to flash the keyboard. This is a bit tricky, but follow these steps exactly and you'll be fine.

1. Connect the left side of the keyboard to the computer using a USB-C cable.
2. Type Mod + ① to put the keyboard into bootloader mode. This should add an Advantage360 drive to the desktop.
3. Drag left.uf2 to the Advantage360 drive. It will load the firmware, flashing the lights on the keyboard, and disconnect the drive when it's done.
4. Now connect the right side of the keyboard to the computer with the USB-C cable.
5. Type Mod + ③ to put the right side in bootloader mode.
6. Drag right.uf2 to the Advantage360 drive. Just like the left side, it will load the firmware and then disconnect when done.
7. Profit.