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@erikreagan
Created August 4, 2012 19:18
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Mac developer must-haves

Mac web developer apps

This gist's comment stream is a collection of webdev apps for OS X. Feel free to add links to apps you like, just make sure you add some context to what it does — either from the creator's website or your own thoughts.

— Erik

@daimajia
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daimajia commented Jun 3, 2013

Nide is a beautiful ide for nodejs.

@0xafbf
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0xafbf commented Jul 8, 2013

keyremap4macbook (https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/) and pckeyboardhack (https://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/pckeyboardhack.html.en) are nice applications for changing the behaviour of the keyboard...
this is not an application but an advice.. you should learn Colemak, it is far better than QWERTY and with keyremap4macbook and pckeyboardhack can't get better, turning caps lock to delete, delet to forward delete and turning space+IJKL keys to cursor keys(touch cursor), and it has a lot of other great tweaks...

altough keyremap4macbook and pckeyboardhack have a flaw, after you use them, you will miss it when using other computers for the rest of your life

@dcondrey
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Nice list, just a few more additions I didn't see already listed.

Triplety Nice HTML/CSS/JS editor for small projects and keeping all your dependencies easily accessible.
ImageAlpha For transparent PNGs.. From the same guy that made ImageOptim
FontLab Studio Not just for font designers.. sometimes its a good idea to tweak the metrics if your concerned about matching your fallbacks. I will never understand why webfont designers use such crazy metrics sometimes.
Textmate ftw
Transmit Best FTP ever, well worth it. Used to use Cyberduck but after an upgrade it would take FOREVER to startup and crash constantly.

@fana605
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fana605 commented Jan 23, 2014

Yummy FTP - http://www.yummysoftware.com
IMHO, the best FTP.

@AbeEstrada
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Atom A hackable text editor for the 21st Century

@ngocphamm
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This list is perfect! Here are some other apps I used, not being mentioned.

  • f.lux (https://justgetflux.com/) You guys work late, don't you? You definitely must install this app. It will be a bit weird at first, but then you will not be able to use your Mac without it!
  • Spectacle (http://spectacleapp.com/) To manage window position with your keyboard. I use an external monitor and it comes so useful.
  • Glui (http://glui.me/) (NOT FREE, but used to be) Screenshot taking and annotating. Simple, eating less resources (than Skitch) and store screenshots on your Dropbox
  • JPEGMini (http://www.jpegmini.com/) (NOT FREE) Someone told me it's not as good as Adobe Fireworks but I think it's definitely cheaper smaller. It can shrink your JPEG images up to 5 times smaller (even though it did my images more than 5x sometimes).

@Natetronn
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Mock SMTP - "MockSMTP is a native Mac application that embeds its own SMTP server. It also features an e-mail client browser, enabling instant viewing of both raw content and HTML rendering, so you can see how your mail looks when delivered."

Setting up MockSMTP on OSX 10.7(Lion) for local PHP development

@cl1ck
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cl1ck commented May 15, 2014

zsh (http://www.zsh.org/) + Oh my Zsh (http://ohmyz.sh/) to peed up terminal workflow

@jiMuBao
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jiMuBao commented Jul 29, 2014

  • Homebrew - MacOS missing package manager
  • tmux - It lets you switch easily between several programs in one terminal, detach them (they keep running in the background) and reattach them to a different terminal. And do a lot more.
  • ranger -anger is a file manager with VI key bindings. It provides a minimalistic and nice curses interface with a view on the directory hierarchy. The secondary task of ranger is to psychically guess which program you want to use for opening particular files.
  • tig - Tig is an ncurses-based text-mode interface for git. It functions mainly as a Git repository browser, but can also assist in staging changes for commit at chunk level and act as a pager for output from various Git commands.
  • Dash - Dash is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager. Dash stores snippets of code and instantly searches offline documentation sets for 150+ APIs (for a full list, see below). You can even generate your own docsets or request docsets to be included.
  • Alfred - Alfred is an award-winning productivity application for Mac OS X
    Alfred saves you time when you search for files online or on your Mac. Be more productive with hotkeys, keywords and file actions at your fingertips.

@damianesteban
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This is a great list. A few of you mentioned Coderunner, which I absolutely love except for one major issue...no support for vim-mode. Or is there?

@ldong
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ldong commented Mar 1, 2015

  • Moom: resize windows
  • LiveCap: screen recorder for demos

@daf-code
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I still prefer Quicksilver to Alfred. http://qsapp.com/

@MarkThalman
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My biggest productivity boost came when I started using AppCode by Jetbrains. There is less of a learning curve if you use the Xcode key bindings. It does pretty much everything that Xcode does, plus the inspections and refactoring take it to a whole new level. It's really cool to be told about a bug before you even compile your code. This works best with Objective-C, but they have basic support for Swift working.

@my2ter
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my2ter commented Feb 11, 2016

I used to have RESTed but the lack of updates (especially OAuth 2) made me witch to Paw. Worth every $.

@ahsankhatri
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Tools/Apps i have installed to increase my productivity for web-development.

  • Karabiner - A powerful and stable keyboard customizer for OSX, it also supports custom key-binding.
  • BetterTouchTool - You can increase your workflow with this amazing gesture defining tool.
  • CheatSheet (freeware) - Just hold the ⌘-Key a bit longer to get a list of all active short cuts of the current application. It's as simple as that.
  • ClipMenu - A utility to store clipboard with good Clipboard Manager. You can paste multiple items directly by invoking menu with customized shortcut key, it can record 8 clipboard types, from plain text to image. My workflow: (⌘⇧V then ⌘0 to paste from menu)

@ig0r
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ig0r commented Mar 16, 2016

More awesome tools:

@endlessdev
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Why did not anybody writing fish shell?

here is my fish shell

@acrodrig
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Arriving late. Really useful comments. Two additions from a list I compiled a while back:

@ZahidRasheed
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Mackdown: Free Markdown editor
Fish Shell: Best Command Line Shell
dupeGuru: Duplicate file scanner.
Postman: Helps you be extremely efficient while working with APIs..
Spectacle: Move and resize windows with ease.

@ivmirx
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ivmirx commented Aug 18, 2016

Scapple: whiteboard to dump your mind on different topics. Like mind maps but much more powerful due to flexible layout.
Time Out: app to create screen-blocking breaks to sit less and stay healthy.
Qbserve: time tracker, a better RescueTime alternative (I'm the developer).

@alexk111
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Freeter: productivity app that lets you gather everything you need to work in one place and access them quickly and easily.

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ghost commented Mar 6, 2017

Quiver
GitHub Desktop
Sublime
CodeRunner
Mamp Pro
Dash
Transmit
Slack
MindNode
Draw.io
Dropbox
LaunchBar

@ankitsingh101
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ankitsingh101 commented Mar 26, 2017

cakebrew basically GUI for HomeBrew
xtrafinder right click and create a new file
go2shell is best when you working on JS Projects
Super Vectorizer 2 for svg
open in visual studio extension
mamp pro
prepos

Any GUI for npm

alexk111 thank you for suggesting freeter app

@simonsnow
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After all these great suggestions, I still have more to add!

gitkraken is my git app of choice. Check that one out.
atom has replaced coda as my editor. (I love how all these apps are using electron/chromium these days)
sequel pro gets a huge +1. The fact that it can create it's own ssh tunnel is greatly useful!
codekit +1. Live reload, compiling, minimizing etc. If I couldn't use codekit I would just use compass for compiling my sass.
Alfred +1. I notice a lot of people using alfred and also a snippet manager or text expander. I don't know why since alfred can do all that so well!
Skitch I still use for grabbing screen regions, annotating them and sending them to people.

@dcalano
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dcalano commented Dec 6, 2017

Cerberus has replaces alfred for me

@basememara
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Nice growing list, thx for sharing. Here's a few I use at this point of time:

  • 1Password: password manager; works amazing on Mac and even better with iOS 12+ integrations
  • Amphetamine: keeps your Mac awake which is useful when running long script tasks or uploads. Used to use Caffine but got outdated.
  • AppCleaner: lightweight app that helps "uninstall" apps by safely finding associated files
  • Bartender: menu bar organizer, hides unwanted menu bar apps into a second layer
  • Beyond Compare: 2/3 way comparison; many comparison options and integrates almost anywhere
  • Fantastical: Easy access to your calendar from the menu bar
  • Firefox: Great backup to Safari and still avoid Chrome.
  • Gifox: Create animated gifs from screen recordings. Mojave's screen recorder makes this less of a need, but gif's still more portal than videos
  • Guidance: Quick 5 prayer times from the menu bar
  • Icons8: Icon library which keeps things moving for app assets
  • join.me: Pretty lightweight and reliable screen sharing. I heard Mac has one built into Messages tho..
  • MindNode: Adds another dimension to note taking
  • Pixelmator: When Preview editor doesn't cut it
  • PixelSnap: Gets quick pixel sizes of screen elements
  • Postman: Test REST API's; Solid and free; Shared team workspaces work great in projects
  • MAMP Pro: Web server manager for Mac
  • Git Tower: Outgrew SourceTree; Tower is incredible; Group repos, branch from commits, collapsible everything, comparable everything, still feels lightweight somehow
  • Transmit: Best FTP client I've used and feels very native
  • Tyme2: Nice menu bar time tracker for projects
  • Visual Studio Code: Quick, lightweight code editor when you can avoid Xcode
  • Zeplin: Great tool for designers and developers to create apps

@MustCodeAl
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DevDocs - Nice documentation
Clipy - Clipboard manager
Keybase - Group Chat
Starship - Rust based terminal shell prompt, really fast
DevUtils - Offline toolbox for devs
Snip - Minimalist Code Snippet Manager
Notion - Workspace App
Rectangle - Keyboard Shortcuts to resize windows easily and move them
ueli - Productivity Quick launcher
Sourcegraph - Code Searching tool

@MustCodeAl
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My Top Chrome Extensions are:
StackOverFlow Power User - Nice Navigation for stackoverflow saves plenty of time scrolling through answers
UBlock Origin - Better Adblock!
Web Search Navigator - Allows you to google only using your keyboard! Huge time saver!
OneTab Saves all your open tabs into a one tab so you can restore next session
Gitako Github File Tree - Nice file tree for github
hackertabdev - allows you to see new libraries, technologies, products, and dev news everytime you open a new tab.
Return Youtube Dislike - since google is a little bit annoying these days
DarkReader - Allows you to read websites in darkmode
DevDocs Web Ext - Allows mini version of devdocs.io so you dont have to switch tabs
Snip-extractor - Copies snippets directly into your snip manager for you
Web-Developer - Convenient tools to use when devtools isn't cutting it.

Best for last:
Refined Github - Makes github overall a nice experience

@johnxie
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johnxie commented Jun 29, 2022

Personal and growing list

1Password - Password manager, great for teams
Figma - Collaborative editor for ux, design, mockups
Taskade - Todo lists, notes,, and project management
Zeplin - Great for working on designs with developers

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