Because of scheduling conflicts, we won't be having the somewhat traditional first-day-eve install party. I am expecting everyone to show up on Monday with their machines ready to go, though, so here are some notes on getting that set up.
Each section details a specific tool or setting you'll need to configure on your machine. Complete each one in turn, and feel free to reach out (to james@theironyard.com or on Slack) if you have any questions. You will see several snippets like
$ echo "Hello, terminal"
These indicate command to be typed in to your terminal (whether that be the default Terminal app or iTerm2 or whatever). The $ signifies a prompt, and should not be typed; your prompt likely looks different.
You should be running the most recent version of OSX. It shouldn't be a show-stopper if you're on a slightly older version, but be aware that some things might be slightly different for you if so; if you can upgrade, you should do so.
Click the Apple in the left of the top menu bar, and click "About this Mac". If it says "OSX Yosemite", you're good to go. If not, click on "Software Update..." and follow the instructions.
We'll be using Slack to communicate in class, and you can go ahead and start now. Su should be sending out login information; contact her if you need any help logging in. Once you're on Slack, we'll have a channel set up for our class; feel free to ask for help there.
You should also consider signing up for the DC Tech Slack team and Ruby Newbies. If you find other helpful channels, please share!
This is optional, but most developers seem to prefer iTerm2 over the default provided Terminal application. Install it from here, and open it. I would also recommend pinning it to your toolbar for quick and easy access.
The prework has notes about picking an editor. Whichever you choose, be sure you have it installed and that you're comfortable opening and editing files in it.
I'll be presenting with Sublime in class, so would recommend that if you don't have a strong preference. It will be convenient to be able to launch your editor from the terminal; see e.g. this blog post for instructions on setting that up with Sublime.
We'll need several developer related tools to build various gems. Try
$ xcode-select --install
You may get a message to the effect of "command line tools are already installed". If not, you should see a popup box with instructions about installing them.
Brew is a package manager for OSX that you may use to install other pieces of software on your machine. Install it following the instructions here.
Once it's installed, you can try it out with
$ brew install tree
to install the tree command.
Install a recent version of git by typing
$ brew install git
After it's installed
$ git --version
should show something like git version 2.2.1. Anything above 2.0 is fine.
Since you'll be using Git to save and share code with others, you'll want to configure git with your contact information
$ git config --global user.name 'Your Name'
$ git config --global user.email 'youremail@whatever.com'
You can test these by running e.g.
$ git config --global user.name
to view the configured name or by opening ~/.gitconfig in your text editor.
When you commit a change to git, it will prompt you for a commit message with the default configured editor. This may be something strange and confusing like nano or vi. You'll want to instead configure git to open files the same way you usually do, using something like
$ git config --global core.editor subl
provided you are using Sublime and have set up the subl command as recommended above.
You should already be signed up for github (though do so now if you haven't), so we'll want to identify this machine to Github to make it easier to upload changes in the future.
Follow Github's instructions on creating and adding an SSH key. I typically leave the passphrase empty, but you can add one for increased security.
Your system already has a version of Ruby on it, but you can avoid a bunch of headaches in the future by setting up a Ruby version manager now, and using it to run a more recent version. I'll be using rbenv in class. Install it using this set of instructions, and be sure to follow the optional step 5 to install the ruby-build plugin.
Once rbenv and ruby-build are installed, run
$ rbenv install 2.2.2
to install the most recent (as of this writing) version of Ruby. Once it's done run
$ rbenv global 2.2.2
to set that version as the global default.
You'll need to install several Ruby packages, called gems. Run the following
$ gem install bundler
$ gem install pry
and then (for reasons that will be explained later), run
$ rbenv rehash
You can try everything out by running
$ pry
to start a pry session. This is a loop where you can type Ruby code, and it will be evaluated and the result printed out. Try it out for a bit, and then type exit (or CTRL+D) when you're done.
If you read this far, you should be all set! Please send me a picture of M&Ms so that I know you read this.
That's it!
