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What makes Mac such a great development platform is probably all the amazing OS X developer tools it supports. Having a proper set of tools is of crucial importance to any programmer, as it allows building all sorts of powerful apps for users to stay productive and entertained on iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs or Macs. Today, considering the wide variety of dedicated Mac solutions out there, it’s not always easy to choose the tool that will work best for one or another project.
In this article, we provide a rundown of most commonly used Mac developer tools that make life easier for both novice coders and more experienced developers. We hope that our brief overview of 11 best developer tools for Mac will help you discover a utility which will well fit your workflow and make your development project go smoothly.
1. Homebrew
Developer Tools. Looking to make the most of the robust app environment in MacOS? Explore here the best Mac apps for developers ranging from text editors and app launchers to task-management apps and reminders. Choose among hundreds of powerful tools that make life easier for both novice coders and more experienced developers. Bring your iPad App to Mac. Xcode makes it easy to get a huge head start on turning your existing iPad app into a native Mac app. Your Mac and iPad apps share the same project and source code, so any changes you make translates to both platforms. Aug 02, 2018 We thought we would compile a comprehensive list of web development tools and resources that can help you be more productive, stay informed, and become a better developer. Web development tools and resources. A lot of these web development tools below are ones we use at KeyCDN on a daily basis. Typically, mobile app development software features templates for common app use cases (banking, field service, employee facing etc.) Hardware compatibility testing Allows you to preview how the app will display on multiple device types and operating systems, either via software simulation or pushing the app preview to actual hardware devices.
A free open-source package manager. This solution provides a simple way to install UNIX tools, Mac terminal utilities and graphical apps on Apple's macOS. It can quickly download and install them, compiling them from source. This Mac dev tool has been recommended for its ease of use as well as its integration into the command line.
2. Xcode
A free open-source package manager. This solution provides a simple way to install UNIX tools, Mac terminal utilities and graphical apps on Apple's macOS. It can quickly download and install them, compiling them from source. This Mac dev tool has been recommended for its ease of use as well as its integration into the command line.
Xcode is an integrated development environment that offers a comprehensive set of Mac developer tools - everything programmers need to build great applications for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. This code editor supports multiple programming languages and gives developers a unified workflow for user interface design, coding, testing, and debugging. Xcode includes the Xcode IDE, Swift and Objective-C compilers, Instruments analysis tool, simulators, various SDKs, and hundreds of outstanding features.
3. FlexiHub
FlexiHub is among the most efficient Mac apps for developers who are building software solutions for iOS devices. The utility helps share iPhones and iPads over the network making them available for access from any remote machine, which means a developer can connect to an iOS device without having it physically attached to their Mac. This is especially convenient for iOS app testing and debugging. FlexiHub works perfectly well across Ethernet, LAN, WiFi, the Internet or any other network and protects each connection with advanced traffic encryption.
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4. iTerm2
iTerm2 is an open source replacement for Apple's Terminal and the successor to iTerm. This handy terminal emulator will let you manage your workflow efficiently. This Mac OS X developer tool is highly customizable and supports various OS features including window transparency, full-screen mode, ExposéTabs, Growl notifications, and standard keyboard shortcuts. Also, iTerm2 offers customizable profiles and Instant Replay of past terminal input/output.
5. Sublime Text
If you’re looking for a fast and feature packed text and development editor, Sublime Text will be a good choice. It is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup, and prose. With this Mac dev tool, you will get the highly desired abilities to write or edit in multiple places in a document simultaneously, edit super fast, reach the editor’s functionality via the keyboard, and get syntax highlighting and code snippets for a large number of languages, like Javascript, PHP, CSS, HTML, Python, LESS, XML and C++ to name a few.
6. Tower
An easy to use Git client for Mac. It integrates easily with lots of other Mac OS developer tools and can be controlled from the command line. Git Tower can become an indispensable macOS developer tool for those who want to access their Planio repositories via an intuitive GUI. The solution provides a host of advanced features such as single line staging, submodule support, and file history. With this app, you don’t have to worry about making mistakes - you can use “undo”, create new branches via drag & drop, or roll back to previous revisions.
7. SourceTree
A free Git client for Mac and Windows. This desktop app is designed to simplify how you interact with your Git repositories so you can focus on coding. What really stands out this Mac developer tool from other apps is a simple Git GUI helping developers visualize and manage hosted and local repositories. The tool lets you create, clone, commit, push, pull, merge, and more with a single click. It works with Git and Mercurial.
8. Atom
Atom is another popular text and source code editor based on web technologies. It is chosen by thousands of developers for its beautiful UI and modular design. What’s nice about this open source Mac OS X developer tool is that it supports plugins written in Node.js, and embedded Git Control developed by GitHub. What’s more, it can be used as an IDE for a plethora of programming languages. With Atom, you get syntax highlighting, language autodetection, a context autocomplete system and many other great features.
9. Visual Studio Code
A free, lightweight yet powerful tool for editing and debugging web applications. It comes with built-in support for TypeScript, JavaScript and Node.js, has integrated Git and a wide range of extensions for other languages. By using its various settings, you can configure this software for Mac app development to your needs: almost every part of its editor, UI, and functional behavior has options you can modify.
10. Dash
In case memorizing code syntax from all languages sounds impossible to you, a good solution will be Dash. It is an API documentation browser and code snippet manager. It collects Documentation for such programming languages as HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Sass, LESS, and some other. Dash helps you store snippets of code, as well as instantly search and browse documentation for almost any API you might use. This Mac app for developers offers instant offline access to more than 200 API documentation sets.
11. Go2Shell
Our list of 11 best Mac apps for developers would not be complete without a tiny Go2Shell tool that opens a terminal window to the current directory in Finder. You simply install this app, drag and drop it onto the Finder toolbar, and get a button in your Finder windows to click and open a terminal window in that directory.
We hope our selection of OS X dev tools helped you learn more about what tools work best for others. There are many great ones out there, but here are the ones that are used most frequently by Mac app developers.
And which solutions do you find to be most helpful when it comes to app development software for Mac? Feel free to add any thoughts at all in the comments below.
Xcode 11 includes everything you need to create amazing apps and to bring your apps to even more devices. Take advantage of SwiftUI, an all-new user interface framework with a declarative Swift syntax. Start bringing your iPad app to Mac with just a click. And with support for Swift packages, Xcode 11 lets you share code among all of your apps or use packages created by the community.
SwiftUI
Better apps. Less code.
SwiftUI is an innovative, exceptionally simple way to build user interfaces across all Apple platforms with the power of Swift. Build user interfaces for any Apple device using just one set of tools and APIs. With a declarative Swift syntax that’s easy to read and natural to write, SwiftUI works seamlessly with new Xcode design tools to keep your code and design perfectly in sync. SwiftUI is truly native, so your apps directly access the proven technologies of each platform to beautifully implement everything users love about the Apple ecosystem.
Declarative syntax. Write simpler code with a declarative Swift syntax that clearly states what your user interface should do.
Design tools. Drag and drop to construct or edit your interface. Quickly make changes to visual UI elements with pop-up inspectors.
Native on all Apple platforms. Your apps gain incredible native performance and take advantage of the proven technologies, controls, and user experiences of Apple platforms to feel fully integrated.
Live mode. See your design change instantly in one or many exact previews. Switch the design canvas to live mode to instantly interact with your running app in Xcode or on a connected device.
Bring your iPad App to Mac
Xcode makes it easy to get a huge head start on turning your existing iPad app into a native Mac app. Your Mac and iPad apps share the same project and source code, so any changes you make translates to both platforms. And your newly created Mac app runs natively, utilizing the same frameworks, resources, and even runtime environment as apps built just for Mac.
Swift and Swift Packages
Swift 5 is now built right into all Apple platforms and the binary interface for Swift is stable moving forward. Your apps will be smaller, download faster, and keep working as Swift continues to evolve.
Swift packages are integrated throughout all of Xcode 11, making it incredibly simple to use a package in your apps for Apple platforms. Just add a new package dependency to add an external package to your project., then clone the package from GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or your own code host. Xcode checks the package dependencies and displays all the packages you use directly in the navigator.
It’s also easy to create your own packages to use with projects based on your own code, or to share with the world. Source code you put in these packages will be built into any apps that depend on the package, with support for all Apple platforms. Code in the package is still easy to debug, test, and use with source code management.
Best Mac Os Apps
Dark Mode for iPhone and iPad
Dark Mode has been beautifully integrated throughout iOS, and Xcode 11 gives you powerful tools to easily support dark mode in your apps. Quickly switch your designs and previews between light and dark in Interface Builder, and preview both modes in SwiftUI, even side-by-side. Asset catalogs let you label assets and named colors with variants for light and dark. And you can switch your app in and out of dark mode while debugging. This is all done using controls within Xcode that only apply to your app, with no need to change your system settings.
Your Editor, Your Layout
Whether you prefer a single editor or split your windows into a precisely-arranged mosaic, Xcode 11 gives you total control over your coding area and the ability to split any editor pane. Editors can also show SwiftUI previews, live views of playgrounds, and a myriad of assistants. If you need to focus on just one file, you can click-zoom to maximize the pane, and return to exactly where you were before. The new minimap sidebar shows a birds-eye view of the open file, including highlights that make it easy to jump to the right place.
Your code looks better than ever with documentation comments with bold and italics rendered inline with your code. You can even inspect the differences in your current source edits compared to past versions, with a comparison view that updates as you type.
In-depth Testing
The updated Devices window lets you simulate your users’ environment, for example when your app is running in extreme heat or on a slow network. Test plans in Xcode 11 make it easy to automate a huge number of test and analysis steps, all to be run in parallel. For instance, you can select several sanitizer tools with conflicting build settings, and Xcode will run all the tests for you and automatically build all the versions you need.
Screenshots are now easy to automate with an API that saves screenshots to your results bundle during UI testing. Combined with testing your localized UI, it’s easy to take every screenshot you need to submit to the App Store, or to show your localization team.
Best Mac Development Tools
With even better support for Xcode Server and other continuous integration tools, you can constantly test your app in hundreds of user scenarios, easily and efficiently.