* You’ll thank me later.
If you own a mac and are an aspiring coder, get HomeBrew. And Xcode. But this post is about brew.
Homebrew installs the stuff you need that Apple didn’t.
Homebrew installs packages to their own directory and then symlinks their files into /usr/local.
Homebrew won’t install files outside its prefix, and you can place a Homebrew installation wherever you like.
Install
Just run ...the last ugly line of install code you’ll need.
Homebrew uses Ruby, which handily comes already packed on your mac by default.
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
More here (readme).
Miscellaneous
While you’re at it, also install Node, npm and Bower.
Node
Nodejs is basicly backend javascript. It’s lightweight and perfect for local builds of compile/distribution dependent projects. Since we’re taking this seriously, that’s just what we’ll do. Add Node.js and npm with brew:
$ brew install node
Bower
Bower is the package manager we use on most front-end (and some back-end) projects.
$ npm install -g bower