The Tools of Modern Mac-Based Web Development: New on Premium
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The Tools of Modern Mac-Based Web Development: New on Premium

on Jan 1st 2012 with 54 comments
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In this week’s Premium screencast, I provide a brain-dump on all of the various tools I use for web development. Sometimes, simply watching another person work can be incredibly helpful. What tools do they use? How do they work with their code editor? I’ll cover all of these things today.

If you’re not a Tuts+ Premium member, it’s our subscription-based portion of Tuts+, where we provide high quality tutorials, ebooks, and courses on a variety of subjects. Be sure to check it out!

Tools Discussed in the Video

 
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I'm the editor of Nettuts+, and love making the process of building for the web as easy as possible. Also, I'm finishing up my latest book on Laravel Testing! If you want be friends, say hi on Twitter.  

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  • http://zackperdue.com Zack

    I don’t really get why this needs to be “mac based”. Working on other platforms should be fundamentally the same besides for a few of those mac based apps…

    I just don’t get what “mac based” means.

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Most of the apps mentioned are specifically for the Mac.

      • http://zackperdue.com Zack

        @J-Dub

        I’m on a mac too, but I just thought it would be more appropriate to name the article “The tools of modern web development”.

      • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
        Author

        Any then – Windows fans would attack me because a lot of the apps are Mac-specific. :)

      • http://www.vmobileelite.com/ VMobile

        I’ve been looking for this collection myself … I’ve been using PCs as long as I can remember and now that I just bought my 1st mac I really have no clue on what am I going to use on a mac when I’m developing … Useful for me … I don’t understand why people complain … My only complaint was the premium part other than that … I’m looking forward to checking out this list :) … Thanks Jeff

  • supprof

    happy new year jeff
    unfortunatly i’m a pc
    so can i use some of those tools jeffry way
    i noticed that when use a pc and a mac that there is some diffrences in some php constants. that’s what got me in troubles in some of your video tutorials.
    So can you drop mac and move to PC!!
    no i was kidding
    so can you make a tutorial wich focases on those diffrences?
    thank you jeff

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      We’ll have a Windows version of this video shortly.

      • http://codecanyon.net/user/downv Valeriu

        Can’t wait for this Jeffrey!

        Love your video tutorials, very nice executed.

        Regards

      • supprof

        thank you for your concern jeff

      • http://arifsetyawan.com Arif Setyawan

        yeah me too. can’t wait for the windows version. i’am mac fans, but yet i still cannot buy em.

  • kisin

    how about “windows based” article?

  • http://jaywilsonjr.com/ Jay Wilson Jr.

    Time to buy a Mac…

    It’s been on my want list for about 2 years now. Guess I’m gonna bite the bullet.

  • GitHubGoon12

    I sense the “Mac-based” part is going to irk a lot of people. Then again, I think it may be very helpful. Let’s be honest, Mac owners aren’t exactly known as the developers of the land, so people who want to develop on a Mac kinda need a guide like this for what to use. Who else needs a list of 100 things to develop an app or website, when anyone else could do it with as little as a text editor and an FTP client if they had to?

    • http://codecanyon.net/user/downv Valeriu

      I’m not a mac user, but what you said is completely wrong.

      You’re able to code a web site with a simple editor in a mac as well, but what this tutorial teach you is how you can do it faster and more simple, to improve your productivity.

    • Liam

      If all you need is a text-editor and an ftp client, then why are you Nettuts+? >_<
      I just don't get some people…

    • Michael C

      Based on all of the obtuse comments here, I guess I should never write an article such as, “Top 10 Most-Useful Linux kernel boot args” or anything of that ilk, since Windows users would get inflamed. Right? Le sigh.

  • Rich

    It’ll soon be renamed to MacTuts+ :P

    • Ethan Kramer

      soon.

      • supprof

        am i the only gay using pc here!?

        i have some troubles when it comes to directory separators because they are not the same in pc and mac

      • http://bensheedy.com Benjo

        @supprof

        I presume that was a typo? Using a PC suggests nothing about your sexuality…

  • Steve

    It is somewhat ironic that you do seem to focus a lot on “Mac” based design Jeffrey, yet it wasn’t so long ago that you used to Windows for your own Tuts.

    Now it’s beginning to feel like there is some bias towards the Mac going on here in the recent Tuts, even though this can easily be accomplished on a PC too. Many of these “Tools” are available on PC, so I can’t see the need for the focus on “The Tools of Modern Mac-Based Web Development”.

    BTW – Don’t get me wrong I have a Mac and a PC, but my PC is my powerhouse system I prefer to work on a lot of the time.

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Why is it ironic? I’m not trashing Windows….I still use it myself. We’ll have a Windows episode soon.

      • Steve

        Good man, just what I like to hear!

        I am also not saying you’re trashing Windows, but you don’t give the PC based people much to go on when articles such as this are labelled as “Mac” based dev tools, the irony really is even given the title a lot of these tools will work on a PC.

        Lastly, I love your tuts and hope to see many more. ;)

  • supprof

    even obama is a pc oresident

    • arnold

      pics please…or didnt happen….haha

  • Torero

    Titles like this made me hate Apple with passion. If you are good at what you do, you can come up with a decent site even on an android cell phone. Let’s concentrate on the real nuts and bolts of development and leave the “conversion” to Apple’s Marketing dept.

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      ?? Because a video lists some helpful tools for Mac, that makes you hate them? Sounds like you need a nap.

      Imagine if I left a comment on a “Best XBOX Games” roundup, and said, “This makes me hate Microsoft with a passion.” It makes zero sense.

      Nobody is saying that you can’t build a great website on any platform. Enjoy the nap.

      • Ben

        Bet you wish you hadn’t even bothered now eh J-Dub?!!!

    • Liam

      I’d really like to see this website that you’re making using your android smartphone ;) Sounds like a fun time.

    • Mitch

      Why begrudge the attention given to others, when the Windows market segment gets plenty of attention itself?

      I own a Ford Focus. Two actually. As a Focus owner, I’d be happy to hear about tweaks for automobiles in general. But an article that spoke to tweaking the computer control system to get better fuel economy in recent model year Ford small cars, has far more relevance to me. Relevance is good. I can safely ignore an article about GM cars while GM owners get more relevance at the same time. But griping because an article targets a particular segment of the audience is just silly.

  • http://hatchbackdesign.com Eric

    Geez, stop whining. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

  • http://matowens.com Mo

    For real peeps? A helpful post looking through the eyes of a fellow developer can only improve your own workflow. Everyone has a different style and he’s not saying this is the only, right way. Use it as a learning tool to help better your own lives and stop being a bunch of Apple bashing sissies. Thanks for the post J-Dub, looking forward to the Windows version myself. :)

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      Ahh – if only more people referred to me as J-Dub. :)

  • supprof

    calm down gays it’s a new year. i started this think to make a fun and rise a pure technical problem
    and jeffry way has responded positively so there is no more problem!
    not to make people hate others. ok.
    i am a pc user and i like apple and i hope one day i’ll have a mac and for me the best man in this indusry is STEVE JOBS.
    thanks to every body for their concern

  • http://mydigitalkiosk.blogspot.com/ Dinesh Verma

    Why do you guys completely ignore Windows?

    • http://www.jeffrey-way.com Jeffrey Way
      Author

      We don’t. This article simply happens to focus on Mac.

  • Rory

    Ah cool. I never knew about chrome autosave. Very nice.

  • Simon

    Im thinking of buying premium again so i can watch this video :).

    Good job jeff love your work!.

    hope there will be a iphone app for tutsplus soon :D

  • Simon

    Im thinking of buying premium again so i can watch this video :).

    Good job jeff love your work!.

    hope there will be a iphone app for tutsplus soon :D

  • Steve

    I love these kinds of screencasts. In fact tgis has just made me pay for my first year of tuts+ membership.

    Thanks very much. :)

  • http://yeonactivities.nl Sander

    Great list!

    Funny to see how the word “Mac” seems to trigger a lot of reactions all over the world…

  • rishi

    Please make Nettuts+ Builder, Nettuts+ Structurer for windows please it is too cool and one more thing give alternative for Windows user.

  • Nelson

    Jeffrey, you should change the title to “The Tools of Modern Mac-Based Web Development But-Soon-With-Windows-Version-So-Don’t-Bitch-About-It”.

    xD

  • http://www.bryankwilliams.com Bryan

    +1 for Codekit. I came across it one day and decided to give it a try and I have found myself using it a ton since. I try a lot of different apps and tools and most of the time they don’t really stick. Codekit is one of the handful that I can see myself using on a daily basis to help improve and streamline my web development.

    • http://incident57.com/codekit Also Bryan

      Hi Bryan, Bryan here. (The one that wrote CodeKit.) Just wanted to say thanks for the kind words. Stuff like this means a lot to me.

  • Albert

    Thanks for this list, LiveReload is awesome and so is Alfred. I’m also using Text Sublime 2 but hate the fact no ftp support is built in like in coda, would have made the decision to purchase the app much easier.

    • http://boundincode.com Liam

      I don’t know if it was mentioned in the video (I’m not a premium member) but check out Will Bond’s SFTP plugin for Sublime Text.

  • Patrick

    I would *love* to know what kind of hardware setups other devs are working with, as I’ll hopefully be doing some shopping for my home office this year.

    At work, I’m used to a two monitor setup, and I think I’ve struggled at home because I’ve only got my MBP, and no second monitor.

    I know some folks have mentioned that they’ve really liked the combo of an 11″ Macbook Air + 27″ Apple Cinema Display, but I was thinking of going with a Mac Mini + two monitor setup.

    I *do* need to test in the IEs, and sometimes in IE6 (gasp!), so whatever I wind up with will probably have a Windows 7 partition with XP mode or whatever it’s called for older IE support.

  • http://www.webpuzzlemaster.com Ripan Sil

    Fantastic one. Web development on mac, means now with some awesome displays of websites. The mac apps would even make it better.

  • goyote

    fuck macs

  • Ryan

    It’s pretty funny when people get mad over a subject of an article just because of the subject on something as tame as a specific operating system. So you don’t like Macs, what does nit liking the operating system have to do with good developer tools on it? It’s just people looking for something to argue about.

    Relevant to this article, those are definitely some great tools, thanks for listing them!

  • http://microsoft.com Willy G

    Mac specific AND premium? HOW DARE YOU!!!

  • http://www.clark-studios.co.uk Steve

    I would put selectvizr.js on there.

    • http://kustomdesigner.com mike

      This is one of the funniest comment threads Ive ever read :P