Setting up a Software Development Environment for macOS and Ubuntu Linux

PROGRAMMING TOOLS

Developer Tools Mac

Xcode

macOS X comes with most of the the Unix utilities make, diff, gcc, g++ (the clang equivalent), lldb, etc. already installed. You can install the free Xcode IDE from the Apple App Store

Install the command line tools also:

When you launch Xcode, it may ask you about which additional SDK's you wish to install

XCode Settings for a Command Line App in C++

I'll use my Primpoly app as an example. Create a new XCode project as a command line app in the C++ language. Drag and drop all source code files into the project. Then go to settings and change the locations for the products.

Add a new pre-build copy command to put some lookup tables in the same place as the executable by editing the Scheme

Make sure your source code and other files is in the correct location (not grayed out)

The new MacBook Pro is based on a 64-bit ARM CPU design and has a GPU on the same bus. Apple will automatically ask you to install Rosetta, which emulates the Intel CPU instruction set if you open an Intel App. Make sure you compile all source code to native ARM CPU code *.exe binaries, or you'll get a speed hit of 2X as your Intel binary is emulated on the ARM. You can look at info for any App to see if it is Universal (runs on Intel or Apple Silicon), Intel or Apple silicon).

Bash

The new macOS now uses zsh instead of bash (Apple Support: Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac) but you can install the latest version of bash and use it as your shell.

Download the Bash source code from Bash from GNU Web Site

Unpack the bash-5.1.tar file, move it to a convenient directory, cd into that directory, then run these commands,

This installs bash into both /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/bin:

Make the new version of bash your default shell for all terminals. First edit this file and add the new bash path at the top:

Then change the default shell on the command line and in the Terminal Preferences

Close all terminal windows, open a terminal window up again, and check the version

Brew

Brew installs other open source software on the Mac. (it's the macOS version of apt-get for Ubuntu Linux).

Brew will add this last line to your .bash_profile.

Remove this line. Instead, integrate brew's path into your Bash Settings

rsync

Install rsync with brew.

Ctags

Universal Ctags is a successor to Exuberant Ctags. First install Brew. Then install ctags,

If you have problems, uninstall,

Then reinstall as above.

Developer Tools Ubuntu Linux

Naturally, you've got all the unix tools or can easily install them using sudo apt-get from the terminal.

Ctags

To install Universal Ctags on Ubuntu Linux, download several SW tools first, download the source code, build and install

Bash Settings

I'm using the bash shell in preference to the macOS default zsh. Read the Beginner's Guide, Tutorial, and Reference then go to your home directory, and place the bash startup files .bash_login, .bash_logout and .bashrc there.

I have lots of utilties and shortcuts in these scripts. I automatically detect whether I'm on a macOS or Linux system.

Git

I use Git for source code control. It's out of the box in macOS

But better you should install a recent build

Also install the large file version

Install in Ubuntu Linux using

It's described in the Git Pro 2 Book. Here's an example of how I set up my Git repository for my Primpoly project using local repositories.

Git Configuration

In your home directory ${HOME}, create the global git configuration file .gitconfig

Local Protocol for the Git Repository

Create a local directory to serve as the Git repository. This is the simplest possible remote protocol, and can be used if you are on a single computer or everyone remotely shares your directory.

In your .bashrc file in home directory, add the location of the local git repository,

Let's add a new project Primpoly to the remote directory. The --bare flag says there are no files in this directory; it is only used as a central repository to push and pull from local working directories.

Set up a Local Git Snapshot

Let's place a collection of C++ source files under source code control. This will create a new .git subdirectory.

Add the files to source code control.

Your files are staged now. When ready, do a commit,

You can see your new branch and the history,

Set up the Remote Repository

Now we let the local directory Primpoly know about the remote repository.

Then we push up to the remote repository for the first time.

Verify the git repository is set up correctly by doing a test clone from the remote repository, and verify there are no differences between it and your local repository,

You can use macOS X mergetool/opendiff to resolve conflicts.

You can rsync the git repository and local files between macOS and Ubuntu Linux If you copy from macOS to Linux, the local git configuration file will point to the macOS home dir instead of the Linux home dir.

You can use a symbolic link to fix that by pointing Linux to the macOS type home directory.

You may also see the local files say they are changed. Just git restore them and pull again.

Make

Get a new version of make which you can download. To install, do the usual GNU procedure,

rsync

Download a new version of rsync. Unpack rsync-3.2.3.tar.gz file.

See the rsync INSTALL file for hints on how to install the missing libraries and/or how to generate (or fetch) man pages.

Then configure, build and install rsync and check the version.

ack

ack does regular expression searches of files within directories recursively. Think of it as fast replacement for combining find and grep with more powerful (Perl style REs) and lots of ways to customize searches.

For example, here are the old and new ways:

I downloaded the single Perl file version of ack then made it available to where my PATH could find and run it,

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

C++ Language and Compilers

Start by reading the textbooks A Tour of C++ by Bjarne Stroustrup and The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition then read the latest updates in the C++ Super-FAQ and the C FAQ

Mac OS X development tools contain the clang C++ and C compilers. They come with Xcode.

Ubuntu Linux To get C++ and C working in Ubuntu Linux, you can use g++ which is installed already. Or you can install clang, but you have to explicity install its libraries,

Then you can compile thus:

If that doesn't work (but it should), change your makefiles by replacing the default library -stdlib=libc++, with the older GNU library -stdlib=libstdc++

C++ GUIs

I haven't tried them yet but the C++ GUIs FoxTookit and WxWidgets sound interesting. WxWidgets looks a lot like Windows API with classes. Here is a tutorial ending up with source code for a tetris game.

LLDB Debugger

I use the lldb debugger in the llvm toolchain which comes installed on macOS.

Python

Keep the tutorial and library reference handy. Or better yet, download the whole set.

If you program LISP already, Python is very similar.

Python on MacOS

On macOS don't use the shipping python. Go to the Python Web Site and download the latest version of Python.

Python 3 installs into /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12 The installer will prefix the Python 3 path to your existing path in your .bash_profile

I don't like this so remove it and set up a custom .bash_profile to change the path in cleaner manner.

Check by running the command python3 -V that we call Python 3.12

Get the latest PIP and check the version.

Installing a virtual environment.

Create a virtual environment which uses Python 3.x in your home directory. Remove any old virtual environments first. This will create a hidden subdirectory .VENV.

Activate it. You’ll get a command line prompt showing you are in the virtual environment with the version of Python you chose.

For convenience, go into macOS Terminal ➤ Preferences ➤ Profiles to launch the virtual environment for the Ocean window profile.

To uninstall your Python virtual environment,

Python on Ubuntu Linux

On Ubuntu Linux install Python.

Install pip using

Install the virtual environment,

To enable the virtual environment in a terminal window, do this command,

Deactivate the virtual envionment using

For Python 3.x, install SSL root certificates, and install numpy, matplotlib, and other useful packages. See installing Python packages below for details.

Similarly to setting up .bash_profile for Python in macOS edit the code in your .bash_profile to set the path to Python 3.x On my Ubuntu Linux I've wired the bash profile script to automatically launch each new instance of terminal window in the Python virtual environment.

Installing Python Packages

You might as well upgrade pip then install every Python math library you need,

Keras and TensorFlow are optional.

You can verify which PIP modules you have installed:

If you are using a virtual environment, go into the VENV and do the pip upgrade and install all packages again, since you are in a separate sandbox, so to speak.

Here is a Python source code formatter. For example, I reformatted my web tool as follows:

PyCharm

I use the free community edition of PyCharm IDE on my Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro.

To create a new project from an existing file do File->Open and select the file.

I'm assuming you've set up a Python virtual environment. PyCharm should show it in the Settings:

Edit the configuration to put in command line arguments for your script.

Remarks

• You need to define a main() function or PyCharm won't run.
• If you get the error saying the SDK cannot be written to, try deleting all the Python interpreters in the list except the one you are using.
• You can format the source code to the Python PEP standard!

You can do source level debugging in the IDE and code inspection and refactoring.

Debugging Python on the Command Line

In this example, we use my program updateweb.py The program has been set up to either run from the command line or as a module.

Run Python and import the debugger module, and the entire script itself

Set up the debugger to run starting in the main() function with arguments,

Set a breakpoint in main

Start running the program. We stop at the breakpoint,

List the source lines around the breakpoint

Print a variable

Backtrace shows the calling stack,

See (Pdb) help and the Online Python Manual for more information.

Common Lisp

LISP is always ten years ahead at any given time.

Ubuntu Linux

Macs Download the install package for the binary from Steel Bank Common Lisp. Unpack and follow instructions.

Once installed, you'll get a bare-bones command line REPL. Try running $ sbcl from the command line and try

You can also run a LISP script from file directly:

For convenience, I load my Common LISP parser generator project in the SBCL startup file .sbclrc

However, your life will be much easier if youw download and install Slime Unpack and install the slime directory in /Applications/slime then install this .emacs file in your home directory:

Vim, Ctags, Emacs, Slime, Steel Bank Common Lisp.

You should also install Emacs Invoke Emacs and with the command M-x slime go into Lisp interaction mode. Useful REPL commands are Control-c Control-p to move back one prompt, Control-c Control-n to move forward, Control-a and Control-e to go to beginning and end of the line, Control-x o to switch between buffers, Control-C Control-D d to lookup documentation for a symbol, and Control-X Control-S to exit emacs.

For LISP tutorials and references online see

• Practical Common Lisp by Peter Seibel
• On Lisp by Paul Graham
• Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition by Guy L. Steele, Jr.

I've also used CLISP

Perl

I was programming in Perl and switched over to Python after discovering this article.

FORTRAN

The first language I learned was FORTRAN from Bill Joy at U. C. Berkeley!

Berkeley Computing Center Punched card circa 1975.

It now has object oriented programming!

On Ubuntu Linux install GNU Fortran using

Here's a sample program

Build it and run it!

Math Software

SciPy

SciPy is a scientific math suite for Python.

Here's how to install on Mac.

You can list the packages installed using either python -m pip list or pip list.

To uninstall a package, for example, numpy, do

Here's an example taken from Normality Tests in Python Run python from the command line and type in these commands:

Normal Histogram

QQ Plot

Sympy

Sympy is a symbolic math package built on top of Python.

Here's how to install on Mac.

First install mpmath by doing

And here's a simple plot,

Sympy plot( x**2, (x,-1,1))

Octave

Octave is a free MATLAB clone.

Run Octave.app from /Applications. It comes up in a terminal window. In the window, cd to your working directory containing your MATLAB .m files. Type the name of your MATLAB function or type the name of the .m file if you have just an inline main program.

SageMath

SageMath is a free mathematics software system comparable to Mathematica. You can interact with it using the Jupyter notebook interface. Follow the download instructions. Double click to launch. When you launch it, it will open up a couple of windows in your default web browser. This takes a few minutes, so wait patiently.

I've used it on my primitive polynomial finder

R

R is a statistical and plotting language.

For the Mac you can Download R as a package. Be sure to check the signature of the *.pkg file before you install it.

EDITORS

VIM Programmer's Editor

Download gvim from Vim for Mac and Ubuntu Linux. Don't forget the Vim User Manual and tutorial.

Don't forget to define the gvim function in your .bash_profile.

In Ubuntu Linux install gvim like this:

I've customized the Vim GUI in the startup file .vimrc which lives in the home directory ~ on Mac or Ubuntu Linux. Here is my .vimrc

Searching Multiple Files in Vim

For example, to search all *.cpp files in the current directory for the word static_cast, do this on the vim command line:

You can then go to the line containing the pattern you want and hit return to go to the file.

Searching Patterns in Multiple Files in Vim

Or better yet, you can use ack instead of grep for searches using the ack.vim plugin

File Differences in Vim

LibreOffice - Free Replacement for Microsoft Office

LibreOffice is free office suite compatible with Microsoft Office. Their apps can replace Excel, Word and PowerPoint. There are also Math and Database apps. LibreOffice apps can read Excel, Word and PowerPoint files, but may not be able to write recent versions of the file format. Say "yes" when the installer asks for permission to install and "yes" when LibreOffice asks to view documents in your directory.

ΤεΧ

For macOS download an install bundle from the MacTex TeX User's Group,

For Ubuntu Linux install using the install instructions,

Then try it out on a LaTeX file by processing it to a .pdf

View the .pdf file with either

or

Be sure to read the quickie introduction A (Not So) Short Introduction to LATEX2ε

Art Software

GIMP Paint Program

Similar to Adobe Photoshop with paint tools and layers, but free, GIMP runs on both Mac and Ubuntu Linux download it and its documentation from Gimp

Gimp

In Ubuntu Linux install with

Blender

Blender is a free 3D rendering and animation tool. I have a worked example on my art page.

Inkscape

I use Inkscape to do the drawing and generate SVG files.

To install on Ubuntu Linux,

Right click on the Dash, and Add to Favorites

INTERNET

Netzero ISP

I used connect to the internet through the dialup telephone line using Netzero but now I use AT&T Uverse.

FTP

On macOS I use the FTP client Transmit. Not free but very easy to use.

On Ubuntu Linux I use the free FTP client FileZilla. which is easily installed,

Web Browsers

Download the Firefox, Opera and Chromium browsers. Safari comes with MacOS.

Email Clients

Zoom

Install Zoom client for virtual meetings with other humans.

Antivirus for Mac

Install free Avast Antivirus Mac because it's prudent.

GAMES

Stellarium

Stellarium is a free planetarium program.

Red Pill Screen Saver

Get the source code from GitHub opx3 / RedPill2. You can clone the repository using

Build in XCode in Release mode. Let XCode update your settings. Double click on RedPill.saver to load it.

Exif Metadata Read/Write Tool

Exiftool lets you view and rewrite metadata in files. For a book in PDF format, the title will be the file name and the author will be read from the metadata. Set the author using the command

APPENDIX

Installing Ubuntu Linux on a 2009 17 Inch MacBook

Too slow to really be useful, but here for fun.

Preliminaries

I will install on an old MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009) running OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 (15G31).

You can read through these excellent guides on Install Linux on a Mac and how to dual boot Linux and macOS I took a little from both and from the Ubuntu web site documentation.

Installing the Boot Loader

The Mac's own boot manager has problems recognizing the Ubuntu OS. Thus you need to install a third party EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) boot manager to be able to dual boot the Mac into Ubuntu or macOS. Visit the rEFInd Boot Manager Web Page. Download rEFIfind version refind-bin-0.11.2.zip

Downloading rEFFind

Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) so you can install the boot loader. Shut down the Mac for 30 seconds. Then reboot in recovery mode. You can hold down the Option key and select the Recovery Disk. Select Terminal from the OSX Utitities menu bar and type csrutil disable. Then reboot again.

Unzip and install. You'll see I've already installed it once before.rEFInd

Gauss:refind-bin-0.11.2 sean$ sudo ./refind-install ShimSource is none Installing rEFInd on OS X.... Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at /Volumes/ESP Found rEFInd installation in /Volumes/ESP/EFI/refind; upgrading it. Found suspected Linux partition(s); installing ext4fs driver. Installing driver for ext4 (ext4_x64.efi) Copied rEFInd binary files Notice: Backed up existing icons directory as icons-backup. Existing refind.conf file found; copying sample file as refind.conf-sample to avoid overwriting your customizations.

Now Shut Down your Mac.

Disk Drive and Partitions

Bring up the Disk Utility and resize your macOS partition smaller to give more room to Ubuntu. If you have extra non-contiguous partitions which you cannot merge, you can at least format them as ExFat so Linux can see them later.

In detail, here are our disk partititions,

Seans-MBP:~ sean$ diskutil list /dev/disk0 (internal, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *320.1 GB disk0 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Linux Filesystem 130.0 GB disk0s2 3: Linux Swap 9.7 GB disk0s3 4: Apple_HFS Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s4 5: Microsoft Basic Data Untitled 100.5 GB disk0s5 6: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s6 7: Apple_CoreStorage Gauss 77.7 GB disk0s7 8: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s8 /dev/disk1 (internal, virtual): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: Apple_HFS Gauss +77.3 GB disk1 Logical Volume on disk0s7 D016C459-3197-4791-9145-96EF497E4E65 Unlocked Encrypted Seans-MBP:~ sean$ diskutil listFilesystems Formattable file systems These file system personalities can be used for erasing and partitioning. When specifying a personality as a parameter to a verb, case is not considered. Certain common aliases (also case-insensitive) are listed below as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PERSONALITY USER VISIBLE NAME ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ExFAT ExFAT Free Space Free Space (or) free MS-DOS MS-DOS (FAT) MS-DOS FAT12 MS-DOS (FAT12) MS-DOS FAT16 MS-DOS (FAT16) MS-DOS FAT32 MS-DOS (FAT32) (or) fat32 HFS+ macOS Extended Case-sensitive HFS+ macOS Extended (Case-sensitive) (or) hfsx Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+ macOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) (or) jhfsx Journaled HFS+ macOS Extended (Journaled) (or) jhfs+

Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Stick

Download Ubuntu Desktop, version Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish). You'll get a file in your Downloads folder called ubuntu-22.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso

Create a Bootable USB Stick for Mac. I'll go through a worked example below.

You'll need a 2GB USB thumb drive or larger. Insert it and bring up Disk Utility with the option of Show All Devices

Select the device, not the volume. Make sure it's NOT you hard drive or backup drive!

Now erase the disk specifying format = MS-DOS (FAT) and Scheme = GUID Partition Map

Next, install the open source utility Etcher, downloading the version for macOS.

Now run it, selecting the Ubuntu ISO file and the thumb drive the push Flash. Etcher will ask for your system password and give you an estimated time.

After completion, select Eject

Install Ubuntu

Connect an Ethernet cable to your Internet Service Provider and the other end to your Mac; use a USB to Ethernet dongle if you don't have a native Ethernet port on your Mac.

Plug the USB drive containing the Ubuntu Linux distribution into your Mac. Restart your Mac. If you installed rEFInd the boot manager will automatically appear. Select the EFI Boot icon from the list in the boot device menu.

If you have a problem seeing the boot manager, or if you already have done an Ubuntu installation do this: as soon as the Mac starts to boot up, hold down the Option key. Keep holding it down until you see the Mac's boot manager display a list of available devices you can start up from. Select the EFI Boot icon from the list in the boot device menu.

Now go through the Ubuntu installation process.

You'll see either This computer currently has no detected operating systems. Or if you had previously installed Ubuntu, This computer has Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) on it.. Select something else since we want to fiddle with partitions.

Here is the list of partitions,

Now select the partition you want to use for Ubuntu (the 130GB) and hit - to delete it. You'll see it converted to free space.

Reformat the freespace using + as Ext4 journaling file system with mount point /.

Do the same for Linux swap space, giving yourself about 10GB,

Finally, click on the Format ? box, then click on Install Now

Your last chance, so double check what Ubuntu wants to do!

Now continue the installation. Ubuntu asks you where you are located. Next, enter user name and password. You will be the superuser.

Now let the installation complete, remove the thumb drive and reboot into Ubuntu automatically. Ubuntu asks if you want to update; say yes.

Just for grins, open Terminal and run a manual updating and upgrade all software, then remove unneeded software,

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get autoremove

Two Display Screens Show Up Instead of One

The Mac comes up with two displays shown. Toggle one display to avoid showing one blank display when screen sharing.

Ubuntu Freezing at Boot Time

My computer was freezing upon bootup. It's a problem with NVIDIA drivers, and you can fix Ubuntu freezing by turning them off at bootup. I'll repeat the instructions here with minor changes for my system. Upon bootup, hit the ESCAPE key once. You might have to experiment to get the timing right. You'll go into a boot menu,

Hit the E key to go into edit mode and add the option nomodeset after the the quiet splash in the linux line,

Then save and reboot. To make changes permanent, not just for this boot, edit the grub configuration file,

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

sudo update-grub2

Wireless Connection

Connect to your local Wireless node by clicking on the top right menu bar settings.

Select Wireless settings, and type in your Wireless Key and connect.

If you cannot connect to Wireless, you may need to install the Wireless driver. I found it by looking at Broadcom Linux Wireless Drivers Install using the line below and reboot after you install.

sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source

Mounting an Additional FAT Partition

I had an unused partition, so I launched the Disks application and formatted it as Extended FAT to be visible to Ubuntu. You might have to toggle the Right Arrow icon to mount it; it will say mounted at /media/sean/Backup

Here then is the final partition map,

Reading USB Drives Formatted in Extended FAT

To read a USB drive formatted in Extended FAT format, install the drivers.

sudo apt-get install exfat-utils exfat-fuse

Now you can format a USB drive as Ex FAT, plug it into your computer, and read it.