Code Perspective

My last Mac OS X tip(found Here) allows you to enable hidden folders in Mac OS X. Now if you have hidden folders enabled then you may be wondering what the .DS_Store file is in absolutely every single directory you go to?

The .DS_Store file is actually the way that spotlight is able to find things on your computer as quickly as it can. It indexes your directories whenever something changes, and that’s why when you plug in an external drive, it takes a while for spotlight to find items on it. This is because the .DS_Store file has to index the entire drive before spotlight can start finding anything. This means absolutely every single directory on the drive as well. So beware large drives can take a long time to index.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Ever wondered what’s actually in the application you’re installing on your mac? Or maybe you just want to access some folders that are hidden to configure some options. It’s actually quite simple to do. Here are the few steps necessary to enable hidden folder view in Mac OS X.

1. Open the Terminal(Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
2. Type defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES into the terminal window and press enter.
3. Restart your computer or simply force quit the finder(restarting the finder)

That’s it, you now should see all the hidden folders in you finder.

Cheers

If you’ve ever downloaded a linux distro in the form of an ISO disc image, you may be wondering how to burn it to a DVD in order to make it bootable. So here are the steps for burning an ISO disc image to a DVD. All you need to get started is a blank DVD, and a linux distro ISO image.

1. Insert the blank disc into your mac. When it pops up asking how you want to open it, choose finder.
2. Open Disc Utility(Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility), and you should see the dvd on the left hand menu bar.
3. Choose File > Open Disk Image and you should see the mounted disk image on the left hand menu bar below the dvd you inserted.
4. Click on the ISO file(not the mounted drive) and then click burn at the top left corner of the disk utility window.
5. Follow the onscreen instructions and choose the options you want to burn the disc with.
6. Click “Burn”

That’s it, the disc should start burning and eject on it’s own unless otherwise specified. It’s slightly hidden but pretty straight forward once you know where to go.

Cheers

1. Apple Developer Tools – These are just a no-brainer here. There is a huge arsenal of apps that come standard with every mac that absolutely EVERY developer that is developing for mac os x needs. Xcode, Dashcode, Instruments, Interface Builder, etc. There are a ton more to check out if you haven’t already, and all of them will considerably ease your development experience on OS X.

2. Eclipse- Eclipse is the ideal application for java development on Mac OS X. With the amount of features that eclipse offers, it’s almost impossible to skip this application if you do any level of java development. The “intellisense” that eclipse includes while you’re coding is unprecedented.

3. Photoshop/ Gimp – This is a must have for any type of website development/interface development. Whether it’s doing website mockups or drawing new buttons for your application, this is a must have.

4. Coda – I can’t speak enough good things about coda. This application has exceeded my expectations in every way possible. Whether it’s through the handy “sites” feature, or connecting to a server using the built in console, this is by far the best web development app for Mac OS X. Well worth the 100 bucks!

5.uTorrent – A very simple torrent application. Extremely easy to use and very efficient. Having the ability to select which files you want to download and which you don’t is a huge bonus.

6. Adium – A very powerful messenger application for Mac OS X. From IRC plugins, to customizing the look and feel, Adium can pretty much do it all.

7. Jing – This screen capture application hides almost out of sight in your menu bar but packs some powerful features. Jing has the ability to capture screen casts of your applications in action as well as screen shots. Great App!

8. QT Creator – From the designer’s of the famous UI toolkit QT comes their first IDE. QT Creator is a fantastic IDE for developing QT Apps. From the WYSIWYG editor to the syntax editor, great app all around.

9. Prism – Pretty cool new(ish) app from Mozilla. This application allows you to capture sites like gmail and make them into a desktop application so you don’t have to open a browser every time you want to say check your email.

10. iStat Menu’s – This light-weight app will allow you to truly track your applications performance and see if you potentially have a memory leak in your app. Has a separate monitor for each CPU to allow the user to see what’s going on in each CPU at any given time. A must have even for non-developers.

11. XMind – This extremely powerful mind-mapping tool is great for those pre-alpha stages of development. Getting as many ideas down as quick as possible is extremely easy for this application to handle. The application is based on the eclipse platform and is very solid.

12. Virtual Box – This open source application is great for testing applications in numerous environments. Test run your apps on Linux, Windows, BSD and more.

13. VmWare Fusion – This is a must have for all developers but especially for those doing web development with coda. Allows you to run windows applications natively on Mac OS X. Another great app for testing in multiple environments as well.

Cheers