Today I’m going share with you my development setup which I find quite nice after working with Android for over 10 years. I find my setup to be extremally efficient and simple to setup.
Platform — Mac
My default go to platform for any sort of development is a Mac. I’m well aware that Mac is not the go to setup for a lot of the dev’s as highlighted here. Some will argue that Linux is the best but to me something about a Mac for development feels just right. I mean the easy to setup everything, the performance and the sheer power Mac OS brings to the board is amazing.
Theme — XCode Dark
I absolutely love dark theme. There are a bunch of advantages of a having a dark them. It’s beneficially to your eyes as well. For the longest time I was using the default dark theme from Android Studio (Dracula), Which is awesome in itself. But I found the highlighting of the code to be a bit dull. Enter XCode Dark. I just love the color combination and how well it highlights the code. It just felt right! Only if they made the them apply to the rest of and Android studio.
Font — Monolisa
If you have not yet tried any developer font, I would recommend you give them a shot immediately. These font help better read code, which is kind of what we do all day long. Monolisa is my absolute favorite font. It is a very customizable font which can help read code better.
Terminal — Oh My ZSH
ZSH is now the default terminal for Mac which is good but Oh My ZSH on top of that is just amazing. It’s a breeze working with the things on terminal when you are using a framework like Oh My ZSH. Also I don’t prefer using the terminal in Android Studio. I use the terminal the old fashioned way a separate window.
Screen Setup — Dual Monitors
Having two screens to work with is such a blessing. If you have not tried it out you must give it a shot. It might feel odd at first but once you try there is no going back. Your productivity just sky rockets when you have two monitors to work with.
Emulator — Embedded
The default android emulator works for me in 99% of the cases. Occasionally I will throw in GenyMotion here and there but most of the times It’s just the default emulator. I don’t really use an actually device. Even if I did then I use scrcpy to control the device from my screen. Something about having the emulator/mobile on the screen feel good to me.
Text Editor — Sublime Text
Mobile developers rarely need to use any sort of a text editor because the IDE mostly handles all your needs. But occasionally in those one of cases where you need a handy text editor I just turn to Sublime Text. It’s a simple text editor that just works.
Git — Terminal
Yes, I’m old fashioned! I use git from my terminal and don’t use any sort of GUI for git. Every single activity related to VCS is done on the terminal for me and yes that includes merging and rebasing code. This is just something I’m more comfortable with as I have total control. I guess when you have been developing for such a long time you don’t really care to use a tool for git.
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