dotfiles

These are my Mac and Linux 'dotfiles'. I've recently become a VIM, TMUX and ZSH user and these are my settings. I have forked a version of vim-spf13 that I call vimeda and added some needed EDA libraries (while removing some languages not used in the EDA filed). vimeda can be easily installed on Linux & Mac (and soon Windows) so I recommend that you take a look at it if you work in the EDA field. These are my local tweaks and hacks and as such not automated and documented as much.

I keep my dotfiles on github so I can easily install my environment on a new machine. Below are my notes for what tools I install and how I configure them.

Steps to setup my environment on a new machine (mac/linux)

This is what I do when I setup a new machine (mac or linux).

Requirements:

These are the tools I use when I code. Will deal with details of how I configure them later. The General sections contains tools I use on Linux, Mac (and should work on Windows).

General:

• VIM 7.3+
• ZSH
• TMUX
• Source Code Pro (for Powerline) Font
• Mosh Mobile Shell

Mac:

• Alfred App
• Homebrew
• iTerm2

Todo:

• VIM build from source CentOS
• Linux Terminal Source Code Pro for PowerLine configuration

Installing/Updating tools needed :

This section goes through how to install and do basic configurations on the tools I use day to day. Later sections will focus on configuration of the main tools VIM, ZSH and TMUX. But before we get there we need a little bit of sanity.

This sections follows the order I install them in on a new machine.

Alfred [Mac only]

On a new mac the first thing I do is to install the Alfred App. It's a small app launcher that is started with Command+<space>. It's has all types of features but I mainly use it to switch between apps as I find it better then Command+Tab. I have paid for the PowerPack bundle, as I like to support small good developers but for what I use it for mostly the free version is more then enough.

iTerm2 [Mac only]

Next I install iTerm2. It's better terminal emulator then the built-in terminal and is easier to skin. I configure iterm2 in two ways: first I create two configurations for the Solarized dark & light color schemes and then I change the font to Source Code Pro for Powerline.

If you haven't checked out Solarized before I highly recommend you do so. It's a subtle but great color scheme for programming. Not as flashy as some but the contrast is just right for extended use and I find that I never grow bored with the looks. I switch between using the dark and light theme with a slight preference for the dark version.

To configure iTerm2 for solarized I do the following:

• Create two profiles for Solarized dark & light by going into Settings->Profiles and clicking the + sign.
• Download the Solarized iTerm2 profiles from their GitHub Repository. Note! that I download the files through the web browser and don't do a clone
• For each profile click the Colors tab and then Load Presets and import the download profiles.
• I set the default profile to be dark.

There are many great fonts for programming but the one I currently like is Source Code Pro from Adobe. It's an open-source font and free to use. Now I use some VIM/TMUX plug-ins that require special characters to be present. Luckily Source Code Pro has been patched to include these. So I download/install the fonts [from here] (https://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline-fonts/tree/master/SourceCodePro). Once installed I configure iterm2 to use Source Code Pro (for Powerline) and 12 or 13pt size.

At this point we have a good looking terminal running. Time to install the day to day tools I use.

Gnome Terminal Solarized [Linux Only]

This is not how I did it last time but it seems to work in a Gnome Terminal run the following commands. It will create a new profile called Solarized (and set it as the new default).

   git clone git://github.com/sigurdga/gnome-terminal-colors-solarized.git
   cd gnome-terminal-colors-solarized
   ./solarize

Then simply start a new terminal and it will show up all dark and nice. Your old "default" profile is still intact. If you run the './solarize' command again it will switch between light and dark. I put the script in my local "bin" area for safekeeping.

Homebrew [Mac only]

Homebrew is a Mac package manager for all "missing" packages that Apple didn't install. There are other package managers, like MacPorts, but I prefer Homebrew since it feels cleaner and more standard Linux to use.

To install simply run the following command and follow the prompts. The tool will install Apple Command Line Utilities from the App Store.

   ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"

Note! Once completed the tool asks you to run brew doctor before installing any packages.

Once we have homebrew installed we can install/update som needed tools.

Latest VIM

I like to use the latest version of VIM. Unfortunately CentOS 6 is stuck with an old version and needs to be compiled from source. I hope to document these steps later.

Mac install:

   brew install vim
   brew install macvim --devel
   brew linkapps

Note1! macvim --devel is currently needed since VIM 7.4 has not been declared stable for MacVim as of this writing (not sure what issue is).gq}

Note2! brew linkapps will link MacVim into your Applications folder

CentOS install:

TBD.

TMUX

Tmux is a terminal multiplexer like GNU Screen. It creates a persistent terminal sessions (think Remote Desktop but for a text terminalis) and allows you to create split and tabbed shells within one sessions. It works wonders together with VIM for code development/debug.

I use tmux all the time (but mostly on a remote linix host) as a way to handle all terminal and vim sessions I have running as well as dividing my work area into sections. If you do development on a mac it also integrates with iTerm2. You can read morea about how by following this link.

Mac install:

   brew install tmux

CentOS install:

   sudo yum install tmux

ZSH

I recently switched from bash to zsh. Zsh is a better shell for day to day coding with better looks and smart tab completions (when configured). I hope to dive into how I configure zsh later. I like to update to latest zsh on mac like this.

Mac install/update:

   brew install zsh

CentOS install:

   sudo yum install zsh

[Optional] Mosh

Mosh is a mobile/roaming shell that can be though of as a replacement for SSH. The cool thing about it is that it's persistent even if you close the lid on your laptop and/or switch networks. Once it can reconnect to it's sessions (anyway it can) it will resume it. It's very convinent for laptops! Downside is that it requires a mosh server to be running on the machine you connect to. Mosh is easy to install on CentOS (sudo yum install mosh) but also requires opening some ports in the firewall on the local machine. This should not be an an issue since it's already behine a VPN of some sort.

Mac install:

   brew install mobile-shell

CentOS install:

   sudo yum install mosh

Note! I had to open specific ports when I installed mosh on CentOS to make remote connections work. I didn't take notes but if I remember correctly mosh told me the command to sudo run

At this point you have a fairly good set of tools to code within. Next let's spend some time getting all the tools configured.

Install vimeda

I have forked the excellent VIM distribution vim-spf13 into a EDA specific distribution. Apart for being really well configured what I liked about spf13 is that it's dirt simple to install and yet easy to configure as needed. On mac/Linux simply run (and follow the prompts):

    sh <(curl http://bit.ly/vimeda-1_0 -L)>

This will download everything you need to have a great VIM session!

Install Oh-My-Zsh

Oh-My-Zsh is another great distribution to configure zsh into something great. It also comes with a great installer so:

    curl -L https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh | sh

Get/Link my misc dotfiles

Finally I need my own misc dotfiles to make life complete.

    git clone https://github.com/rekendahl/dotfiles.git .dotfiles
    ln -s .dotfiles/.zshrc
    ln -s .dotfiles/.vimrc.before.local
    ln -s .dotfiles/.vimrc.local
    ln -s .dotfiles/.tmux.conf
    ln -s .dotfiles/.alias
    ln -s .dotfiles/.gvimrc
    ln -s .dotfiles/.bashrc

Or for older git installs (i.e. on CentOS) use:

    git clone [email protected]:rekendahl/dotfiles.git .dotfiles

The shell setup files all use a .local_setup.sh that needs to be recreated for each new site.

DONE!