Day / Days of Code: Evaulating MacBook for Development

Sat, Aug 17, 2024

When I decided to join a coding bootcamp, I noticed that about 70% of my employer’s developers chose Macs. This mattered to me because everyone in my department had Windows laptops, which had a high failure and issue rate. In my first week there, I had two replacements, and two more in the following years—all Dell business refurbs. We took these home daily and worked remotely when needed, but they were temperamental.

I encourage any prospective developer to test drive a MacBook; you’ll likely find it has one of the best build qualities. However, Apple products can get expensive quickly when you add options. Even simple upgrades like storage come at a premium. Also, note any display and connectivity limits. I was looking for something simple and affordable, and found that the entry-level MacBooks were reasonably priced. If RAM levels seem low, it’s because Apple uses compression.

I bought a MacBook to evaluate its feasibility for coding bootcamp. I expected some pain when I gave my home PC to a coworker. The biggest challenge was learning all the shortcuts. Although there is a lot of feature parity with Windows and Linux, macOS runs to its own pulse. For example, macOS is getting snapping windows this Fall, although I run a free package named Rectangle to provide snapping. It helps to have a bit of Linux background, as I needed to add a line to /etc/fstab to prevent my headphone firmware from automounting.

Despite these challenges, my MacBook has been inspiringly solid, even after several plane trips. It not only served its purpose but replaced my PC, which was never the intention. There are still some Mac-specific quirks to manage. My main text editor is TextMate (similar to Notepad++). However, there’s no built-in way to see word counts, even in TextEdit (similar to Notepad). Fortunately, it only takes two lines of AppleScript in Automator to get word counts in any app. Save the following as “Text Selection Word Count” in Automator:

on run {input, parameters}

set numwords to the number of words of (input as string)
display dialog "Word Count: " & numwords
return input
end run

Now, in any app, you can select text, then either right-click to find it in the Quick Actions menu, or access it from the menubar Services menu. I’ve reached a point where macOS feels pretty natural.

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