Category: Development Machine Environment

Language Stack Installation for Python & Go

Previously I’ve gone through the steps I take to get a solid development machine setup. From the base operating system load, to the browser and basic IDEs I install. Now I’ve got more videos and the respective notes and details about what two language stacks I setup next; Python and Go.

Python

In regards to the Python stack, this one can often be somewhat confusing. Depending on the operating system I setup the stack a little differently.

MacOS

For MacOS I’ve written two posts about this previously, one titled “Getting Started with Python Right!” and one “Unbreaking Python Through Virtual Environments“. Those two posts cover most of the nuance to getting a base Python stack installed on MacOS and then using virtual environments to manage project specific versions per repository.

Linux

For the Linux OS, usually a debian variant, the systems tend to have Python 3 installed by default. I then take the next step of installing pip3 and work from there. The IDE, PyCharm from Jetbrains uses virtualenv to setup virtual environments per repository from that point forward.

Python Setup && Reasons

For more details about the specific walk through, I’ve created this video to walk through setting up Python 3 on Ubuntu and verifying, and also by use of PyCharm to setup a small verification app it shows how the virtualenv sets up a specific environment for the new verification project.

The reasons for installing Python first are numerous. One of the first reasons is that Python is required for installing and using numerous Python related CLIs, such as AWS’s CLI, among many others. It pays off to just have a good install at the system level (i.e. not particular just in a virutal environment, but executable at the terminal on system) to ensure it is available for any and all CLIs that would need it. If you’re into data science work, that’s a huge second reason, because Python is used in about every aspect of data science work, machine learning, and related endeavors.

Go Setup && Reasons

The reason I go for Go as my second language stack install is driven by two primary reasons:

  1. I like writing Go and use it myself for a number of reasons. Such as, it is ridiculously quick and minimal work to build a CLI for use in systems that requires only a single binary executable for use.
  2. I use Go for a lot of other work-related efforts, around Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, and others.

With that, here’s the quick install and initial project for verification setup.

If you’d like to take a few other quick tours of Go, here are some posts, with videos, putting together a Go module project and writing an initial test in under 3 minutes and setting up an HTTP server in about 15 minutes.

That’s it for now. However, if you’re interested in joining me for next steps, language stack setup, and more in addition to writing some JavaScript, Go, Python, Terraform, and more infrastructure, web dev, and all sorts of coding I stream regularly on Twitch at https://twitch.tv/adronhall, post the VOD’s to YouTube along with entirely new tech and metal content at https://youtube.com/c/ThrashingCode. Feel free to check out a coding session, ask questions, interject, or just come and enjoy the tunes!

For more on my open source efforts and related projects, sign up for the Thrashing Code Newsletter!

Development Machine Environment Build & Language Stack Installations – Browsers & IDE’s

In this video I put together some basic IDE’s and browsers I install. In the case of browsers that includes more than a few. For the case of IDE’s it’s my standard arsenal of Jetbrains IDE’s and Visual Studio Code. For the previous step in this series, check out the Base OS Load post.

Additional Notes

Here’s the full list of IDE’s I installed.

IDEs

Browsers

That’s it for now. However, if you’re interested in joining me for next steps, language stack setup, and more in addition to writing some JavaScript, Go, Python, Terraform, and more infrastructure, web dev, and all sorts of coding I stream regularly on Twitch at https://twitch.tv/adronhall, post the VOD’s to YouTube along with entirely new tech and metal content at https://youtube.com/c/ThrashingCode. Feel free to check out a coding session, ask questions, interject, or just come and enjoy the tunes!

For more blogging, I’ve write on https://compositecode.blog and the Thrashing Code Newsletter for more details about open source projects and related efforts I work on, sign up for it here!

Development Machine Environment Build and Base OS Load

For the next post in this series building a development machine environment check out the browser & IDEs post.

Development Machine Environment Build & Language Stack Installations – Getting a Base OS Load

Operating System Notes

When choosing an operating system to work with there are a number of factors to take into account. Some of these factors include;

  1. What language stack and tooling will you need to use?
  2. What focus beyond software development will the machine have?
  3. What apps and tooling do you already have?

There are many other questions, around costs and licensing, and other errata that you’ll need to take into account. One thing however, regardless of what you choose, the bulk of software development with most software languages, their respective tooling stacks work on almost any operating system you’d choose.

In this particular example and the following material I’ve chosen Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Long Term Support) to use as my operating system. I’ll build a virtualization image of the operating system so that I can reuse time and time again. The virtualization software I’m using is VMWare’s VMWare Fusion software, but just like the operating system you can use most virtualization software and it will work just fine.

Getting a Base OS Loaded

It is often important to load a new operating system installation onto a machine for use in application (re: web/software/IoT/mobile/etc) development. This can help us better understand what is installed and effecting various affects on the machine itself, it can insure that we have known assets that aren’t influencing server or other manipulations, and a long list of positives over taking whatever one is given from the various computer system manufacturers.

This post is the first in a series (here on Dev.to and on my core blog https://compositecode.blog). I’m going through precise steps, but I’m keeping it general enough with pointers and related tips for MacOS and Windows that the series will be useful for anyone building their first or tenth or twentieth development machine regardless of operating system or hardware.

My Installation Specifics

I’m using a Macbook Pro 16″ w/ enough RAM and compute cores that I split off a solid 4-8GB of RAM dedicated to the VM that has the host OS. In addition, I set the compute

To do this, in VMWare Fusion pull up the settings for the Virtual Machine that was created. To note, when the virtual machine is shutdown you can change these settings to add or decrease memory, compute cores, etc. But do note, sometimes this will make an operating system unstable. The rule to follow is, set the resources at time of creation and leave them set.

Once the settings are open, click on the processors and memory option.

Settings Screen for the Virtual Machine

That will display this screen where the values can be set. I also show stepping through this process in the video.

Alt Text

That’s it for now. However, if you’re interested in joining me for next steps, language stack setup, and more in addition to writing some JavaScript, Go, Python, Terraform, and more infrastructure, web dev, and all sorts of coding I stream regularly on Twitch at https://twitch.tv/adronhall, post the VOD’s to YouTube along with entirely new tech and metal content at https://youtube.com/c/ThrashingCode. Feel free to check out a coding session, ask questions, interject, or just come and enjoy the tunes!

For more Thrashing Code Newsletter for more details about open source projects and related efforts I work on, sign up for it here!