4.5.14. Tools

  • Terminal: On OSX, when you navigate to the search magnification glass, you can type in terminal to start it. A terminal allows you to execute a number of commands to interact with the computer from a commandline interface, e.g. the terminal.

  • Bash it the command language used in terminal.

  • Pyenv allows to manage multiple versions of python easily. Pyenv link

  • XCode is an integrated development environment for macOS containing a suite of software development tools developed by Apple for developing software for macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS.

  • Homebrew is a package manager for OS X which lets the user install software from UNIX and open source software that is not included in OSX.

  • pyCharm: is an Integrated Development Environment for Python.

  • Matplotlib: Matplotlib is a libarry that allows us to create nice graphs in python. As we typically install python with virtualenv, we need to configure matplotlib properly to use it. The easiest way to do this is to execute the following commands. After you run them you can use matplotlib.

      $ pip install numpy
  $ pip install matplotlib
  $ echo "backend : TkAgg" > ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc

  • Macdown a macdown editor for OSX

  • Markdown (from Markdown)

  • AquaEmacs (from Aquaemacs)

  • Marvelmind (from Marvelmind if you have marvelmind positioning sensors which are optional)

  • Arduino (from Arduino if you like to use their interface to access the esp8266 boards)

  • 40 OSX Terminal Tricks

4.5.14.1. Markdown

MarkDown is a format convention that produces nicely formated text with simple ASCII text. Markdown has very good support for editors that render the final output in a view window next to the editor pane. Two such editors are

  • Macdown: MacDown provides a nice integrated editor that works well.
  • pyCharm: We have successfully used Vladimir Schhneiders Markdown Navigator plugin. Once installes you click on a .md file pycharm will automatically ask to install the plugins from Markdown for you.

A detailed set of syntax rules can be found at: BUG: LINK TO MARKDOWN SYNTAX MISSING

The following are some basic examples

  • To empazise a text you use *empasize*
  • To make text bold use **bold**
  • To make text bold-and-emphasize use ***bold-and-emphasize***
  • To create a hyperlink use [Google](https://google.com) which will result in Google
  • To include an image use ![Bracketed Text](link)

A list can be created by item starting with "*", a "-", or a "+" or a number

1. one
2. two
  1. one
  2. two
    * one
    * two
  • one
  • two

If you need to indent items underneath already bulleted items, precede the indent items with four spaces and they will be nested under the item above them.

To qoute textc precede it with a ">".

> Quote
Quote

Other syntax options can be found in the Format drop-down at the top of the screen between View and Plug-ins of macdown.

4.5.14.2. Aquamacs

There are many different versions of emacs available on OSX. Aquamacs is often used as it integrates nicely with the OSX GUI interface.

Aquamacs is a program for Mac devices which allows the user to edit text, HTML, LaTeX, C++, Java, Python, R, Perl, Ruby, PHP, and more. Aquaemacs integrates well with OSX and provides many functions through a menu. You will mostly be using the File, Edit, menus or toolbar icons.

Emacs provides convenient keyboard shortcuts, most of which are combinations with the Control or Meta key (The Meta key is the ESC key). If you accidentally end up doing something wrong simply press CTRL-g to get out without issue. Other Keyboard Shortcuts include:

  • CTRL-x u or File>Undo will cancel any command that you did not want done. (CHECK)
  • ESC-g will cancel any command you are in the middle of.
  • You can break paragraph lines with Ctrl-x w, where w will wrap text around word boundaries.
  • To delete text to the end of the current word, press ESC-d.
  • to delete the whole line from the position of the cursor to the end, press CTRL-k.

4.5.14.3. Bash

Bash is preinstalled in OSX. A bash script contains commands in plain text. In order to create a bash script please decide for a convenient name. Ltes assume we name our script myscript. Than you can create and edit such a script with

$ touch myscript.sh
$ emacs myscripts.sh

Next you need to add the following line to the top ogf the script:

!# /bin/bash

To demonstrate how to continue writing a script we will be using the bash echo command that allows you to print text. Lets make the second line

echo "Hello World"

You can now save and start executing your script. Click "File" and then "Save". Open Terminal and type in cd followed by the name of the folder you put the document in. Now we need to execute the script.

Executing a Bash script is rather easy. In order to execute a script, we need to first execute the permission set. In order to give Terminal permission to read/execute a Bash script, you have to type

chmod u+x myscript.sh

After the script has been granted permission to be executed, you can test it by typing

./myscript.sh

into the terminal. You will see it prints

Hello World

4.5.14.4. Arduino

This instalation is optional. In the event that there is a TTY error, you will need to install Arduino, since your Mac may be missing some drivers that are included in Arduino. Simply go to Arduino and follow the instalation instructions.