Buying a new Macbook Air

Since I've no longer been working from home for work, all the computers (the PC and Mac Mini) have moved with me. This has been great in many ways. When I'm at work I have less distractions and can get more work done in the day. It also helps me be at home when I'm at home without always having part of my mind on work stuff, sat upstairs in the home office.

7 comments | Got something to add?

Nice post Andy! I recognize quite a bit. I’ve always used windows as well and am finally ready to switch to make the switch to Mac after realizing I’m missing out on quite a few nice Mac apps that I can’t try out.

I still haven’t been using version control even though I know I should. Funny you mention MAMP Pro, Git Tower and Beanstalk..those are exactly the things I’m going to try out when I order my iMac (still waiting for the 2011 refresh that’s coming soon according to rumors).

I’m going to bookmark this page and return to it when the iMac has arrived. Thanks again!
Leon

By GWCode on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #27
Thanks for taking the time to comment Leon.

The whole Git / Version Control / local development process did take a while to get around, but has made a big difference in terms of the quality I’m now working at, not to mention peace of mind that it’s all in place.

When the Air arrives, I’ll write another post on getting it set up.

By Andy on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #28
I would love to know how you’ve gone about setting up a base install of EE with Git. Seems like that would speed things up.

By Adam Clark on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #29
Hi Adam - thanks for commenting.

Although this could be blog in itself (!) I’ve essentially taken the basic EE files (currently using 2.1.3) and done all the various settings I use across 90% of all sites I set up, added latest versions of all the addons I use that are either free or are used in *every* site I make (Matrix & WYGWAM).

I’ve also got a series of channels, fields and dummy content in there so I can test stuff out before a client gets access, and a library of useful snippets I often use.

Beyond that it’s a case of using Git to handle the local files allowing me to update addons, template code etc as I go, and using NSM Bootstrap config.php file and Beanstalk to push these easily to development or live servers.

The only tricky bit that doesn’t work so well is the database - I’m still having to handle the import / export of this between servers as I go, but for the most part, I have the bare bones of an EE site ready to go with the simple cloning of it’s repo from Beanstalk.

By Andy on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #30
Thanks Andy for the detailed response. And thanks for writing about your workflow. It’s helpful to see how others are doing it.

I was mostly interested in your Git workflow. I’m new to Git and version control in general, so sorry for the probably obvious questions.

So, you have a repo with the base EE install that you described and then when you have a new project come along, you clone that and the clone becomes the new repo for the project?

By Adam Clark on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #31
Yep - pretty much!

The NSM Bootstrap is very helpful for having the same files on various servers, so I can develop locally and on more than one machine, and then push those changes to a development server and then the live site… but like I said, the database is the one sticking point as it doesn’t go over using ftp / git, and also needs copying into your newly cloned site.

Using something like Beanstalk / Codebase is what allows me to easily deploy to servers and also clone from the remote repos, but I guess there’s nothing to stop you cloning from a local repo.

By Andy on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #32
Thanks. I’m starting to get the picture. ;) I need to spend some more time with Git and figure out how it all works.

I’m primarily a solo dev, but I use multiple machines and it seems like getting this all setup would produce much streamlined and safer workflow. If all you’re doing to start a new project is cloning an repo and copying the db, that’s a huge time saver over starting everything from scratch every time.

Would love to see a write-up sometime of your whole revision control workflow for us beginners!

By Adam Clark on 24 Jan '12 | Tweet | #33

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Buying a new Macbook Air