Nearing the end of my second week on the job at Terracotta. I’m going to try to document here the software that I use, much of which I had to install. Hopefully this will streamline things for the next newbie. If you’re like me and are making the transition from a PC, you may find my handy-dandy Mac transition guide useful.

Terracotta

• Terracotta.org is where the main software can be downloaded, including source code. Terracotta has been open source since December of ‘06.
• The Terracotta Forge is, among other things, a Maven repository of Terracotta-related projects such as Terracotta Integration Modules (TIMs)

General

• Firefox (download)
• Eclipse Java IDE
• Adium for IM (supports Yahoo, GTalk, etc)
• Skype for video chat
• Eyebeam soft phone (this is the non-free version of the free X-Lite soft phone, apparently with Leopard we must use this. You’ll need to get a download URL and license from the Terracotta help desk.)
• TextWrangler text editor
• TextMate not free but great text editor
• NetNewsWire feed reader
• Growl (download) system alerts, integrates with Adium, NetNewsWire, Elluminate and other Mac software
• NeoOffice (download) free OpenOffice for Mac (was preinstalled on my MacBook)
• iWork office suite, not free
• iStat menu bar meters for cpu, etc.
• Terminal (preinstalled) which as of Leopard is now tabbed
• Quicksilver
• OmniGraffle – graphics editor du jour
• Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client (preinstalled)

Java

• Jad (download) is a Java byte code decompiler

Eclipse Plugins (all of these were installed via Eclipse’s Update Manager)

• Terracotta Plugin (URL for update manager) – eases integrating Terracotta into a project
• ASM (URL) – you’ll want to install the ASM Framework and Bytecode Outline
• Groovy (URL) – syntax highlighting and whatnot
• Subclipse (URL) – Subversion support
• Maven (URL) – needed to resolve Eclipse inter-project dependencies using Maven pom.xml’s rather than Eclipse .classpath or .plugin files. (Not to be confused with Maven Eclipse plugin, a Maven plugin for generating Eclipse project files.)
• FindBugs (URL)
• QuickREx (URL) – regex
• Implementors (URL) – quickly navigate between interfaces and implementations, or super and sub classes

Firefox Plugins

• DZone plugin (download)

One of the many things I am learning as a Terracotta developer is how to do my work on a Mac. Prior to this job, I had developed software professionally only on PC’s. (I did do all of my Java development in grad school using Solaris on Sparc Stations, but that feels likes a long time ago now.)

Below is my attempt to document (i.e. sear into my brain) all of the various shortcuts I’m accustomed to using with Windows, and their equivalents in Mac. There’s already some good documentation on this subject out there, but this is tailored to my experience coming from a PC. This page will likely improve as I learn more.

So far I love my MacBook! I’ve been joking for weeks that I can’t wait to join the cult, and I’ve not been disappointed.

Eclipse
To pass args to Eclipse (ex: -vmargs -Xms128M -Xmx512M -XX:PermSize=64M -XX:MaxPermSize=128M), find the Eclipse icon in the Finder, hold the control key down and click on the icon, select “Show Package Contents”, find the Eclipse.ini file in the new window, and open with a text editor. (This is contained within the Eclipse application bundle.)

Misc
Taking Screenshots in Mac

Today, February 5th, 2008, is my first day as a Terracotta developer.

I intend to blog about both Terracotta and my progress as a developer. So far two ideas I have is to maintain a separate account of my transition from a PC to a MacBook Pro, and to document a checklist for new TC developers.

Terracotta developers are currently given the choice of windows, Mac OS or Linux. As I said, I’ve chosen a MacBook Pro as my computer. Mostly this is because my friend and boss Alex is already using one. It’s also because I wanted to try something other than windows, which is the only OS I’ve used professionally.

As you might expect, this first day was mostly about setting up my computer. Alex and I did talk about what I would work on first, which is the distributed testing framework that is in development and a set of test use cases centered around Terracotta’s distributed cache functionality. These use cases are based on a number of real world use cases. I’m particularly excited about one aspect of this in-house test framework, which is that the tests are scripted using Groovy.

I’ll be working from home, which is also another first. Frequently I’ll be working at Alex’s home, as I did this morning. This was a surreal but enjoyable experience and I’m looking forward to it. Last Friday was my last day of my 1.5 year stint as a contractor at Monsanto, so it was quite a contrast to go from that business casual environment to sitting on a folding chair in Alex’s basement with my shoes off.

Alex capped off my first morning nicely by treating me to lunch at Penn Station.