Proposal: macOS development setup

[namcios]

Goal

Complete Blockchain Common's secure development setup for macOS repo to provide documentation and scripts for setting up git, github, gpg and ssh on a new Mac computer.

Why?

People from different fields have much to contribute to engineering and development projects. However, some intricacies stand in the way and can make their life harder, often pushing them away from contributing. To save time and efforts, we could leverage automation and thorough documentation to provide an easier way for them to get properly set up with the necessary tools, enabling an easier path towards contributing to developer projects.

This project therefore aims to provide a suite of scripts and documentation for helping anyone get more easily set up with important collaboration tools, such as Github, Git, GPG, SSH. After going through the initial setup, a given user could move on to using just Github Desktop, for instance, and be freed from dealing with the terminal.

Use Cases

Writer Wants to Contribute to Open Source Project

Mariah is a writer based in San Diego who enjoys the idea of open source software but doesn't understand the underpinning technology. She wants to help, and has spotted a number of projects to which she can contribute with her writing knowledge. But she doesn't know where to start –– it just all seems so daunting. One day, a colleague told Mariah about this project that sought to enable people like her to more easily set up her machine to contribute to open source software.

Secure Development Setup for macOS enabled Mariah to easily get up and running with the most essential tools for contributing to open source software development. She can now collaborate with other people anywhere, easily leveraging the easy interface of GitHub Desktop and the many automations that SDSmacOS provided her. She uses a text editor for collaborative writing and reviewing other people's writing.

The environment which SDSmacOS helped Mariah setup included the set of tools necessary to have her up on speed quickly to contribute with her knowledge. After running some scripts and going through some tutorials –– all provided by SDSmacOS –– she can use GitHub Desktop instead of Git on the command line with no loss of features.

How?

Leverage Strap and Christopher's prepare-osx-for-webdev repo, and include some learning directions for CLI and thorough documentation and walk-throughs.

Milestones

• Finish documentation (30 July 2021)
  • Command Line 101
  • GPG with GitHub
  • Link to other useful tutorials
• Finish scripts (15 August 2021)
  • Update macOS and increase security
  • Install Mac command line tools
  • Install brew, gpg, git, cask, github desktop, atom and/or typora
  • Install any additional tools
  • Authenticate GitHub account
  • Generate gpg key, trust it, and set permissions for PGP
• Document and test how to make it work with GitHub Desktop; finish testing everything else (20 August 2021)
• Finish all documentation; identify incomplete areas or rooms for improvement; share results with the community and engage usage; write honest post-mortem (27 August 2021)