Mac Setup

1. Instructions
2. Installing Flutter and iOS/Android Tools
3. Testing your setup

Instructions

Developing on Mac entails installing many tools, and each tools has multiple installation steps. Before you begin, answer these questions:

1. Do you have an Apple Silicon chip (M1 or M2), or an Intel chip (older Macs)?
2. Do you want to develop for iOS, Android, or both?
3. Do you have around 15-20 GB of free disk space?

The iOS and Android development tools (Xcode and Android Studio respectively) are around 10GB each. Make sure that you have enough disk space to support your chosen platform(s) before you install.

Below are the jumping off points for installing the development tools. You need to read and follow the instructions on each linked page carefully.

Many of the instructions entail running commands in the Terminal application. Sometimes, running the Terminal commands will have additional instructions when they are completed – read those instructions and apply them as appropriate.

Installing Flutter and iOS/Android Tools

Follow the instructions on: https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/install/macos. Select the option for the phone you have.

Read and follow all instructions carefully!

• Read and follow the instructions top to bottom. Ask if you have questions.
• You will need to install multiple tools, including XCode, Cocoapods, Flutter, and Visual Studio Code. It is a long process.
• For your editor, install “Visual Studio Code 1.75 or later with the Flutter extension for VS Code.”

Testing your setup

1. Create a folder in your %HOME% directory called flutter_projects
2. Follow the instructions for Test Drive: https://docs.flutter.dev/get-started/test-drive?tab=vscode with the following modifications:
   • When asked to Select a folder to create the project in, select the flutter_projects folder you created.
   • For a quick and dirty test, you can use a Web Browser as the target device.
   • If you’re developing for iOS, you’ll need to launch an iOS simulator as in the instruction page.
   • If you’re developing for Android, you should see the options to pick an Android Emulator device to run on.
3. Running/Debug will begin the process of compiling and running the Flutter project. This process will take a long time the first time you do it, but should be faster after that. You should see some output appear in the “Debug Console”. The Debug Console will likely show a lot of things being downloaded – this is okay, and also why it’s taking so long. Be patient.