While that’s a simple setup that most sites will point you to do, the default install has three characteristics that I find to be not only limiting but easy to overcome.

Website, select your platform (Windows / MacOS / Linux) and then select either the long-term support (LTS) version or current version ( go Installing Node.js is quite easy… just head to the Node.js is a popular choice because it is cross platform by nature so tools you write for it will run on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Many open source tools these days are built on top of I am working on a series of posts that aren’t specific to the SharePoint Framework but are tangentially related to the development experience. In spending time with and talking to developers making this jump, I’m finding they are interested in some of the tools and things I use. This style of development leverages popular open source tools built on Node.js and developers more time in the terminal/console than they are used to. Many if not most traditional SharePoint developers are new to the dev stack and build tool chain Microsoft selected for SharePoint Framework development.

Macos nvm