Here’s a brief environment setup how-to for Ethereum development. It’s based on Mac OS.

1. Install Python2.7.
2. Install solc, the solidity compiler, and solc-cli
   sudo npm install -g solc solc-cli --save-dev
3. Install ethereum/cpp-ethereum, via brew
   brew tap ethereum/ethereum
brew install ethereum
4. Install testrpc (to deploy smart contract as local test environment) via pip.
5. Install Node.js.
6. Install truffle(for fast local compiling and deploying smart contracts).
   npm install -g truffle