This page list some hints, to quick start development under Debian.
Packages
Some recommended packages:
debian-policy developers-reference gnupg-doc maint-guide debconf-doc debhelper build-essential dh-make dput lintian
(variants: dupload instead of dput), git-core, subversion
Some suggested packages:
w3-recs cdbs build-essential debian-maintainers debian-keyring po-debconf
(variants: po-debconf instead of debconf-utils)
Local configuration
In your ~/.profile set
export DEBFULLNAME="John Doe" export DEBEMAIL=john.doe@example.org
(and more ideas from Zg2ShellStartup).