What is VSCode?

By Priyal Patel for Neurotech@Davis

VSCode is an IDE, integrated development environment. What this means is it combines various applications that run separately into one application.

VSCode is just one option, so feel free to use your preferred IDE.

Installing VSCode

Download the application on to your device.

How to Use

In Finder/File Explorer, under Applicantion find "Visual Studio Code" and click to open.

Review the 'Getting Started Guide' in Additional Resources.

Key Features

File Tree

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Allows you to see, edit, and easily move all sub-folders and files in your project.

Terminal

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The terminal is easily accessible from within VSCode. This allows you to run your code faster and easily check-in your code using git; the next section will provide more information about git.

Extensions

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Also known as plugins, Extensions allows you to install packages. These could be necessary dependencies for your code or tools to help make the process of writing code easier. Feel free to explore the plugins available.

Here are some useful plugins:

WSL

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For Windows users, this plugin will allow you to use linux commands in the terminal.

Live Share

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This plugin allows multiple people to edit the same files in real time.

See the 'Live Share Guide' in Additional Resources for more information.

Prettier

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When you click save, this plugin automatically formats your code to match standard coding formatting practices. This allows for consistent formatting and helps with make your code more readable.

Additional Resources