Visual Studio Code 0/1
Visual Studio Code
One of the most common code editing enviornment that supports multiple languages and plugins
Writing code can be sometimes difficult to read and manage uding plain text editors. Visual Studio Code (shortened as VS Code) provides a solution to help make code syntax more legible and organize files in folders to switch between files seamlessly. In programming, this is a very useful tool for managing your code, sharing, and debugging it. VS Code also allows for adding virtual environments to allow for multiple version of a programming language which is sometimes necessary for using dated libraries.
VS Code will be used in writing and testing code using HTML HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the standard language used to create and design web pages by structuring content and defining elements like text, images, and links. and CSS CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation and design of a document written in HTML or XML, including layout, colors, and fonts. for online digital portfolios. It can also be used as a code enviornment for writing and executing Python Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language known for its readability and simplicity, making it ideal for both beginners and experienced developers. code. VS Code can also create and execute Jupyter notebooks, see Jupyter Notebook explanation here.
Visual Studio Code 1/1
Installing VS Code
Download the latest version from their website: https://code.visualstudio.com/download. Follow the run the installer and follow the installation instructions.
Once successfully installed, you will see this screen as the user interface (as of early 2025).
Recommended Extensions
To make use of the capabilities of VS Code, some extensions are recommended for different type of projects. We will mention a few useful ones to add.
On the left, click on the bottom icon for “extensions”
Recommended Extensions
Click on the filter icon and select “Most Popular” to view the most relevant extensions.
Python is one of the most common programming language in computational design. Install it on VS Code. This extension only adds Python support to the editor in VS Code. You still need to have a python environment installed on your computer separately.
To make code more legible, Prettier is a popular extension for formatting HTML and CSS files. This is a nice addition to have if you are working on web development or creating a website portfolio for your projects.
Useful links
Additional tips to get started with VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/getting-started