Think about how you use a program and also about what colors look good to you. Read the documentation on changing the theme and pick one for your editor. VSCode uses “themes” to change the appearance of the editor to meet a user’s preference. One easy way to do this is by customizing your editor’s appearance. Part of having an editor is, in additional to being partial to your editor, having your editor configured the way you want. If you’re not familiar with keyboard shortcuts, here’s a tutorial.Many of the steps in the tutorial require using keyboard shortcuts, so for instance it will ask you to press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P) to load VScode’s Command Palette.Go through the three walkthroughs: “Get Started With VSCode,” “Learn the Fundamentals,” and “Boost Your Productivity.” When you first launch it, VScode will display a “Welcome” tab that will detail some of the features of the editor.Download “Visual Studio Code” for your operating system (Windows or macOS).If, as the semester goes on, you find VScode is not to your liking, do look into other editors and report to the class if you find something you like.

Vscode is the latest in a long line of what are called “chorded editors” that make extensive use of shortcut key combinations and on-screen displays to provide a programming with whatever they need to work.Ĭhoosing a text editor is often a highly personal choice for a developer, akin to people who have complex opinions about fountain pens or Moleskine notebooks in long-form writing.

Most modern text editors are incredibly powerful, if you know how to use them.įor writing in this class, we will be using a text editor called “Visual Studio Code” (or “code” or “VScode” for short). Unlike the software we use in our English classes to write (MS Word, Google Docs, etc.), programmers use software called “text editors” to create the source code files that are interpreted by computers into the programs we use today.

You need to know how to install software on your computer.

You need to know how to copy & paste text on your computer.

This lab is intended to get you setup for the course.

Slack theme visual studio marketplace