A while back I was introduced to VS Code (Visual Studio Code), a free code editor by Microsoft. It seemed pretty cool, but at the time I was determined to be a die-hard Emacs user. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on your perspective) I started migrating away from Emacs/org-mode as a note taking medium, and using Microsoft OneNote instead. I was able to keep my notes in a central location, have easy access no matter where I was because of the mobile app, and I loved the ability to copy and paste images, screen captures, and files into a OneNote page. As my usage of Emacs started to wane, I heard more and more ravings from my peers about VS Code, so I decided to dive in for a while and try it out.

Man, what a ride!

So it’s easy to be overwhelmed at first, but the built-in integrated SCM (git by default) was enough to raise an eyebrow, but the extensive (and I mean EXTENSIVE) list of extensions available for everything under the Sun was just amazing. I started installing everything I thought I’d ever need…. (mistake #1) Then after I got a jazillion pop up messages about this or that not being available, or needed another package, or whatever, I went through and paired it down quite a bit. I ended up with some basic linters, OAS specification problem identification extension, kubernetes cluster info, and a few others. That coupled with WSL on my Windows 10 installation made a nice terminal emulator as well. Once I had all the packages installed that I needed, I was able to give up Cmder and ConEMU as well. (Cmder sits on top of ComEMU so I admit having both was a bit redundant.) The git integration released me from using GitHub Desktop as well.

Suffice to say, using VS Code has allowed me to let go of several other applications on my system, just giving me an even tighter realm of control and ease of use for my work.

Note: if you’re going to install extensions, be aware of the inherit risk — you could be installing something malicious… so if you’re in doubt, try to stick only to the “blue star” or approved/official extensions for whatever you’re working with.

Oh, and one last thing — even though it’s not actually VS Code, if you type a period (.) while browsing a GitHub repository, a VS Code-like editor will load in your browser that mimics what the application does, allowing you to interact with that repository right there on the web. Now that’s cool!

Happy coding!