VS Code is my favourite text editor. It is the most extensible and popular code editors out there. And surprisingly it's made by Microsoft (i know). In my opinion, no other IDE or editor comes even half as close as to what VS Code does. What makes it so robust is it's extension system. It allows you to write an extension for every possible use case you can think of. Here are my top 10 extensions.
1. Beautify
ext install HookyQR.beautify
Beautify allows you to format html, js, css, JSON and sass file with your own custom style configuration. It extends over the internal js-beautify and makes it customizable to your personal style.
2. Better Comments
ext install aaron-bond.better-comments
This extension allows you to add semantics to your comments. It categorizes into categories like comments into alerts, queries, todos and highlights.
3. Bookmarks
This one is a lifesaver, especially if you find yourself lost in hundreds of lines of code. This extension allows you to bookmark any line of code. Then when you need to go back all you need to do is browse through the list of bookmarks and select the line you want to visit.
4. Bracket Pair Colorizer 2
ext install CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer-2
This one does exactly what its name suggests. It colour codes correlated pairs of brackets. This helps a lot when you end up several scopes deep into code.
5. Format in Context Menus
ext install lacroixdavid1.vscode-format-context-menu
This extension allows you to format all your files by just selecting them from the side-bar. This is especially useful when you have tonnes of files, and your environment does not support formatters and linters.
6. Git Graph
ext install mhutchie.git-graph
It allows you to view a Git Graph of your repository, and quickly perform Git actions from the graph. It is highly configurable and has lots of features. Explaining the goodness of this extension will probably take a whole new post.
7. Git Lens
ext install eamodio.gitlens
GitLens helps you to reflect code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens. It enables you to seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain valuable insights via robust comparison commands, and so much more.
8. indent-rainbow
ext install oderwat.indent-rainbow
This extension colourizes the indentation of code, in different colours on each indent level. This is especially helpful in deep scopes with languages like Python.
9. Path Intellisense
ext install christian-kohler.path-intellisense
Path Intellisense adds auto-completion to file paths. While VS-Code natively supports auto-completion, it is limited to only HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. This extends it to all languages and file types.
10. Total Lines
ext install praveencrony.total-lines
This a handy little extension add the number of lines of the currently opened file in the status bar. A neat addition to your extension collection.
And that is it folks. These are my top VS Code extensions. I'd like to hear your favorite extensions in the comments. Oh, BTW do you want to learn Bash? Here's my crash-course post on Shell Scripting:
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Top comments (40)
I started using VSCode as my primary IDE recently, but one thing I was curious about is the performance of having a big list of extensions installed. It is something I need to research more.
I was going to use VSCode for HTML, CSS, JS, Java, Node, and Ruby; but as I was looking for certain features that I would be accustomed to using in other IDEs for different languages or use cases, I found the list was growing too large. So, I decided to use VSCode for frontend only
You won't need all the extensions all the time, my approach is creating extension packs as per development environment equipment and enable/disable them accordingly. Like Web Development, Python, .Net , Docker, Utility extension packs
That might be what I'm looking for. I must look into it soon. Thanks for sharing.
Here is my development extension pack, if you are interested.
github.com/sangram-chavan/producti...
Cheers !!
Agreed. Sometimes VS Code does slow down. But the performance requirements of Code is way lesser than IDEs like IntelliJ or Android Studio. I think the reason Code is popular is coz it sits right in between Text Editors and IDEs. Almost as robust as IDEs while being almost as performant as text editors. VSC has found the sweet spot.
Yes, that's been my experience with an older laptop also. Android Studio is a monster, I have to close almost everything when I use it. IntelliJ is pretty good. If VSCode only loaded extensions based on the codebase or a configuration, I would be encouraged to use it for more languages/project types. For now, I will keep my extension list on the lower side
You know you can have all the optional extensions disabled and enable the ones you need for each workspace/project? The settings get saved in the .vscode folder in the project.
I've only been using VS Code and it's extensions for like half an year and when I read this blog post I'm like "Where have I been?". The bookmark extension could literally save me lots of minutes everyday. Bracket Colorizer would also improve my workflow, especially when I'm lost in mountains of code.
If you'd like to bookmark your "code snippet" also for other projects or from the web check this feature Bookmarking code snippets with Codelets I added to bookmarks.dev
sounds like a neat idea š„
I discovered bookmarks lately too. It has doubled my productivity indeed.
Great posts, I wasn't aware about many of these. I also made a post regarding my favourite Vs Code extensions as well. I guess everyone has their own set of useful extensions.
Thanks š.
Will definitely check out your collection of extensions.
These are great! Thanks for sharing Sahil!
I immediately installed Bookmark! I take too many screenshots of code blocks to refer to later š
thanks š
I'm really thankful for your post, some of the extentions were unknown for me but I will try them for sure.
i am glad š
thanks , the only one i do not have it is git graph , i am using sourcetree but i will try git graph ext
need to have a look at sourcetree as well š
These are nice. I will definitely give them a try. Thank you!
thank you š
thanks
Here is my development extension pack, if any one is interested.
github.com/sangram-chavan/producti...
I have created clone repo & run mom install.
You will vsix file, which will help install all packages automatically
Cheers !!