open source-ish...
One of the most important decisions you will make in the early days of aspiring to become a full-stack dev is which IDE (integrated development environment) you will choose. Now, technically it is way more important to find good instruction, but, finding an IDE that has a large community and is widely used is indispensable. Having support in the droves of millions for whenever you have questions gives a peace of mind that I didn't know I needed with this decision.
Originally, I wanted to use WebStorm by JetBrains. An IDE made for JavaScript and TypeScript (but can be used for HTML, CSS, and many others). I have a fondness for JetBrains. Their font "JetBrains Mono" is what this site runs on and I really like the sleek, simple layout of their software. But I was reminded gently by a co-learner over on Codecademy that having the things mentioned above are really more important than what an IDE looks and feels like. Especially if you are just starting out like I am and don't have the first idea what these things really can do.
So we start with Visual Studio Code, made by Microsoft. It is an IDE that feels open source at first look. It has what seems like an endless chasm of plugins and themes to dive into. In this post, we will go over basic install and setup of VS Code as well as some of the plugins that I use daily that make life easier and some that are just fun little QoL things.
If you, like me, had a hard time choosing an IDE at first, then keep reading! I'm sure by the end of this you will either be excited to install VS Code, or even more confused like I was on my first VS Code walkthrough.
If you enjoyed what I have written so far and want to read more, head on over to console.log for the full post!
Happy coding!
-fern_d3v
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