Set up Visual Studio Code¶
- Main questions:
How do I set up VS Code to start creating a new course in A+?
- Topics:
In this section, we will present the following topics:
- Material:
In this chapter, we do not provide additional material.
- Requirements:
You need basic computational skills to install software in the Linux OS.
- Estimated working time:
From 30 min to 1 hour.
VS Code¶
As mentioned in previous chapters of this manual, VS Code is an advanced IDE that provide you with a set of tools designed to improve the experience of creating, editing, and compiling source code. In this particular case, the source code is written in RST, and the compiled output are HTML, YAML and static files. Along with the built-in tools included in VS Code there are additional extensions designed to facilitate the experience of writing RST. The A+ team developed an extension designed to improve the experience of creating course content. The extension will be discussed in more detail in upcoming sections of this chapter.
The first step to enjoy the benefits of creating course content with the help of VS Code is to install the application in you computer. Installing VS Code is relatively straightforward. You only need to follow the instruction provided in the download section of the official website.
Install the recommended VS Code extensions¶
The Aplus Tools extension created for VS Code provides a set of functionalities that will reduce the time needed for creating course content. Some of the most relevant features are listed below:
Live preview functionality (Visualise the changes in real-time without having to compile the course manually).
Live preview capability of the Aplus Tools extension.¶
Linter (Expose syntax errors).
Linter capability of the Aplus Tools extension.¶
Syntax Highlighting (Highlight mostly markdown syntax).
Syntax Highlighting capability of the Aplus Tools extension.¶
Snippets (Insert complex directives by using key words).
Small list of snippets available in the Aplus Tools extension.¶
In order to install the Aplus tools extension you should visit the VS Code Marketplace and follow the instructions presented in the getting started section. If you experience any problem during the installation or setup of your extension please contact aplusguru@cs.aalto.fi
Note
You can develop the course content without using VS Code. However, we recommend to set up the VS Code environment because this will help you to reduce the strain of writing RST code.