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Bùi Đức Nhật
Bùi Đức Nhật

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The most useful VS Code extensions for developer

Visual Studio Code a.k.a VS Code, released by Microsoft, is one of the most popular open source code editors for developers.

VS Code helps developers increase productivity in the execution of projects. One of the reasons make VS Code popular is its variety of available extensions in marketplace.

Today, I am going to list some extensions that I usually use.

Note: The below extensions are useful for the most developers in any field, not just for Web App or Embedded developers. So in the future I will have other articles about extensions suitable for specific areas.

They are:

GitLens

VS Code has already integrated built in git GUI, it's very helpful for developers because nowaday git is absolutely necessary for them.

gitlens-image

When working with other team members, GitLens is a very good choice with its features:

  • Revision navigation through file history.
  • A current line blame annotation at the end of the line showing the commit.
  • A status bar blame annotation for the commit and author who last modified the current line.

You can find it here (in Visual Studio Code marketplace).

Visual Studio IntelliCode

At the time I write this article, Visual Studio IntelliCode extension has the 8th most downloads in marketplace. So it became indispensable for developers.

visual-studio-intellicode

This extension helps us writing code quickly by adding a star before the code snippets (it means this code had used very very much before by developers over the world).

You can install this extension here.

Project Manager

Normally, each project is a folder/directory of your OS. Each time you want to open your project, you have to open the corresponding folder/directory and of course, you have to remember its path.

When the number of your projects increases, or you save them in a disorganized manner, you usually forget where they locate.

project-manager-image

This problem can be easily solved with Project Manager extension. You can save your projects like folder/directory or even your workspaces. Your projects will be visible in the side bar like this

side-bar

You can install this extension here.

vscode-icons

This extension is just an icon theme for VS Code. It supplies icon for the folders/directories and files in the explorer sidebar of VS Code.

vscode-icons-image

There are many good choice icon theme for us at marketplace, the reason why I recommend this because vscode-icons is the official extension of Microsoft (who made VS Code).

You can install this extension here.

Of course, you can easily find out for your favorite themes at marketplace by type icon into the search input. The next step you just select and install them.

Bracket Pair Colorizer 2 (deprecated)

Note: This extension is now deprecated and no longer being supported. Instead, this is now a built in feature of VS Code.

Have you ever known about LISP?

bracket-hells

When your code block increase too big, you use too many brackets, you difficultly find the rights bracket pairs, this extension will help you.

Look at this image and you will understand how it works

bracket-colorizer-2-image

You can install this extension here. (deprecated).

Now you can enable Black pair colorizer as a native feature in VS Code.

Just open your settings.json of your VS Code and add two following lines:

{
  ...
  "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled"​: true,
  ​​"editor.guides.bracketPairs"​: "active",
  ...
}
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indent-rainbow

Like Bracket Pair Colorizer 2, indent-rainbow help us easily when see the code blocks, especially for Python developer

indent-rainbow-image

You can install this extension here.

Note: the last both extensions can be customized, you should read their documents at their homepage to continue.

These are the best extensions for me, and it totally from my opinion, so if you know more helpful extensions, recommend for us!

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