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Hi, I'm Vi π¬
My favorite color is blue and I've been looking for a soft, blue theme for as long as I've used VSCode, which is about 2 and a half years.
And at the same time, because I primarily develop in python, I've also been looking for themes that have decent python support, which are not common (like, say, for javascript) as I'm sure many of my fellow pythonistas have come to realize.
So, after a long journey of wandering around the wilderness, trying a different theme every month or couple of weeks, I ended up settling for the Palenight Theme which is beautiful, elegant, totally my cup of tea, and has decent support for python! ...But, it meant I was giving up the dream! It's not blue! It's not ME. Why did I settle?
Why Do We Settle?
We're developers! If there is a need, it's up to us to provide for it!
Why did it never cross my mind to make my own theme?
It's not because I thought it would be a pain in the neck, that I had better things to do with my time. I can spend days customizing my keyboard's layers! It's because I defaulted to the notion that someone who has more experience than I will come along and solve my problem. I didn't consider for a moment that I could be that person for someone else!
I'm calling this the shy dev mindset.
I've Been a Shy Dev
Many of us (particularly those of us who feel like big imposters, ahem) often see another fellow coder's app, artwork, or accomplishment and think,
Wow! Maybe one day I could do something like that (but not now)
without pausing to contemplate the actual logistics that went into its production.
Or when we feel the need for a tool that would enrich our lives or would just be fun to use, but
If it doesn't already exist, I must be the only one (so no one would use it even if I made it)
And just like that, we hold ourselves back without even realizing it.
I think of this shy dev mentality as a symptom of imposter syndrome that manifests most prominently in code newbies for many reasons. The two main reasons I'd like to focus on in this article are:
- Because code newbies don't have the experience of having published a tool, let alone the experience of having strangers use their creation
- And because code newbies feel that they're already "late in the game", so whatever idea they have it's probably already out there
The first point is much more straightforward to resolve, because it's a matter of taking the steps to develop something and deploy it to production (then make a post about it on reddit or here on dev.to.) The technical details of which are already laid out in the numerous tutorials and guides by those who've come before us, our senpais.
But resolving the second point is a matter of... what, will? The source of this anxiety is a lack of confidence (hence shy dev), but the thought of being late in the game is also kind of true! For many of us, by the time we joined this coding community, we've already been showered with so many extensive apps and amazing tools, some of which our coding processes themselves rely heavily on. What problem can we possibly have that someone else didn't already solve?
Plenty of Problems!
News flash! The world is full of problems!
So many problems that we end up focusing on the all the big scary ones, or are just caught up with the ones that are assigned to us at work, and we forget about our little problems that we could solve on our own.
And there are probably plenty of people out there who share your niche little problem.
I had a niche little problem. My code editor is not my favorite color. While my keyboard, mouse, and headphones are blue, my code editor, the thing I spend most of my days staring at is most certainly NOT BLUE. Yes, there are blue color themes out there, but they're not the shade of blue I like. And if you are a maniac for your favorite color (particularly blue lovers, I've found), you're likely more committed to certain shades of that color too. So I settled for a theme that's not even blue at all just because it at least suits my taste.
But one day, I had a craaazy idea. What if I made my own theme? And so I did! It wasn't even that hard! But what changed? How did I get out of the shy dev mentality?
Zero to Hero?
I happened to have been working on a different niche little problem for a few months. This niche little project was something my boyfriend and I came up with together (we're in the same little keyboard niche.) About a week before I had the idea to make this color theme, I had set up a CI/CD pipeline to automatically deploy to production on every github release. I had resolved the first source of shy dev anxiety! And my boyfriend and I had inadvertently resolved the second when we came up with the idea for that project.
I'd unwittingly gained enough confidence to see making my own theme as a possible solution. Then, having made the theme and published it, I've further gained enough confidence to make my first dev.to post. I'm no longer blinded by shy dev anxiety.
What's Your Little Niche?
If you're a shy dev, you might find something in your own little niche that can bring you out of your shell!
Meet Blue Dolphin π¬
Finally, after all that preamble, this is my theme.
I added as much syntax highlighting as I could, but for the best python experience, I recommend installing the Pylance extension and add the following to your settings.json
"editor.semanticTokenColorCustomizations": {
"enabled": true,
}
I plan on making a post about the process of creating a color theme for VSCode in the near future, so see you then!
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