Fri, 14 Apr 2023

Visual Studio Code setup bootstrap

I'm using vscode mostly under windows, the configuration is lot less tricky than Emacs which I used a lot in the past (for code/text editing, for emails, for calendar, for irc, for music, ...), but I lost the faith and the fun of it.

• Edit "user > settings.json"
• Vertical rulers
• Default terminal to Git-Bash
• Visual identity of your workspaces

Edit "user > settings.json"

Press CTRL + SHIFT + P and type in open user settings (JSON) or settings

Vertical rulers

I try to stick to it:

"editor.rulers": [80] 

Default terminal to Git-Bash

In settings.json (E.g, user or workspace) add these lines:

{
    // this one is required only if git bin is not in the path
    "terminal.integrated.profiles.windows":{
        "Git Bash" : {
            "path" : "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin\\bash.exe"
        },
    },
    
    "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "Git Bash"
}

Visual identity of your workspaces

I often have several VSCode instances opened at the same time for various projects and note taking.

A cool thing I discovered on a social media post (I forget which one), is that you can customize few visual settings on a per workspace basis (in particular the left activityBar, the top titleBar and the bottom statusBar).

That way, I can quickly vizualize in which project context I am when switching from one VSCode to another.

You simply need to edit the .code-workspace file, like this:

{
    "folders": [
        ...
    ],
    "settings": {
        "workbench.colorCustomizations": {
            "activityBar.background": "#094446",
            "titleBar.activeBackground": "#094446",
            "titleBar.activeForeground": "#57ffdb",
            "statusBar.background": "#094446",
            "statusBar.foreground": "#57ffdb"
        }
    }
}