appendix A Setting up a local development environment

 

A.1 Visual Studio Code

If you don’t have Visual Studio Code (VS Code) already installed on your computer, follow these instructions:

  1. Go to https://code.visualstudio.com/Download.
  2. Select the version corresponding to your operating system (Windows, Linux, or Mac), and download the installer.

Windows

  1. If you downloaded VS Code for Windows, run the installer, and follow the instructions.
  2. Once the VS Code installation is complete, select the Launch Visual Studio Code option, and click the Finish button.

Mac OS

  1. If you’re working with the Mac version, locate and double-click the downloaded zip file to expand it.
  2. Drag the expanded file, named Visual Studio Code.app, to your Applications folder.
  3. Double-click on the application icon to open VS Code.

Linux

  1. If you downloaded VS Code for Linux, your installation strategy will depend on your operating system. Go to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux to find detailed instructions.
  2. Once you’re done, open VS Code.

A.2 Installing and using the Live Server extension

VS Code offers a large number of extensions that you can browse and install directly from the code editor’s window. One of these extensions, Live Server, allows you to launch a local web server with the click of a button. It also has an auto-reload feature, which is pretty neat. Follow these steps to install Live Server:

  1. In VS Code, locate the Extensions icon on the left side of the screen, as shown in figure A.1.