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:
- Go to https://code.visualstudio.com/Download.
- Select the version corresponding to your operating system (Windows, Linux, or Mac), and download the installer.
Windows
- If you downloaded VS Code for Windows, run the installer, and follow the instructions.
- Once the VS Code installation is complete, select the Launch Visual Studio Code option, and click the Finish button.
Mac OS
- If you’re working with the Mac version, locate and double-click the downloaded zip file to expand it.
- Drag the expanded file, named
Visual
Studio
Code.app
, to yourApplications
folder. - Double-click on the application icon to open VS Code.
Linux
- 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.
- 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:
- In VS Code, locate the Extensions icon on the left side of the screen, as shown in figure A.1.