By Zqdo

If you’re looking for a text editor to begin coding with, or to switch to, the one I recommend is VSCode. Why? Well, I’ve been using it for months now, and I can say that VSCode is free to use, and it’s very good. Here’s my reasons.

For one, VSCode is widely recognized by the industry, and more than likely, you know, or will know another developer who uses the same platform. So collaborating on projects will be easier since you and your colleagues would both be using the same system. In fact, it’s the only free to use platform I’ve used as a developer since learning how to code.

Two, VSCode is very good and easy to learn. It has a simple user experience, and there’s not too many complicated steps to write your first line of code. You open the application, you’re asked to open a new file/folder, or create a new page, you connect your folder, create your file, and boom! You can start coding right away!

When first learning how to code, if you’re like me, you’ve probably never used a text editor like VSCode before, and you need something that’s easy to learn so you can start working. It didn’t take me long at all to learn VSCode and the different things that you can do with it.

I also like the extensions that you can easily install in VSCode. For instance, to start the live server, you simply install a extension, that when you right click on your text editor, will allow you to bring up the live sever and see your code in real time.

This brings us to our sponsor of this blog: PremiereGoodsStudio. They’ve created a handful of portfolio themes and icons for frontend developers like us that you’ll want to check out, like this theme below.

Now, back to VSCode.

I also want to point out that you’ll want to turn on auto save, because if you’re working on a project, you’ll want to see the UI update in real time. You don’t want to have to manually update the browser every time you make a change, and so auto save is helpful for this.

One more thing I like about VSCode is the IntelliSense. If you’re like me and you’re coding a lot, the IntelliSense, along with it’s smart completion feature, includes any missing syntax errors you may have forgotten, like a “>”, and there is also a red underline to alert you of any mistakes.

So, looking for your first or newest text editor? Of course, it’s always good to look around and explore all your options, but VSCode is a good choice to go for for sure for it’s wide popularity, ease of use and for first time learners, and the IntelliSense feature. For sure, I believe that VSCode is very good, and it’s free to use.

To download, go to Visual Studio’s website.