💡 10 VS Code extensions I can't code without

VS Code is my favourite text editor. It is the most extensible and popular code editors out there. And surprisingly it's made by Microsoft (i know). In my opinion, no other IDE or editor comes even half as close as to what VS Code does. What makes it so robust is it's extension system. It allows you to write an extension for every possible use case you can think of. Here are my top 10 extensions.

1. Beautify

ext install HookyQR.beautify

Beautify allows you to format html, js, css, JSON and sass file with your own custom style configuration. It extends over the internal js-beautify and makes it customizable to your personal style.

2. Better Comments

ext install aaron-bond.better-comments

This extension allows you to add semantics to your comments. It categorizes into categories like comments into alerts, queries, todos and highlights.

3. Bookmarks

This one is a lifesaver, especially if you find yourself lost in hundreds of lines of code. This extension allows you to bookmark any line of code. Then when you need to go back all you need to do is browse through the list of bookmarks and select the line you want to visit.

4. Bracket Pair Colorizer 2

ext install CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer-2

This one does exactly what its name suggests. It colour codes correlated pairs of brackets. This helps a lot when you end up several scopes deep into code.

5. Format in Context Menus

ext install lacroixdavid1.vscode-format-context-menu

This extension allows you to format all your files by just selecting them from the side-bar. This is especially useful when you have tonnes of files, and your environment does not support formatters and linters.

6. Git Graph

ext install mhutchie.git-graph

It allows you to view a Git Graph of your repository, and quickly perform Git actions from the graph. It is highly configurable and has lots of features. Explaining the goodness of this extension will probably take a whole new post.

7. Git Lens

ext install eamodio.gitlens

GitLens helps you to reflect code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens. It enables you to seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain valuable insights via robust comparison commands, and so much more.

8. indent-rainbow

ext install oderwat.indent-rainbow

This extension colourizes the indentation of code, in different colours on each indent level. This is especially helpful in deep scopes with languages like Python.

9. Path Intellisense

ext install christian-kohler.path-intellisense

Path Intellisense adds auto-completion to file paths. While VS-Code natively supports auto-completion, it is limited to only HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. This extends it to all languages and file types.

10. Total Lines

ext install praveencrony.total-lines

This a handy little extension add the number of lines of the currently opened file in the status bar. A neat addition to your extension collection.

And that is it folks. These are my top VS Code extensions. I'd like to hear your favorite extensions in the comments. Oh, BTW do you want to learn Bash? Here's my crash-course post on Shell Scripting: