Introduction

  • Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are all-in-one tools for writing, editing, testing, and debugging code, improving developer efficiency by reducing the need to switch between different applications.
  • Common IDE features include code editing, syntax highlighting, code completion, version control integration, debugging tools, project navigation, and built-in terminals.
  • Debugging is the process of finding and fixing bugs in code to ensure it behaves as intended, improving code quality and reliability.
  • Common debugging techniques include adding print statements, using built-in debuggers to set breakpoints and inspect variables, writing tests, and using logging.
  • Using an IDE for debugging allows developers to step through their code interactively, making error detection and resolution much faster and more effective.

Getting Started with VSCode

  • Key VSCode features are accessible via the left navigation bar and the menu
  • VSCode’s capabilities can be increased by installing extensions
  • Language-specific support is available via extensions
  • A VSCode “workspace” is a project that consists of a collection of folder and files
  • Git source code repositories on GitHub can be cloned locally and opened from within VSCode

Using the Code Editor

  • IDEs typically have a host of features that help save time when writing code
  • Syntax highlighting gives you immediate feedback of potential issues as you write code
  • Code completion helps to automatically finish incomplete code statements and names

Running and Debugging Code

  • Run a script by selecting the “Play” icon in VSCode
  • Debugging allows us to pause and inspect the internal state of a program while it is running
  • Specify the points a debugger should pause by adding breakpoints to specific lines of code
  • When a breakpoint is reached, a debugger typically shows you the current variables and their values and the stack of functions called to reach the current state
  • Debuggers typically allow us to: step through the code a statement at a time, step into or out of a function call if we need further debugging information regarding that function, and continue execution until another breakpoint is reached or the end of the program
  • Testing is used to identify the existence of a problem, whilst we use debugging to locate the source of a problem