When you type cmake in the Extensions search, quite a few things pop up, but after playing around a little bit I focused on two. I figured the first thing I needed to do to get the ball rolling was to make use of that. We use CMake as our build system for our C++ code. So I rolled up my sleeves, took a deep breath, and started installing extensions like mad! Useful C++ Extensions There are tons of extensions and guides on the internet about making Visual Studio Code work great for whatever you’re doing, but I couldn’t find a lot of information about using it for C++ development. It also seems to be very actively developed and has gained a big fanbase, especially in the web development world. It runs using Electron, which might turn some people off, but I never found that a problem. Visual Studio Code is a pretty great source code editor. And wouldn’t you know, it went pretty well! There’s a lot to like in both of them, but one Experimental Friday I wondered if I couldn’t make my default editor, Visual Studio Code, into a better C++ environment. I’ve been using Xcode, and lately I’ve also been looking into CLion. I mostly do C++ development for our shared code here at PSPDFKit. When it helps you accomplish a task quicker, well, you’re done quicker and can focus on other things!

It makes sense: it’s the tool that helps you accomplish what you set out to do.

Many developers are on a neverending search for a better development environment.

Visual studio code c++ extension