Transforming VSC into a Tool to Complement IDEA

Posted on Edited on Word count in article: 1.3k Reading time ≈ 2 mins.
How to configure VSC to complement IDEA, enhancing workflow efficiency.

The most used IDEs are IntelliJ IDEA and WebStorm. I recently switched from Navicat to DataGrip for database management, aiming to maintain a consistent operational habit, making applying one approach to everything easy. However, both IDEA and WebStorm are pretty heavy, and sometimes, launching IDEA or WebStorm can take a lot of work for simple tasks like editing a web page.

VSC has become very popular over the years due to its lightweight nature and extensive plugin support. Therefore, I decided to modify VSC according to some operational habits from IDEA to improve efficiency.

Plugin Installation

  • IntelliJ IDEA Keybindings Keep most shortcuts consistent with IDEA
  • open in the browser Open files in browser
  • Darcula IntelliJ Theme Keep theme consistent with IDEA
  • Prettier - Code formatter
  • EditorConfig for VS Code
  • TSLint

And so on.

Custom Settings

  • Change the shortcut for Open in Default Browser to ⌥ F2 to match the preview in the browser shortcut in IDEA.

Final Notes

  1. Currently, not many plugins are installed, mainly because VSC’s role in my toolset is specific. Too many plugins might make VSC less “lightweight,” which needs to be controlled.
  2. After tuning and familiarization, I now use Macdown for MD editing and VSC for quick editing of simple HTML, JSON files, PlantUML, and lightweight projects. For larger projects, I still rely on launching IDEA or WebStorm. So, it’s the perfect toolset.

Docs