A while back, one of the most experienced React Native developers I know, Jani Eväkallio, published a great article about all the different tools Formidable started using this last March for a new React Native app.

That gave me the inspiration to dive head first into an issue I faced a lot since I started developing React Native: pick an IDE and correctly set it up — without ending up changing it every other month. As I mentioned in my previous article for React Native starters, finding the proper equipment is a fundamental part of starting on the right foot: so I decided to start fresh, follow my own suggestion and install Visual Studio Code.

It is in fact an excellent editor, with some amazing features; but to have it exactly as I want it for my daily keyboard-smashing life naturally I needed to customise it. A lot.

We are going to need extensions, lots of extensions

What will follow is (almost) the whole list of extensions and settings I did to transform it from “cool” to “Ok I’m never going to change it” IDE: hopefully you will find it useful, or at least learn about a new extension or two to add to your setup — ready?

that’s the spirit!