Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code, commonly referred to as VS Code, is an integrated development environment developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, macOS, and web browsers. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded version control with Git.
There are at least two options to run VS Code:
- Online: Github Codespaces | Getting started with Github Codespaces
- Local: VS Code Download
Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is a popular, free source-code editor developed by Microsoft. Here's an overview and installation guide:
Overview
- Lightweight yet powerful code editor with built-in debugging support, Git integration, and syntax highlighting
- Extensive marketplace with thousands of extensions to add functionality
- Supports multiple programming languages and frameworks
- Features intelligent code completion, linting, and integrated terminal
Installation Steps
- Visit code.visualstudio.com
- Download the appropriate version for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux)
- Run the installer and follow the installation wizard
- Launch VSCode after installation
After installation, you can customize VSCode by:
- Installing extensions for your preferred programming languages
- Configuring settings to match your coding preferences
- Setting up keyboard shortcuts
Here are some useful VSCode extensions for healthcare and biomedical data analysis:
Data Analysis Extensions
- Python: Essential for data processing, data analysis, and data visualization in healthcare.
- R: programming language for statistical computing and data visualization.
- Jupyter Notebooks: For interactive data analysis and visualization
-
Rainbow CSV: For opening comma (
.csv), tab (.tsv), semicolon, and pipe-separated values files. - Excel Viewer: For handling patient and clinical data spreadsheets.
- YAML: For configuration files.
- Git Graph: For visualizing Git history.
- GitLens - For enhanced Git capabilities.
- SQLite Viewer: For managing healthcare databases.
Bioinformatics Extensions
- Nextflow: For managing bioinformatics workflows and pipelines.
- SnakeMake: For automating data analysis workflows.
- Markdown/GitHub Wiki Support: For documentation and collaboration.
Visualization Extensions
- Matplotlib and Seaborn Integration: For creating statistical plots and visualizations.
- Ggplot2: data visualization package for the statistical programming language R.
- Plotly: For interactive medical data visualization.
Created: 04/29/2025 (C. Lizárraga)
Updated: 04/29/2025 (C. Lizárraga)
DataLab, Data Science Institute, University of Arizona.
2025.