Choosing An Editor

You can develop NativeScript apps in any text editor or IDE you prefer.

VS Code ​

• Visual Studio Code has excellent support for TypeScript.
• Microsoft updates it frequently.
• Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

If you do choose to try Visual Studio Code, let's look at one tip you might find useful as you develop NativeScript apps.

• The code command

After you install Visual Studio Code, you can open projects using the editor's File → Open menu option, but there's an alternative option that works far better for command-line-based projects like NativeScript: the code command.

The code command runs in your command-line or terminal, and it works just like the ns command does for NativeScript apps. Visual Studio Code installs the code command by default on Windows on Linux, but on macOS, there's one manual step you must perform.

Once set up, you can type code . in your terminal to open the files in your current folder for editing. For example, you could use the following sequence of command to create a new NativeScript app and open it for editing.

ns create MyNewApp
cd MyNewApp
code .

WebStorm ​

If you're a WebStorm user, check out this popular community-written plugin that adds many NativeScript-related features.

Next steps ​

• NativeScripting
  • The third-party NativeScripting site has many video courses to teach you everything you need to know about NativeScript, including a collection of free courses to help you get started.
• Tutorials
  • Follow along by building in a JavaScript flavor you love.