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Create new TypeScript folder command #126105
Description
Subset of #121345. 🚧 Draft to get discussions started.
As an addition to the planned "New …" #124304 contribution point, VS Code wants to make it easier to get started with TypeScript by generating a folder with all the necessary files. The script could introduce the key aspects of TS and VS Code's capabilities and provide a playground to try them out.
What could the user flow be?
The ecosystem of CLI tools for project bootstrapping is vivid across most languages. Every major JS/node project provides their own tool. VS Code's built-in Terminal would therefor be the perfect entry point for project creation.
- (Welcome) "New …" → (Quick prompt) "TypeScript Starter"
- 💪 Pick container or local folder
- Native dialog to pick a new or existing folder
- Attach VS Code window to selected folder
- Open Terminal with tsc --init command that guides the user through the wizard (frontend, backend, fullstack)
- The generated TS index file opens and contains a basic TS snippet hello world + next steps (how to run, complex, next steps) in comments
Other variations:
- Open Terminal in current VS Code window and give the user the option to open the window when the command ran
- Detect if node/npm is installed and guide user through the installation if needed
How should the entry point be called?
- "New TypeScript Project"
- 👍 Often used for similar concepts
- 👎 Project is a overloaded term in code environments and not used in VS Code
- "New TypeScript Configuration"
- 👍 TSConfig reference
- Does not imply that it creates a new folder/workspace, but maybe could be run in an existing folder
- "TypeScript Frontend" | "TypeScript Backend" | "TypeScript Fullstack"
- 👍 One for each to avoid naming it
- 👍 Makes the use case clearer for beginners
- Not many languages are fullstack, so it wouldn't be a common pattern
cc Gabrielle Crevecoeur (@gcrev93) Jackson Kearl (@JacksonKearl) @misolori Daniel Rosenwasser (@DanielRosenwasser)
Activity
orta commentedon Jun 14, 2021
Perhaps: "New TypeScript Node.js App" could be the name? That avoids the need to try and scope that you're going to provide a richer template like with Express etc, and Deno is growing (and would be a drastically simpler template, given that all you need there is the
index.ts)DanielRosenwasser commentedon Jun 14, 2021
Speaking from personal experience in VS, I always found the specific project types to be a bit "scary" because I was never sure if I'd get "stuck" with a project. Once you get something set up, can you reconfigure down the line? I don't think that's a blocker here, but it is something to maybe be aware of.
TypeScript Frontend / Backend / Fullstack is the only one that I think makes sense given the state of modules. I think there's still flexibility for a very minimal/lightweight scaffolding like Orta Therox (@orta) alluded to under that. I slightly prefer the current labels, but I'm not totally against going more specific with "Node.js App", but these could always be relabeled if need be.
I know it might be "sloppy" to have too many windows open, but can you open a new editor window unless you have any files open (regardless of whether they're saved or unsaved)?
digitarald commentedon Jan 4, 2024
More investment into this might happen via Copilot Chat.