some people use VS Code for other things‥

[Scott]

It seems that once we install nRF Connect into VS Code it completely takes over and now when I open any file in VS Code I see all of the nRF connect tabs and controls which is more than a little bit annoying

Please make it possible / easy to use VS Code without nRF Connect

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi Scott

If you do not like our VS Code design, you do not need to use our VS Code extension to develop for the nRF Connect SDK.

The west tools have most of the functionality you will need for developing.
Here are some examples of commands I frequently use when working with the nRF Connect SDK:

west --help
west build -p -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840
west flash
west build -t menuconfig
ẅest flash --recover

See West (Zephyr’s meta-tool) and Building, Flashing and Debugging for more information.

Then you can call these commands from VS Code.
For example by making scripts to run them and implementing your own custom tasks.

Disclaimer:
By not using our VS Code Extension, you will not have access to the features of our VS Code Extension.
It might also require some time to add your custom functionality to VS Code.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi Scott

Another alternative for you is to disable our extension when working with non-"nRF Connnect SDK" projects.
You can even automate this process by using workspaces, and locally enable our extension in your "nRF Connect SDK"-workspaces.

See Extension Marketplace ->Enable an extension:
"Similarly if you have disabled an extension (it will be in the Disabled section of the list and marked Disabled), you can re-enable it with the Enable or Enable (Workspace) commands in the dropdown menu."

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Scott]

It's great to hear that there is a way to disable that and I can do it but why is it not just the default ?

Users shouldn't have to modify a default install to have things just work. If they're working on a nRF project, it should be available, and if they open ruby or Swift or Javascript or other C/C++/etc files, it should just not bring up the nRF tools and tabs out of the box, Sigurd

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi Scott

Our extension will not assume which project is and is not an nRF Connect SDK project. This is up to the user to decide.
The user can then manage the extension using the approach I described below.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Scott]

Hi Sigurd,

That's good to hear but doesn't explain why if I type « code src/file.c » in Terminal.app Code opens up and shows me the the nRF Connect SDK

Thanks,
~ Scott

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi

If you only open a file, it will open in the workspace previous open in VS Code.

To use workspace, you need to open a folder along with the file.
For an example, say that we have two folders: "~/ncs" and "~/tmp". Our extension is only enabled in the "~/ncs" folder:

#open with our extension disabled:
code ~/tmp/ src/main.c 

#open with our extension enabled:
code ~/ncs/ src/main

See How do I open a VS Code "workspace"?:
" The easiest way to open a workspace is using the File menu and selecting one of the available folder entries for opening. Alternatively if you launch VS Code from a terminal, you can pass the path to a folder as the first argument to the code command for opening. "

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik