# Trouble installing VS Code for Julia

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [July 19, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897 "2021-07-19T03:06:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cybervigilante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cybervigilante/32/26687_2.png) [@cybervigilante](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cybervigilante)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897/1 "2021-07-19T03:06:45Z")

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Well, I tried installing Visual Studio for Julia. I Should have known Visual Studio would be a pain in the ass. I got the Julia extension. Then it wanted me to create a launch.json file (no idea how to do that). Then it wanted me to install a Julia debugger with comments, except there is none in the extensions market. I did find a Julia debugger and installed it but VS still chokes. Microsoft is true to form in over-complicating things.

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**Author:** ![dplante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dplante/32/27285_2.png) [@dplante](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dplante)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897/2 "2021-07-19T03:36:54Z")

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Hi I have had good luck on a mac using visual studio insiders build. I was trying to get a jupyter notebook to work. At one point I had to go REPL then package manager (using ]) and running `add IJulia’ to get launch.json set up.

If you are trying to do something more simple, [https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode#installing-juliavs-codevs-code-julia-extension](https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode#installing-juliavs-codevs-code-julia-extension) might help too.

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**Author:** ![dplante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dplante/32/27285_2.png) [@dplante](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dplante)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 3:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897/3 "2021-07-19T03:50:39Z")

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See setup steps at the bottom of the readme of this repository I forked:

> **[GitHub - dominiqueplante/learning-julia: Learning Julia through replicating...](https://github.com/dominiqueplante/learning-julia)**
>
> Learning Julia through replicating Schelling's Dynamic Models of Segregation - GitHub - dominiqueplante/learning-julia: Learning Julia through replicating Schelling's Dynamic Models of Segr...

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 4:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897/4 "2021-07-19T04:48:28Z")

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I’m a bit confused on where you got stuck. Please view the directions at  
[https://www.julia-vscode.org/docs/dev/gettingstarted/#Installation-and-Configuration-1](https://www.julia-vscode.org/docs/dev/gettingstarted/#Installation-and-Configuration-1)

If you need additional help, see the #vscode channel in [Julia Slack](https://julialang.slack.com/archives/C6LV2R5JB).

> **[Community](https://julialang.org/community/)**
>
> The official website for the Julia Language. Julia is a language that is fast, dynamic, easy to use, and open source. Click here to learn more.

Also I hope you are talking about “VS Code” rather than “Visual Studio” which is a much larger Microsoft product.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cybervigilante](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/cybervigilante/32/26687_2.png) [@cybervigilante](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/cybervigilante)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 2:53am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897/5 "2021-07-21T02:53:03Z")

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It wanted me to create a launch.json file. I did, using the Insiders package mentioned. But it still stalls on wanting a commenting debugger when there is none. I installed the only debugger there, but it’s not accepted. I’m busy learning Julia. To hell with VS code. I’ll uninstall it.

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**Author:** ![pfitzseb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pfitzseb/32/45566_2.png) [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2021, 8:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/trouble-installing-vs-code-for-julia/64897/6 "2021-07-21T08:38:49Z")

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It would be useful to know what you were actually doing that caused VSCode to ask for a launch.json.

I’d suggest you open a REPL (with the `Julia: Start REPL` command, which you can find in the command palette, which, in turn, you can open with F1 or Ctrl-Shift-P) and take it from there, or use the `Julia: Execute File in REPL` command, which is available with the “play” button in the upper right of the editor.