Dependencies

In order to use VSCode effectively, there are some additional programs or applications that we also recommend you install or use on your own.

• GitHub:
  • We recommend using GitHub. If you do not already have a GitHub account, we recommend following the instructions from GitHub.
• Copilot:
  • Our recommended profile installs the GitHub Copilot and Copilot Chat extensions, so they will appear whether or not you intend to use them. To use them you need a GitHub account: there is a free tier, and students and academic staff can get the paid tier at no cost through GitHub Education.
  • GitHub’s setup instructions cover signing in. If you would rather not use Copilot at all, disable the two extensions from the Extensions pane and nothing else in this guide changes.
• Skim:
  • Skim is a PDF viewer, which you can download from the internet. We recommend setting this as your default PDF viewer.
  • Once Skim is open, go to the top toolbar menu. Select Skim > Settings.
  • In the settings pane that opens, click Sync on the top right.
  • Check off the boxes for “Check for file changes” and “Reload automatically”
  • In the PDF-TeX Sync support section, set the “Preset” to Visual Studio Code
• MacTeX:
  • MacTeX is the standard TeX distribution on macOS, which you can download from the internet.
  • If you already have a TeX distribution installed on your computer, you do not need to install MacTeX as well.
• Pandoc:
  • Pandoc allows you to knit .Rmd files to PDF files. You can install the latest release from the internet.