Set Up Your Computer

Updated on 6 May 2023

This page covers how to install the free software you’ll need to follow the tutorials on this website.

Basically you just need a Web browser, VS Code, and if you’re on Windows, then WSL too. If you use Mac, you’ll probably want Homebrew. Details are below.

Code Editor

If you don’t already have a code editor, you should download VS Code.

A code editor makes writing and editing files much easier. There are many options to choose from, but VS Code is a good choice to start with.

If you already use another code editor like WebStorm, Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, or other program, it’s fine to keep using that one.

Web Browser

I recommend installing Firefox, because it has some unique features that we’ll use, including:

Multi-line JavaScript editor
CSS style editor
HTML error checking
Showing full URLs

There’s also a Firefox Developer Edition. Either version of Firefox will work.

If you use a different browser, some things I mention won’t work the same, and it will be more difficult to follow the tutorial.

Terminal

If you’re using Linux or Mac you can use the built-in terminal.

If you’re using Windows, install WSL which will let you run a Linux terminal inside of Windows. If you’re using Windows, all the terminal commands mentioned in the tutorials on this site should be entered into WSL, not PowerShell or cmd.exe (unless noted).

To find the terminal on Mac, press command+space and type the word terminal. Alternatively, you can download iTerm2.

In many Linux distros, you can find the terminal by pressing the Windows key and typing the word terminal.

Package Manager

If you’re using a Mac, I recommend installing Homebrew. It simplifies installing programs.

If you’re using Linux, you probably already use a package manager like apt-get, yum, or pacman.

If you’re using Windows with WSL, it’s using Ubuntu Linux under the hood, so you already have a package manager named apt-get. It will be explained in more detail later.

Return to the main tutorial page.