I regularly teach middle school age children coding skills with Python using the ‘turtle’ module. It’s a great way to introduce students to computer programming in a very enjoyable manner. The children love the turtle graphics that they can create and it also introduces them to mathematics topics like variability, recursion and logic. When I first started these classes I used Idle which is included with Python. I learned about Code with Mu at PyCon in 2018. It’s a great editor with a wonderful linter that helps young students to see where they have made mistakes in their code. Eager to learn more to help my students I took a course where the instructor used Visual Studio Code. I started to experiment with VSCode myself and decided that I wanted to challege my students to learn more.
I frequently had students who wanted to learn how to create web pages and I thought that these students should learn Markdown and HTML. Using VSCode would be an easy way to introduce my students Python, Markdown and HTML while using the same editor. Then a fellow open source fan said, “Why not use VSCodium?” VSCodiuim according to their website, “a community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VS Code.” It is released with an MIT license minus the licensing limitations and telemetry of Visual Studio Code.
It’s cross platform and easy to install whether you are using Linux, macOS or Windows. VSCodium offers extensive customization options, including extensions, themes and keybindings. This allows teachers and students to tailor the editor to their specific needs. The cross platform compatibility works well in environments where teachers and students have different operating systems. The cross platform support ensures consistency for the programming and learning environment.
VSCodium does not require any Microsoft products or licenses which means that it’s entirely free and open source which is a concern for teachers, parents and students. I work with many students and parents who are economically challenged and being able to offer them a world class editor and development environment is priceless. It really levels the playing field.