Flutter Course: Installing Visual Studio Code on macOS 3.5

In recent years, one of the most notable frameworks in mobile application development is Flutter, an open-source UI toolkit developed by Google. With Flutter, you can create applications that run on both iOS and Android platforms with a single codebase. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Visual Studio Code on macOS and set up the Flutter development environment.

1. Check System Requirements

Before installing Visual Studio Code, you need to ensure that your macOS meets the following system requirements.

  • macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or later
  • At least 2GB of RAM
  • Wireless or wired internet connection (required for downloads and updates)
  • Disk space to download the Flutter SDK

2. Download Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is available for free, and you can easily download it following these steps.

  1. Open a web browser and go to the official Visual Studio Code website.
  2. On the main page of the website, click the Download for macOS button.
  3. Once the download is complete, click the downloaded .dmg file to open it.
  4. Drag the Visual Studio Code icon to the Applications folder to install it.

3. Run Visual Studio Code

After installing Visual Studio Code, let’s learn how to run the application in the following steps.

  1. Open Finder and select the Applications folder to find the Visual Studio Code icon.
  2. Double-click the Visual Studio Code icon to run the application.
  3. You may see a warning message on first launch. In this case, click the Open button to proceed.

4. Install Flutter SDK

After installing Visual Studio Code, you need to install the Flutter SDK, which is a collection of tools for developing Flutter applications.

  1. Open your web browser again and go to the Flutter installation page.
  2. In the “Get Started” section, select “macOS” to view the installation instructions.
  3. Download the Flutter SDK file.
  4. Extract the downloaded file into the ~/development folder.
    5. mkdir ~/development
        cd ~/development
        unzip ~/Downloads/flutter_macos_*.zip

5. Set Environment Variables

To use Flutter-related commands in the terminal, you need to set the PATH environment variable. This will allow you to easily use Flutter commands in the terminal. Please follow these steps:

  1. Open the terminal.
  2. Type the following command to edit the configuration file:
    3. nano ~/.zshrc
  3. When the file opens, add the following line at the end of the file:
    4. export PATH="$PATH:/Users/[USERNAME]/development/flutter/bin"
  4. Replace [USERNAME] with your username.
  5. Press Control + X to exit and then press Y to save the changes.
  6. To apply the changes, enter the following command:
    7. source ~/.zshrc
  7. To verify that the installation is complete, enter the following command:
    8. flutter doctor
  8. If there are no issues, Flutter is successfully installed.

6. Install Flutter Plugins

To develop with Flutter in Visual Studio Code, you need to install the Flutter and Dart plugins. Please follow these steps to install the plugins:

  1. Click the Extensions icon in the left sidebar of Visual Studio Code.
  2. Type “Flutter” in the search bar and locate the Flutter plugin.
  3. Click the Install button next to the plugin to install it.
  4. Install the “Dart” plugin in the same way.

7. Create a New Flutter Project

Once all settings related to Flutter are complete, you can create a new Flutter project and start developing. Follow these steps to create a project:

  1. Open the terminal in Visual Studio Code and enter the following command to create a new Flutter project:
    2. flutter create my_first_app
  2. Navigate to the newly created project folder:
    3. cd my_first_app
  3. To open the project in Visual Studio Code, enter the following command:
    4. code .

8. Run the Application in the Simulator

Once the new project is set up, you can run the application in the simulator. Please follow these steps:

  1. Run the iOS simulator, which can be installed through Xcode.
  2. In the terminal of Visual Studio Code, enter the following command to run the application:
    3. flutter run

9. Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned how to install Visual Studio Code on macOS and set up the Flutter development environment. After completing these steps, you are now ready to use Flutter to develop mobile applications. Future tutorials will cover basic widget composition and layouts in Flutter. See you in the next tutorial!