# Manual configuration of VSCode as Pico IDE

## Prerequisites

You need to Visual Studio Code and Docker installed.

## Attaching VSCode to SDK Docker container

Follow the instruction below to set up VSCode:

 - Install [Visual Studio Code](https://code.visualstudio.com) and next [Remote Development](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.vscode-remote-extensionpack) extensions.

![image-1](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201380432-da387680-f6b0-4542-8c02-6a3eec8e103d.png)

 - Open the terminal and go to the projects you want to open in VSCode.

 - Pull SDK image from Docker HUB and run SDK container via the following command. The container must be running while you attach to it via VSCode.

```
docker run -d -it --name pico-sdk --mount type=bind,source=${PWD},target=/home/dev lukstep/raspberry-pi-pico-sdk:latest
docker exec -it pico-sdk /bin/sh
```

 - When the container is launched, go to VSCode, click the green button in the lower left corner of VSCode and select options: Attach to Running Container...

![image-2](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201471437-b12dc225-28ab-4ebd-b694-fc7058d34e2e.png)

 - Select the SDK container.

![image-4](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201383009-54a3fc62-1206-4105-83d0-d956448434dd.png)

- Then a new VSCode window will open. At the bottom window, you can see that it is attached to the SDK container.

![image-5](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201383452-10573842-de2a-46c3-9ebf-f6fd5f06c687.png)

 - Now, there is needed to open project files. Your project is mounted to `/home/dev` in the container. Go to EXPLORE tab in VSCode and click Open Folder. In opened window write `/home/dev` and click the OK button.

![image-6](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201386202-dd0934b2-5fae-4a2d-8875-f2cb40b1dc59.png)

 - Now You can explore, develop and build your Raspberry Pi Pico project via Visual Studio Code!

![image-7](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201389505-d1346622-a8e1-4d0b-842c-57e5b54f9183.png)

## Pico SDK aware Intellisense

For an IntelliSense that will be aware of Raspberry Pi Pico SDK dependencies, we will use [Clangd](https://clangd.llvm.org). Clangd is a C/C++ language server provided by the LLVM project. To Setup Clang as Intellisense engine follow instruction below:

 - To begin with, you need to install the server itself (Clangd is not installed by default in the SDK container image), to do this in the terminal call the command:

```
apk add clang-extra-tools
```

 - Next is needed to install the Visual Studio Code [Clangd extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=llvm-vs-code-extensions.vscode-clangd).

![image-1](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201468256-be7741a2-9092-406a-8be1-d4d9640a85e7.png)

 - To set-up The Clangd extension, in the project root directory, create folder .vcode with file settings.json. To settings.json past configuration from the snippet below:

```json
{
    "C_Cpp.intelliSenseEngine": "Disabled",
    "clangd.path": "/usr/bin/clangd",
    "clangd.checkUpdates": false,
    "clangd.restartAfterCrash": true,
    "clangd.detectExtensionConflicts": true,
    "clangd.arguments": ["-log=verbose",
                         "-pretty",
                         "--background-index",
                         "--query-driver=/usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc",
                         "--compile-commands-dir=/home/dev/build"]
}
```

![image-2](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201468479-7de7e598-3aac-4fe4-a240-d7404200a0a6.png)


 - For clangd to work, it needs a `compile_commands.json` file. This file contains the compilation and dependency information of each file in the project. To create it you need to add to the CMake command, `-DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=1`.  So You need to build your project with the command:

```
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=1 ..
make
```

 - Now IntelliSense should work!. Now you should see a prompt when you start typing. If you hover your cursor over a function from the SDK you should see its documentation, You can go to the function definition by pressing F12.

![image-3](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201469349-b8a9721f-4169-4bf6-a8d6-d459f8f97180.png)

![image-4](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201468782-50fc6abb-1f82-49d5-8b93-631dd30f1f58.png)

![image-5](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/20487002/201468813-2ef7b04f-ede6-46cb-84e2-a40db595811d.png)