By: Steven Whitaker
Re-posted from: https://blog.glcs.io/install-julia-and-vscode
Julia is a relatively new,
free, and open-source programming language.
It has a syntax
similar to that of other popular programming languages
such as MATLAB and Python,
but it boasts being able to achieve C-like speeds.
One popular IDE to use with Julia
is Visual Studio Code,
or VS Code.
In this post,
we will learn how to install Julia and VS Code.
We will also learn how to configure VS Code
to get it to work with Julia.
The instructions for installing Julia and VS Code
vary by operating system.
Please use the table of contents
to jump to the instructions
that are relevant to you.
Note that the instructions for configuring VS Code
are the same for all operating systems.
Windows
Installing Julia
- Go to https://julialang.org/downloads.
-
In the table under the heading
“Current stable release”,
go to the row labeled “Windows”
and click the “64-bit (installer)” link.
(Of course, click the 32-bit link
if you have a 32-bit machine.)
(See Installing a Specific Julia Version
for details on installing an older Julia version.)
- Run the installer.
-
Choose where to install Julia.
(The default location works well
unless you have a specific need
to install Julia somewhere else.)
Then click “Next”.
-
Specify some additional options.
- “Create a Desktop shortcut”:
Allows you to run Julia
by clicking the shortcut
on your Desktop.
- “Create a Start Menu entry”:
Allows you to pin Julia to your Start Menu.
Also allows you to easily search for Julia
from the Start Menu.
- “Add Julia to PATH”:
(Recommended)
Allows you to run Julia
from the command line
without specifying the full path
to the Julia executable.
Also enables easier integration
with VS Code.
Then click “Next”.
-
Installation is complete!
Click “Finish” to exit the installer.
Running Julia
There are a few different ways
to run Julia on Windows.
-
If you created a Desktop shortcut,
you can double-click the shortcut
to start Julia.
-
If you created a Start Menu entry,
you can run Julia from the Start Menu.
First search for “julia”.
And then click on the appropriate result
to start Julia.
- You can also run Julia
from the command line
(Command Prompt or PowerShell).
If Julia was added to PATH,
you can run
C:\Users\user> julia
Otherwise,
you can specify the full (or relative) path.
C:\Users\user> .\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.9.3\bin\julia.exe
After starting Julia
you will be greeted with
a fresh Julia prompt.
Now you know how to install and run Julia on Windows!
Installing VS Code
- Go to https://code.visualstudio.com.
-
Click “Download for Windows”.
- Run the installer.
-
Click “I accept the agreement”
and then click “Next”.
-
Choose where to install VS Code.
(The default location works well
unless you have a specific need
to install VS Code somewhere else.)
Then click “Next”.
-
Specify the Start Menu folder for VS Code.
(The default folder is fine.)
Then click “Next”.
-
Specify additional options if desired.
(The defaults are fine,
but if you want a Desktop shortcut
be sure to select that option.)
Then click “Next”.
-
Click “Install”.
-
Installation is complete!
Click “Finish” to exit the installer.
Running VS Code
You can run VS Code
using any of the methods described above
for running Julia:
Now you know how to install and run VS Code on Windows!
Jump to Configuring VS Code for Julia
to learn how to configure VS Code.
macOS
Installing Julia
- Go to https://julialang.org/downloads.
-
In the table under the heading
“Current stable release”,
go to the rows labeled “MacOS”
and click the “64-bit (.dmg)” link for either Apple Silicon
or the Intel or Rosetta link for older machines or special scenarios.
(See Installing a Specific Julia Version
for details on installing an older Julia version.)
-
Open the downloads folder and double-click on the Julia Disk Image you just downloaded.
-
In the new window, drag Julia into the Applications folder.
-
Allow Julia to be copied with your credentials or Touch ID.
-
Eject the disk image, either with the eject button
or with right-click and selecting “Eject”.
-
We recommend you follow these final instructions
to make it easier to open Julia on your Mac.
Open a new terminal window and follow these instructions:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/julia
sudo ln -s /Applications/Julia-1.9.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia /usr/local/bin/julia
Original source.
Running Julia
You can start Julia through your normal means of opening applications
or through typing julia into your terminal (if you did the last step above).
See Apple’s support if you need help.
After starting Julia
you will be greeted with
a fresh Julia prompt.
Now you know how to install and run Julia on macOS!
Installing VS Code
- Go to https://code.visualstudio.com.
-
Click “Download Mac Universal”.
-
Open the downloads folder and drag VSCode into the Applications folder.
-
Allow VSCode to be moved with your credentials or Touch ID.
You can start VS Code through your normal means of opening applications.
Now you know how to install and run VS Code on macOS!
Jump to Configuring VS Code for Julia
to learn how to configure VS Code.
Linux
Installing Julia
- Go to https://julialang.org/downloads.
-
In the table under the heading
“Current stable release”,
go to the row labeled “Generic Linux on x86”
and click the “64-bit (glibc)” link.
(This link should work for most Linux systems.
If you have a different computer architecture,
you probably already know to choose a different download link.)
(See Installing a Specific Julia Version
for details on installing an older Julia version.)
- Open a terminal
and navigate to the directory
where you want to install Julia.
In this post,
we will install Julia
in ~/programs/julia/.
(Note that everything up to and including the $
is the terminal prompt,
so the actual command to run
is everything after the $.)
~$ mkdir -p ~/programs/julia
~$ cd ~/programs/julia
- Move the downloaded archive
to the current directory.
~/programs/julia$ mv ~/Downloads/julia-1.9.3-linux-x86_64.tar.gz .
- Unarchive the file.
~/programs/julia$ tar xzf julia-1.9.3-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
- Add Julia to your PATH
by adding the following
to your .bashrc or .zshrc file.
(Remember to change /home/user/programs/julia
to the directory where you installed Julia.)
export PATH="$PATH:/home/user/programs/julia/julia-1.9.3/bin"
(Restart the terminal to actually update the PATH.)
Julia is now installed!
Running Julia
You can run Julia from the command line.
$ ~/programs/julia/julia-1.9.3/bin/julia
Or, if you added Julia to your PATH:
$ julia
After starting Julia
you will be greeted with
a fresh Julia prompt.
Now you know how to install and run Julia on Linux!
Installing VS Code
The following steps were tested
on a computer running Ubuntu.
They should work as written
for any Debian-based Linux distribution,
but modifications may be necessary
for other Linux distributions.
Note that you will need admin privileges
for one of the steps below.
- Go to https://code.visualstudio.com.
-
Click ” .deb”.
- (Requires admin privileges)
Either open your file manager
and double-click the downloaded file,
or install VS Code
via the command line.
(Remember to change the file path/name as needed.)
$ sudo dpkg -i /home/user/Downloads/code_1.81.1-1691620686_amd64.deb
VS Code is now installed!
Running VS Code
You can run VS Code from the command line.
$ code
Now you know how to install and run VS Code on Linux!
Jump to Configuring VS Code for Julia
to learn how to configure VS Code.
Installing a Specific Julia Version
If you need a specific version of Julia,
you can navigate to the older releases page
and find the appropriate installer
for the version you need.
For example,
to install Julia 1.0.5 on Windows,
you would find “v1.0.5” on the left column
and then click on the download link
to download the installer.
Otherwise,
the installation instructions
should be basically the same.
Configuring VS Code for Julia
After starting VS Code
for the first time
you will be greeted with
“Get Started with VS Code”.
Feel free to walk through the options,
but for this post
we will ignore them
and just click “< Welcome”
on the top left of the window.
That brings us to the welcome page.
We need to install the Julia extension for VS Code.
-
Click on the extensions button.
-
Search for “julia”.
Click “install” on the Julia extension.
Now we need to make sure
the Julia extension knows where Julia is installed.
If you added Julia to PATH,
this step can be skipped.
However,
if you get errors trying to run Julia in VS Code
or if you find the wrong Julia version is being used
(if you have multiple versions installed),
you can follow these steps.
-
Open the Julia extension settings
by clicking the settings icon.
Click “Extension Settings”.
-
Search for “executable path”.
Then type the path to the Julia executable
in the “Julia: Executable Path” extension setting.
Now VS Code is ready for Julia development!
Developing Julia Code in VS Code
-
Click the file icon in the top left
to open the Explorer pane.
Then click “Open Folder”.
- Navigate to a folder
(or create one)
where your Julia code will be saved.
In this post,
we created a folder called Julia.
-
Click the “New File” button
next to the folder in the Explorer pane.
Then type a name for the file
where you will write Julia code.
It should have a .jl extension.
In this post,
we created a file called script.jl.
VS Code will now open a new tab
with a blank file
ready for us to edit.
- Add the following code to your file
and then save it.
println("Hello, World!")
-
To run the code,
place your cursor on the line of code to execute
and then press Shift+Enter.
This command will start a Julia session
(if one has not already been started)
and then run the code.
(The very first time you run code
may take a little while
because packages need to precompile.)
-
Now add more lines of code.
function plus1(x)
x + 1
end
a = 3
b = plus1(a)
b == a + 1
-
To run all the code in the file,
open the command palette
with Ctrl+Shift+P
and search for
“Julia: Execute active file in REPL”.
Highlight the command and press Enter.
Note that two lines of output
were added to the REPL:
the println statement
and the value of b == a + 1
(the last line that was executed).
-
Now that some code has run,
we can look at the Julia pane
on the left
and see the variables and function we defined
in the “Workspace” tab.
-
We can also use the REPL directly.
And now you know how to write and run Julia code
in VS Code!
If you would like to see more tips and tricks
for how to use Julia in VS Code,
be sure to comment below!
Summary
In this post,
we learned how to install Julia
and VS Code
on different operating systems.
We also learned how to configure VS Code
for developing Julia code.
Once you have installed Julia,
move on to the
next post to learn about variables and functions!
Or,
feel free to take a look
at our other Julia tutorial posts!
