Installing PlatformIO with VSCode
I got it working, recently Apple changed something where the installer for the required Command Line Tools no longer downloads easily. But the tools are still available on the Apple web site. So here are the steps that I followed to make it work, let me know if it works for you.
Get VSCode and install it
Download VSCode as shown. Then, if necessary, unzip it by double-clicking on it in your downloads folder. Then drag the Visual Studio Code file to your Downloads folder.
Install the Developer Command Line Tools from Apple (this is the thing that is currently broken). To do it you need to go to https://developer.apple.com and create an account. This is all pretty annoying, but it gets around the problem. Then navigate to the download page for the tools. Check the boxes as shown on the sidebar (“Developer Tools” and “macOS”) as shown in the screen image above. Then download “Command Line Tools for Xcode 12”. It’s a pretty hefty download, but it should make everything work. After you download the tools, double click on the file in your Downloads folder to install.
Now you can run VSCode by hitting Command-Space, type in “visual studio Code”.
Installing the PlatformIO extension
In the VSCode interface, open the extension manager by clicking on the icon in the left sidebar with the 4 squares. Then in the search field, enter platformio. Click “Install” on the PlatformIO IDE extension that should be near the top of the list.
Click the Extension Manager icon (squares as shown in the bottom left of this image) to open the extension manager. Then enter “platformio” into the search box as shown. Then install the “PlatformIO IDE” extension that should be near the top of the list as shown. It should install without asking you to install the developer tools.
Important: Make sure you wait until you see the message “PlatformIO Installer: Finish! Please restart VSCode”, and click the “Reload Now” button as shown above.
At this point you should be able to create a project using VSCode for your Ranger.