node.js - tsc is not recognized as internal or external command

Question

I updated from VSCode 0.10.6 to 0.10.8, and tried using Typescript for the first time. Unfortunately I when I tell VSCode to build, I get the error:

tsc is not a recognized as an internal or external command...

Here are the relevant details:

• I created a fresh "HelloWorld" project according to VS Code instructions. This included:
  • I ran npm init for a new package.json
  • I ran npm i --save-dev typescript because I want a local install, rather than a global install.
  • I created a launch.json to define a node.js project.
  • I created the tasks.json file, with prescribed settings for tsc.
• I have made a settings.json file, as shown here. It did not help.
• I do have Visual Studio 2015 Community installed, but I have not installed a Typescript extension of any kind. When I type "where tsc" at a developer command prompt, it replies "could not find". I assume this is a good thing.

I have restarted VSCode (several times). What am I missing? What more must be done?

Update

I tried the solution offered by @zlumer. It succeeded in making the typescript compiler run, but then it caused thousands of errors to appear. To fix that, I also had to adjust my tsconfig.json to exclude the node_modules folder:

"exclude": [
    "node_modules"
]

Answer 1

There might be a reason that Typescript is not installed globally, so install it

npm install -g typescript // installs typescript globally

If you want to convert .ts files into .js, do this as per your need

tsc path/file.ts // file.ts will be converted to file.js
tsc              // all .ts files will be converted to .js files with in the directory
tsc --watch      // converts all .ts files to .js, and watch changes in .ts files