Visual Studio Code

For the integrated development environment, see Microsoft Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Code is a source-code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS.[7] It includes support for debugging, embedded Git control and GitHub, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring. It is highly customizable, allowing users to change the theme, keyboard shortcuts, preferences, and install extensions that add additional functionality. The source code is free and open source and released under the permissive MIT License.[8] The compiled binaries are freeware and free for private or commercial use.[9]

Visual Studio Code is based on Electron, a framework which is used to deploy Node.js applications for the desktop running on the Blink layout engine. Although it uses the Electron framework,[10] the software does not use Atom and instead employs the same editor component (codenamed "Monaco") used in Azure DevOps (formerly called Visual Studio Online and Visual Studio Team Services).[11]

In the Stack Overflow 2019 Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked the most popular developer environment tool, with 50.7% of 87,317 respondents claiming to use it.[12]

History

Visual Studio Code was announced on April 29, 2015, by Microsoft at the 2015 Build conference. A Preview build was released shortly thereafter.[13]

On November 18, 2015, Visual Studio Code was released under the MIT License and its source code posted to GitHub. Extension support was also announced.[14]

On April 14, 2016, Visual Studio Code graduated the public preview stage and was released to web.[15]

Features

An orange version of the Visual Studio Code logo for the insiders version of Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code Insiders logo

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor that can be used with a variety of programming languages. Instead of a project system it allows users to open one or more directories, which can then be saved in workspaces for future reuse. This allows it to operate as a language-agnostic code editor for any language, contrary to Microsoft Visual Studio which uses the proprietary .sln solution file and project-specific project files. It supports a number of programming languages and a set of features that differs per language. Unwanted files and folders can be excluded from the project tree via the settings. Many of Visual Studio Code features are not exposed through menus or the user interface, but can be accessed via the command palette.[16]

Visual Studio Code can be extended via plug-ins,[17] available through a central repository. This includes additions to the editor[18] and language support.[16] A notable feature is the ability to create extensions that add support for new languages, themes, debuggers, perform static code analysis, add code linters, using the Language Server Protocol[19] and connect to additional services.

Visual Studio Code includes multiple extensions for FTP, allowing the software to be used as a free alternative for web development. Code can be synced between the editor and the server, without downloading any extra software.

Visual Studio Code allows users to set the code page in which the active document is saved, the newline character for Windows/Linux, and the programming language of the active document. This allows it to be used on any platform, in any locale, and for any given programming language.

Language support

Visual Studio Code has out-of-the-box support for almost every major programming language. Several are included by default, for example, JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, and HTML but other language extensions can be found and downloaded for free from the VS Code Marketplace.[20]

Language Snippets Syntax highlighting Brace matching Code folding
ActionScript [21] [22] No Yes Yes Yes
C and C++ [23] Yes Partial Yes Yes
C# [24] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Clojure [25] [26] No Yes Yes No
CoffeeScript [27] Yes Yes Yes Yes
CSS [28] [29] No Yes Yes No
D (Dlang) [30] No Yes Yes Yes
Dockerfile [31] No Yes Yes No
Erlang [32] No Yes Yes Yes
F# [33] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Go [34] [35] No Yes Yes Yes
Groovy [36] Yes Yes Yes No
Handlebars [37] No Yes Yes No
Haxe [38] No Yes Yes Yes
HLSL [39] [40] No Yes Yes No
HTML [41] Yes Yes Yes Yes
INI file [42] No Yes Yes No
Java [43] Yes Yes Yes Yes
JavaScript [44] Yes Yes Yes Yes
JSON [45] No Yes Yes Yes
LESS [28] [46] No Yes Yes Yes
Log file [47] No Yes No No
Lua [48] No Yes Yes No
Makefile [49] No Yes Yes No
Markdown [50] Yes Yes No No
Nim [51] No Yes Yes Yes
Perl [52] No Yes Yes No
PHP [53] [54] No Yes Yes No
PowerShell [55] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Python [56] Yes Yes Yes Yes
R [57] No Yes Yes No
Razor [58] No Yes Yes Yes
Ruby [59] [60] No Yes Yes Yes
Rust [61] No Yes Yes No
SCSS [28] [62] No Yes Yes Yes
Shaderlab [39] [63] No Yes Yes No
SQL [64] [65] [66] No Yes Yes No
Swift [67] [68] Yes Yes Yes No
TypeScript [69] [70] Yes Yes Yes Yes
Visual Basic [71] Yes Yes Yes Yes
XML [72] No Yes Yes Yes
YAML [73] No Yes Yes Yes

Reception

In the 2016 Developers Survey of Stack Overflow, Visual Studio Code ranked #13 among the top popular development tools, with only 7.2% of the 46,613 respondents using it.[74] However, in the 2019 Developers Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked #1, with 50.7% of the 87,317 respondents using it.[12]

Visual Studio Code is widely reviewed to be fast and lightweight, and is considered to be flexible across various domains such as Java, JavaScript, Go, Node.js and even C++.[75][76][77][78]

Data collection

Visual Studio Code collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft, although this telemetry reporting can be disabled.[79] The data is shared among Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries and with law enforcement, per the privacy statement.[80] Because of the open-source nature of the app, it is known exactly what is collected.[specify] Upstream's binary is shipped under a proprietary licence.[81]

VSCodium is an alternative binary distribution of the software which uses only the open-source parts and omits Microsoft’s trademarks and the telemetry component, while remaining fully functional and compatible in all other regards.[82]

See also

References

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  2. ^ "Download VS Code Insiders". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
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  4. ^ "LICENSE.txt". github.com/Microsoft/vscode. Microsoft. 17 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Download Visual Studio Code". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  6. ^ "Microsoft Software License Terms". code.visualstudio.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
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  8. ^ Comment on Menu license links to non Open Source license, VS Code Repository on Github
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  38. ^ Nadako. "Haxe support for Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Marketplace. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
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  52. ^ Henrik Sjööh. "Perl support for Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Marketplace. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
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  54. ^ DEVSENSE. "PHP support for Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Marketplace. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
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  61. ^ Rust Team. "Rust support for Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Marketplace. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  62. ^ Ritwick Dey. "Live Sass Compiler for Visual Studio Code". Visual Studio Marketplace. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  63. ^ Amlovey. "Shaderlab for VS Code Free". Visual Studio Marketplace. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
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  76. ^ Bisson, Simon (2018-09-11). "It's gotten a little easier to develop PWAs in Windows". InfoWorld.
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  78. ^ Wanyoike, Michael (2018-06-06). "Debugging JavaScript Projects with VS Code & Chrome Debugger". SitePoint.
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  81. ^ https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/tree/master/src/vs/platform/telemetry
  82. ^ binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing: VSCodium/vscodium, VSCodium, 2019-03-17, retrieved 2019-03-18

External links