My Visual Studio Code Review

During my 22 years as a software developer, I have used many IDE’s and text editors. Some have been great while others couldn’t die fast enough. Since .NET came out in 2002, I have spent the majority of my time in Visual Studio. These development tools are built and maintained by Microsoft. Visual Studio has been one of the best IDE’s on the market for years.

What is Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code is a very powerful cross-platform text editor built by Microsoft. It can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. I prefer to use it on my MacBook. It is also free and open-source! Whoa, that’s super cool! This is definitely an editor for today and the future. You may use it for Private or Commercial use.

Intellisense

The intellisense is awesome! When you hover over just about anything, you will see the definition of the thing you hovered over. Below is an example of how I am hovering over the WriteLine method of the Console class.

It is also great for autocompletion which makes for a very fun and productive editor to work in. You simply start typing your code and the autocompletion dialog will appear. Hit tab for the code to be completed for you.

Autocompletion also works for creating new classes, interfaces, etc.

Debugging

The debugging feature will let you attach to a running application and debug at breakpoints. You will be able to Step Over, Step Into, or Step Out of your code while debugging. There are many more features here that you should investigate.

Extensions

The extensions feature lets you browse and install extensions to enhance the developer experience. Simply click on the view Extensions icon in the activity bar or use the command ⇧⌘X .

You can also install extensions directly from the VS Code Marketplace. Simply click on the Install button and you will be walked through the install process. After installation has been completed, you will need to reload Visual Studio Code.

Integrated Terminal

The integrated terminal is my favorite feature of Visual Studio Code. I use it to create & run applications, debugging code, running tests, git source control, and many other tasks. When debugging, you can simply type a variable and the value will be displayed. You can also code in the terminal to figure things out if you need to do that.

You can also have multiple terminal windows for different uses. For example, I always have at least 2 terminals open. One for the application I am working on and the other one to run my unit and integration tests. I encourage you to spend time getting to know the integrated terminal as it will probably be the one feature you use on a regular basis.

Command Palette

Visual Studio Code has a Command Palette which allows you to browse and execute a number of commands. You can use the command ⇧⌘P to open it. I find this feature to come in handy when I am not sure how to do something within Visual Studio Code. This is another feature I would get to know really well.

Documentation

Visual Studio Code is very well documented. You can find the documentation here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs . This is the first place I look when I don’t know how to do something within the editor. I was surprised by this as Microsoft has a history of poor documentation for its products and services. Great job, Microsoft!

What Visual Studio Code isn’t?

Visual Studio Code is not an fully integrated IDE. Visual Studio is available if you prefer an IDE. There are two different versions of Visual Studio. Visual Studio 2017 is available on Windows and Visual Studio for Mac is available on Mac. Both versions require you to pay to use.

Why I love Visual Studio Code?

I love using Visual Studio Code for my code editor on my MacBook! I love how lightweight and responsive it is. I also love the integrated terminal and extensions in this editor. I have not had any responsiveness issues when adding extensions. For years, I have wanted a more lightweight but productivity enhancing editor from Microsoft. I feel like I finally have that in Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio is a great IDE but in all honesty I use only about 25% of its capabilities for writing code.

You can also use it for projects outside of .NET. It can be used for Ruby, Javascript, Python, PHP, and many more.

Conclusion

I hope this will inspire you to take a look at Visual Studio Code as your coding editor. For me, this is the editor I have been wanting for a long time. The cross between a text editor and an IDE is perfect for me. I am hoping Microsoft keeps this in mind as the product becomes more mature.

Happy coding!!