Programming appears to be a boring activity to some, but it’s interesting. Some of us study it through college, some of us work in the software development industry, some of us are hobbyists and some of us just curious. Regardless of where you are on this path, and no matter what kind of language you’re working on, you will need a good text editor or a development environment. Think of it as a space, where you can type in code, compile and run the packages you’re working on. If you’re also taking the time to learn programming, now is a good time to choose a good code editor. There are many available, some which are designed for specific languages and then there are also users on Linux who prefer use Vim or Emacs. However, there are some code editors design to help you code in any language. One of the most popular ones comes from Microsoft, and it’s a package called Visual Studio Code (popularly called VS Code). It’s entirely free and available to download from https://code.visualstudio.com.
Microsoft has had a series of popular software development tools under the Visual series. You might have heard of these from the age-old Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual C++ and lately, Visual Studio. Visual Studio Code is a free package and it’s gained massive popularly in recent times. If you’re wondering why you should take interest in VS Code, here are some reasons that should be useful for beginners and if you’re a professional, you’re likely to discover many more on the way.
Support for a lot of platforms and languages
The beautiful thing about VS Code is its support for a variety of operating systems, ranging from Windows, Linux, Mac OS and more. It supports a range of legacy operating systems as well, so you don’t need the most cutting-edge hardware and software to run it. It even supports a wide range of programming languages, so it doesn’t matter if you’re working on C, C++, Java, HTML, CSS, Python, Perl, Rust, JavaScript, React or anything you can think of. It just lets you code. Even if you do find some obscure, dated language you want to code in, you will find it or you maybe able to add support through extensions. Remember, VS Code does not compile your programs for you. You’ll need to download and configure those compilers or interpreters separately. VS Code helps you with extensions for them. VS Code also helps you with tips while coding, auto-completion, formatting the code for you. There are some extensions that use intelligent ways to analyse your code and recommend what you need to type next. The quick reference list is on your fingertips.
Range of extensions to choose from
VS Code has a built-in extensions library that’s connected to the web. You can search for all kinds of extensions for languages you’re using. Some of these are designed to make the interface look better, some add more support to the software, some let you deploy code to remote locations while some others to enable chatting and communication with your team mates within VS Code or even controlling your music player. The capabilities and possibilities are endless. We’re just scratching the surface with these examples. The Extensions list can be accessed by the Extensions in the left menu or by using the Ctrl + Shift + X keyboard shortcut. All the installed extensions also get updated automatically, just like the software. If you want a glimpse of the extensions, head over to https://marketplace.visualstudio.com.
Keyboard shortcuts to all the features
Depending on what you’re working on, you will need to quickly access several things, from features, to projects, to splitting windows, tracking changes and more. The shortcuts are accessible by clicking on the Manage button on the bottom left corner of the screen and Keyboard Shortcuts. You can find all the essential shortcuts and you can tweak them too. Remember, there really are a ton of features and shortcuts. The commonly used tasks can be made much simpler to access with shortcuts that you prefer. If you are a Vim, Emacs, Atom or Sublime Text user, you can also setup VS Code to use those, so you don’t need to re-learn things all over again. This feature is available from the Manage > Keymaps feature.
VS Code also lets you search for features by using a hotkey, Ctrl + Shift + P. Type in the command you’re looking for, and press Enter. You can even find files by pressing Ctrl + P.
It works like a text editor too
VS Code isn’t just an environment for programming, it can also be as a word processor. You could use it to store documents and edit them. VS Code lets you create tabs so you can store endless text files. You won’t even need to save them every time, although you should. VS Code auto-saves all files, so you never have to worry about losing them if you close VS Code. There are extensions for monitoring the word count and even spell checking. A lot of people use VS Code to design web pages too, since it supports HTML, CSS and more. There are extensions for rendering web pages within the software so you don’t need to spawn new instances of your browser to test.
Controlling remote servers and assets
VS Code can be used as a full-fledged development setup that lets you even deploy code remotely. There is support for SSH, even Jupyter notebooks and more. This means you could be collaborating with others over Github, and you can deploy systems easily. Even if appears that a particular technology isn’t supported, you will probably find an extension for it.
Never get lost; Settings are searchable too
All the configuration and features of VS Code are searchable. There are a ton of those to be able to remember or navigate through. The simplest way to find them is by pressing Ctrl + , and then searching for the setting you’re looking for. It could be the font size or configuring proxies, how the cursor appears or the default language you wish every new file to be.
Themes and a ton of customizations
One of the things that attracts users to VS Code is its support for themes, fonts, styles and more. It’s usually this that attracts new programmers to VS Code. It’s a good thing VS Code can be used for other tasks, so it’s a thorough platform to work on. There are plenty of web sites too that list out themes and fonts to try out. A lot of coders also spend a lot of time to customize their interfaces not just to be aesthetically pleasing but also functional.
It’s constantly updated
In addition to all the good features, VS Code is actively developed and you can expect an update with bug fixes and feature additions every month or so. The team even publishes a blog that demonstrates all the new features with animations, even highlighting their favourite themes and extensions.
Debugging code is also simplified with the built-in tools. You can use all kinds of extensions to use different debuggers for the programming language you’re working on. Other benefits are the ability to manage environments neatly. Projects can be clubbed into folders and navigating them is a lot simpler than in other IDEs.
If you’re taking your first steps into programming, or you just want a neater, active programming environment, or you just want a feature rich note-taking software, you are likely to feel right at home on VS Code. You’ll also find a lot of like-minded people on other forums and discussion boards talking about VS Code. To learn about more, such interesting software, keep visting RelianceDigital.in.
