Visual Studio Code — Unseen Blog

Visual Studio Code, also commonly referred to as VS Code, is a source-code editor made by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git. Users can change the theme, keyboard shortcuts, preferences, and install extensions that add additional functionality.

In the Stack Overflow 2021 Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code was ranked the most popular developer environment tool, with 70% of 82,000 respondents reporting that they use it

History

Visual Studio Code was first announced on April 29, 2015, by Microsoft at the 2015 Build conference. A preview build was released shortly thereafter.

On November 18, 2015, the source of Visual Studio Code was released under the MIT License, and made available on GitHub. Extension support was also announced. On April 14, 2016, Visual Studio Code graduated from the public preview stage and was released to the Web. Microsoft has released most of Visual Studio Code’s source code on GitHub under the permissive MIT License, while the releases by Microsoft are proprietary freeware.

Features

Visual Studio Code is a source-code editor that can be used with a variety of programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Go, Node.js, Python, C++, C, Rust and Fortran. It is based on the Electron framework, which is used to develop Node.js Web applications that run on the Blink layout engine. Visual Studio Code employs the same editor component (codenamed “Monaco”) used in Azure DevOps (formerly called Visual Studio Online and Visual Studio Team Services).

Out of the box, Visual Studio Code includes basic support for most common programming languages. This basic support includes syntax highlighting, bracket matching, code folding, and configurable snippets. Visual Studio Code also ships with IntelliSense for JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON, CSS, and HTML, as well as debugging support for Node.js. Support for additional languages can be provided by freely available extensions on the VS Code Marketplace.

Reception

In the 2016 Developers Survey of Stack Overflow, Visual Studio Code ranked №13 among the top popular development tools, with only 7% of the 47,000 respondents using it. Two years later, however, Visual Studio Code achieved the №1 spot, with 35% of the 75,000 respondents using it. In the 2019 Developers Survey, Visual Studio Code was also ranked №1, with 50% of the 87,000 respondents using it. In the 2021 Developers Survey, Visual Studio Code continues to be ranked №1, with 70% of the 82,000 respondents using it, rising to 74.48% of the 71,010 responses in the 2022 survey.

Originally published at https://unseenblog.in/visual-studio-code/