What exactly is Visual Studio Code?

Question

Recently I've read about Microsoft Visual Studio Code. I work primarily with C and C++ languages on GNU/Linux. My question is whether Visual Studio Code is just a simple editor which uses whatever compiler exist in the platform, gcc in my case, as a background compiler or does it come with its own VS compiler?

Answer 1

Visual Studio Code is free, cross platform, super fast and lightweight code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and OS X. Since a lot of developers use windows as their development environment, but there are also lots of developers using Linux and Mac. So, Visual studio code is for them. Though, you can also use it on windows. Since ASP.NET 5 is also cross platform as having a code editor on linux and mac makes sense. Recently ASP.NET 5 RC1 was released and please give a read to What’s new in ASP.NET 5 RC1 and RC2 and if you are new to ASP.NET 5 then read Quick summary of what’s changed in ASP.NET 5. and ASP.NET 5 is now ASP.NET Core 1.0

Visual studio code is based on Electron framework, which is used to build cross platform desktop application using web technologies.

Answer 2

according to Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio_Code

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. It includes support for debugging, embedded Git control, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, and code refactoring. It is also customizable, so users can change the editor's theme, keyboard shortcuts, and preferences. It is free and open-source,[5][6] although the official download is under a proprietary license.[4]

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,[7] the software is not a fork of Atom, it is actually based on Visual Studio Online's editor (codename "Monaco").[8]

Answer 3

Although it's not mentioned by Microsoft,it appears that vscode is a clone of the ZED ide/text editor. What makes ZED unique is a set of principles designed to "reduce the cognitive load" of developing.

About the only important features I've found which vs code does not share with ZED is the auto-save feature and VIM keyboard bindings. [EDIT: turns out auto-save is supported by off by default.] Nearly everything else it has is copied there. While lacking those important features does reduce vs code's utility, the fact that it works across environments, has minimal window dressing, split panels, user editable configuration and is based on a node.js engine, makes it a very usable cross language editor.

Obviously, if you are an old-school windows/asp.net/.net sort of developer you have no need for something like vs code or zed since you stay in Visual Studio all the time. However, for the enlightened few who are just at home on mac or linux and who use python, node.js, json, c#, typescript etc interchangeably a light-weight, fast, cross platform code editor is essential. Having these as options makes many tasks easy, faster and more concise.

Answer 4

Use Visual Studio Code Tasks to execute program to compile or make.

Answer 5

Sorry, can't see what use Visual Studio Code is for anything other than javascript programmers, unless you just like seeing your C++/Perl/Java code in pretty colours.

To answer your questions directly:

Yes, it is just a simple editor.

No, it does not use whatever compiler exists in the platform, gcc, or any other C++ compiler. It won't compile your C++ code, full stop.

No, it does not come with its own VS compiler, except for (apparently) "ASP.NET, Node.js, or TypeScript".

But it is the first cross-platform development tool in the Visual Studio family, for a certain definition of the phrase "development tool".

Answer 6

It is more of a simple code editor than an IDE and it's primary focus is editing web code (Html, Javascript, CSS), TypeScript, and C#. It provides advanced 'IDE like' features for these languages, but more basic features for other languages (syntax highlighting).

Also, see What is the Visual Studio Code editor built on

Answer 7

Visual Studio Code is just an editor, which features their intellisense thingy and some git and debugger integration.

EDIT: more info here: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs

Answer 8

As per VentureBeat

The new Visual Studio Code software is available for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. It packs code completion, Git integration, linting, and sophisticated debugging capability. And it works with a wide range of languages.

“You can use this tool to be able to build modern web and cloud applications, with fantastic support for ASP.NET, Node.js, and TypeScript,”

More info here