While this is nice, how does it stack up against the other players in the code editor game? Pros, Cons, and Alternatives With the right settings, extensions, and configured shortcut keys, it can easily become a full-stack workstation. There are productivity, custom debuggers, code linters, ssh-terminals, prettifies, and DevOps pipeline connections.Īlthough the major feature of Visual Studio Code is being a code editor, with the addition of extensions, it becomes more than just a code editor. With the addition of framework, library, and/or language plugin extensions, you can leverage this even further with ready-made boiler-plates.Īnother major thing about the extension marketplace for Visual Studio Code is that it’s not limited to just code. intelliSense is a form of predictive coding. In addition to this, there is intelliSense but built into the code editor. It’s built into the design and your desired workspace set up. You don’t need to have multiple screens to run the different consoles and rearrange them each time you need to minimize something. This makes the process of bug tracking, and code run-throughs a lot easier and faster. Unlike many other code editors, Visual Studio Code has an in-built debugger, making the development flow less ‘clicky’ and maintains a single view with code and debugger.

This means that it works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Visual Studio Code is free, open-source, and cross-platform. However, there are few distinct features that tip a developer’s preference over towards Visual Studio Code. But why is it so popular? On the surface, it looks just like a typical code editor.

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