Top Related Projects
:atom: The hackable text editor
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition & IntelliJ Platform
An open source code editor for the web, written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Run upstream VS Code on a remote machine with access through a modern web browser from any device, anywhere.
Quick Overview
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free, open-source code editor developed by Microsoft. It offers a lightweight yet powerful environment for developers, supporting a wide range of programming languages and frameworks through its extensive ecosystem of extensions.
Pros
- Highly customizable with a vast library of extensions
- Cross-platform compatibility (Windows, macOS, Linux)
- Built-in Git integration and terminal
- Regular updates and active community support
Cons
- Can be resource-intensive, especially with many extensions
- Some users find the default configuration overwhelming
- Occasional stability issues with certain extensions
- Learning curve for advanced features and customizations
Getting Started
To get started with VS Code:
- Download and install VS Code from the official website: https://code.visualstudio.com/
- Launch VS Code and familiarize yourself with the interface
- Install extensions for your preferred programming languages and tools
- Customize your settings by opening the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and searching for "Preferences: Open Settings (UI)"
- Start coding by creating a new file or opening an existing project
For more detailed instructions and documentation, visit the official VS Code documentation: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs
Competitor Comparisons
:atom: The hackable text editor
Pros of Atom
- More customizable and hackable, allowing for deeper user modifications
- Simpler and more lightweight, potentially better for older hardware
- Strong community-driven package ecosystem
Cons of Atom
- Development has been discontinued, limiting future updates and support
- Generally slower performance, especially with large files
- Less built-in features compared to VS Code
Code Comparison
Atom (CoffeeScript):
class MyView extends View
@content: ->
@div class: 'my-view', =>
@h1 'Hello, Atom!'
@p 'This is a custom view.'
VS Code (TypeScript):
class MyView extends vscode.WebviewView {
public static readonly viewType = 'myView';
constructor(private readonly _extensionUri: vscode.Uri) {
super(MyView.viewType, { webview: { options: { enableScripts: true } } });
}
}
Both editors support extensions, but VS Code uses TypeScript, which offers stronger typing and better tooling support. Atom's CoffeeScript is more concise but less widely used in modern development.
VS Code has become the more popular choice due to its active development, performance improvements, and extensive built-in features. However, Atom still maintains a dedicated user base who appreciate its simplicity and customization options.
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition & IntelliJ Platform
Pros of intellij-community
- More comprehensive out-of-the-box features for Java development
- Stronger refactoring capabilities and code analysis tools
- Better performance for large-scale projects
Cons of intellij-community
- Steeper learning curve and more complex user interface
- Higher system resource requirements
- Less extensible plugin ecosystem compared to VSCode
Code Comparison
IntelliJ IDEA (Java):
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Hello, World!");
}
}
VSCode (JavaScript):
console.log("Hello, World!");
IntelliJ IDEA provides more robust code completion, navigation, and refactoring tools for Java development out of the box. VSCode offers a lighter, more customizable environment suitable for various programming languages.
Both IDEs have strong communities and regular updates. IntelliJ IDEA is particularly favored for Java development, while VSCode is more versatile and popular for web development and other languages.
The choice between the two often depends on specific project requirements, personal preferences, and the primary programming language used.
An open source code editor for the web, written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Pros of Brackets
- Lightweight and faster startup compared to VS Code
- Built-in live preview feature for web development
- More focused on web technologies, providing a streamlined experience for front-end developers
Cons of Brackets
- Less extensive plugin ecosystem than VS Code
- Limited language support beyond web technologies
- Development has slowed down, with fewer updates and new features
Code Comparison
Brackets (HTML):
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Brackets Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Hello, Brackets!</h1>
</body>
</html>
VS Code (JavaScript):
const vscode = require('vscode');
function activate(context) {
console.log('VS Code extension activated');
// Extension code here
}
module.exports = { activate };
Both editors support syntax highlighting and code completion for various languages. However, VS Code's IntelliSense is generally more advanced and offers better suggestions across a wider range of languages and frameworks.
Brackets focuses on providing a clean, minimal interface for web development, while VS Code offers a more comprehensive set of features for multiple programming languages and development scenarios.
Run upstream VS Code on a remote machine with access through a modern web browser from any device, anywhere.
Pros of openvscode-server
- Designed specifically for cloud-based development environments
- Easier to set up and run in containerized environments
- Optimized for remote access and collaborative coding
Cons of openvscode-server
- Smaller community and ecosystem compared to VS Code
- May lack some features and extensions available in the full VS Code
- Potentially slower update cycle for new features and bug fixes
Code Comparison
VS Code (extension.ts):
export function activate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
console.log('Congratulations, your extension "myextension" is now active!');
let disposable = vscode.commands.registerCommand('myextension.helloWorld', () => {
vscode.window.showInformationMessage('Hello World from MyExtension!');
});
context.subscriptions.push(disposable);
}
openvscode-server (extension.ts):
export function activate(context: vscode.ExtensionContext) {
console.log('Extension "myextension" is now active in openvscode-server!');
let disposable = vscode.commands.registerCommand('myextension.helloWorld', () => {
vscode.window.showInformationMessage('Hello from openvscode-server extension!');
});
context.subscriptions.push(disposable);
}
The code structure is similar, with minor differences in logging messages and information display to reflect the specific environment.
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Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS")
The Repository
This repository ("Code - OSS
") is where we (Microsoft) develop the Visual Studio Code product together with the community. Not only do we work on code and issues here, we also publish our roadmap, monthly iteration plans, and our endgame plans. This source code is available to everyone under the standard MIT license.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a distribution of the Code - OSS
repository with Microsoft-specific customizations released under a traditional Microsoft product license.
Visual Studio Code combines the simplicity of a code editor with what developers need for their core edit-build-debug cycle. It provides comprehensive code editing, navigation, and understanding support along with lightweight debugging, a rich extensibility model, and lightweight integration with existing tools.
Visual Studio Code is updated monthly with new features and bug fixes. You can download it for Windows, macOS, and Linux on Visual Studio Code's website. To get the latest releases every day, install the Insiders build.
Contributing
There are many ways in which you can participate in this project, for example:
- Submit bugs and feature requests, and help us verify as they are checked in
- Review source code changes
- Review the documentation and make pull requests for anything from typos to additional and new content
If you are interested in fixing issues and contributing directly to the code base, please see the document How to Contribute, which covers the following:
- How to build and run from source
- The development workflow, including debugging and running tests
- Coding guidelines
- Submitting pull requests
- Finding an issue to work on
- Contributing to translations
Feedback
- Ask a question on Stack Overflow
- Request a new feature
- Upvote popular feature requests
- File an issue
- Connect with the extension author community on GitHub Discussions or Slack
- Follow @code and let us know what you think!
See our wiki for a description of each of these channels and information on some other available community-driven channels.
Related Projects
Many of the core components and extensions to VS Code live in their own repositories on GitHub. For example, the node debug adapter and the mono debug adapter repositories are separate from each other. For a complete list, please visit the Related Projects page on our wiki.
Bundled Extensions
VS Code includes a set of built-in extensions located in the extensions folder, including grammars and snippets for many languages. Extensions that provide rich language support (code completion, Go to Definition) for a language have the suffix language-features
. For example, the json
extension provides coloring for JSON
and the json-language-features
extension provides rich language support for JSON
.
Development Container
This repository includes a Visual Studio Code Dev Containers / GitHub Codespaces development container.
-
For Dev Containers, use the Dev Containers: Clone Repository in Container Volume... command which creates a Docker volume for better disk I/O on macOS and Windows.
- If you already have VS Code and Docker installed, you can also click here to get started. This will cause VS Code to automatically install the Dev Containers extension if needed, clone the source code into a container volume, and spin up a dev container for use.
-
For Codespaces, install the GitHub Codespaces extension in VS Code, and use the Codespaces: Create New Codespace command.
Docker / the Codespace should have at least 4 Cores and 6 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) to run full build. See the development container README for more information.
Code of Conduct
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.
License
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Licensed under the MIT license.
Top Related Projects
:atom: The hackable text editor
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition & IntelliJ Platform
An open source code editor for the web, written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Run upstream VS Code on a remote machine with access through a modern web browser from any device, anywhere.
Convert designs to code with AI
Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.
Try Visual Copilot