Lightweight VS Code is only getting heftier with addition of official web server extension
- Reference: 1626097554
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/12/vs_code_1_58/
- Source link:
VS Code updates monthly but this release is perhaps bigger than usual. Microsoft has made some small tweaks to the [1]Workspace Trust feature that some find intrusive, where the editor distinguishes between trusted and untrusted folders and restricts code in untrusted folders to make it safer to work with.
"We believe it is important that developers can safely browse code, even when they are unfamiliar with the source," [2]said the team in the release notes for 1.58. Not much has changed, though there is a new option to disable the Restricted Mode reminder banner, and the settings are easier to find thanks to a new link in the user interface.
[3]
The VS Code terminal can now be part of the editor area and there are new commands to "Create terminal in Editor Area" or "Move terminal to Editor area". This then means developers can tab between a code file and a larger terminal view, or open multiple terminals in separate panels, though it is also a bit odd since conceptually it mixes an edit space with a command space.
[4]
Visual Studio Code 1.58 including web server extension and terminal in the editor
How scroll bars should behave is a matter on which views vary. VS Code 1.58 now offers some choices, specifically to control the visibility of the scrollbars (separately for vertical and horizontal), the width, and what happens when you click: by default it jumps to that position in a file, but it can also be set to page up or down.
Other changes include Math support in markdown files so that equations are rendered nicely; control over the maximum number of search results; and transient workspaces that are not automatically reloaded. There is preview support for TypeScript 4.4. Work on supporting Jupyter notebooks has continued, with debugging enabled experimentally in notebooks, and an option to use the full features of the VS Code editor for interacting with Python code.
The new Live Preview extension
There are also some changes to key extensions. One is a new first-party extension called Live Preview, currently marked experimental, which provides an integrated web server with an in-editor browser. This is aimed at web projects "where a server is not already created," [5]the docs explain , so it is not suitable for React or Angular projects, nor will it run PHP, Java or ASP.NET.
The extension is quite capable for running JavaScript, rendering CSS, and so on. The preview updates as you type. It is also possible to open web pages in an external browser, with the same auto-refresh characteristics. A verbose options lets developers view the server traffic. While the web preview looks useful, the idea is not new and there is an existing [6]Live Server extension by Ritwick Dey with more than 13 million installs, according to the VS Code statistics. The implication, perhaps, is that the feature is too important to be entrusted to a third party.
[7]
As new features pour into VS Code the notion of it being a lightweight editor is in danger of being left behind, with the provision of an official built-in web server being the latest example. On the other hand, it is an extension and does not have to be installed. But it does reflect the huge take-up for the utility and the pressure on the team to do all things well. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/visual_studio_code_workspace_trust/
[2] https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_58
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YOxnIaFWsveXrQ6T8YBoMwAAABE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/07/12/vscode.jpg
[5] https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.live-server
[6] https://github.com/ritwickdey/vscode-live-server
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YOxnIaFWsveXrQ6T8YBoMwAAABE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Well, calling VS Code "LIghtweight" does expose the age range that is using it, that's just a hard fact of age vs. IDE experience (can't really hide from that). But in all honesty, *if* Microsoft hadn't chosen Electron... well VS Code would of been pretty remarkable. I understand Microsoft won't support Java (and never a C/C++ version considering their other products), but they could of taken another route, as they did with Linux support. After all, would they have _HAD_ to use something like QT if they are going to support Linux in such a way? I think if VS Code started dev. today that they wouldn't of used Electron (or hope at least), but sadly the Electron ship has sailed.
But, I think it's great VS Code is going to have a web server soon. So many of the users just git push everything, so I'm looking forward to seeing things like credentials to AWS accounts in GitHub repos.
I still find it hard to take in that Visual C++ 6 had an IDE that has more C++ related features than VSCode and yet could fit in under 10mb and starts up almost instantly.
Fair enough, VSCode is built on electron so drags in almost an entire web browser with it but where does the weight come in for a lot of other text editors? Qt is a decent library but a single .dll for that is many times larger than previous generations.
(g)Vim is pretty good. However you can see some serious weight coming with NeoVim pulling in not only Qt (weird for such a simple interface) but also a heap of other very large libraries.
Microsoft Zune
Those who don't understand Eclipse are condemned to reinvent it, even more poorly. In Electron.
The capture
Such server is going to limit people thinking to simple apps that run on such server.
Big corporations want dumbed down engineers, who are smart enough to code something to specification (with a help of copilot, so they don't steer off to Stack Overflow and by accident learn something) and dumb enough to not think they could start their own product or even worse, ask for the greater chunk of value they produce!
running a server on your machine sounds like a good way of being owned, unless you disconnect the internet.
Bigger bloatware. Its a joke how much resources this thing uses.
If Steve Jobs were alive, I am sure he would consider Electron like the modern day Flash.
really, really love VS code. Lots of el regers seem to really hate it, but for my usecase, it is absolutely brilliant.
Not only that...
Quite right @charles.
I used to use Eclipse for BlackBerry dev.
I use Android Studio (see Idea, below) for Android dev.
Xcode for Appley stuff.
IntelliJ Idea for fun and Rust.
And finally, Netbeans for general Java, J2EE and web page development onto Payara at the server side.
They each have their own quirks and features.
Oddly enough, I have installed both Visual Studio and VSCode but only play with them.
Since when has a Microsoft product ever stayed fast and light?
The kids knew what they signed up for.