
Visual Studio Code 1.7.1 - okket
http://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_7#_171-recovery-build
======
jagermo
Can I say that I really like the speed of these updates? The team Microsoft
really seems to be invested in this free code editor.

And a lot of the features are cool, however I really like:

| Help > Keyboard Shortcuts Reference brings up a printable PDF reference
sheet of VS Code command keyboard shortcuts. Keep this reference handy and
you'll be a VS Code power user in no time.

~~~
pavlov
_The team Microsoft really seems to be invested in this free code editor._

It's great strategic marketing. Making Visual Studio Code costs a fraction of
what Microsoft spent on the Surface RT marketing campaign (as an example), and
the benefits to their image are much more powerful and long-lasting.

The Microsoft brand has been completely reborn in the eyes of developers over
the past few years. The lows of 2007-2010 seem a distant memory.

~~~
mattmanser
I don't get the end game though, what is the strategy?

Ultimately, if you end up using Linux .net core + typescript, they seem to be
killing off visual studio, IIS, Windows Server, etc.

For what? Azure, glorified hosting that might end up a race to the bottom vs
AWS & GCE? Selling SQL server licences?

I just don't get the strategy. I'm genuinely asking, where is this actually
taking them apart from burning a bunch of money making free tools? Why are
they making .Net core?

~~~
elnado
In 2012ish as a freshman intern at Microsoft, I asked Will Kennedy (then CVP
in Office) how did he feel about people pirating Office apps. He said that
they would rather permit people to use illegal versions of Office than have
them use their competitor's tools. Essentially he was saying Microsoft would
rather people use their products free of charge rather than using other
products as it promotes Microsoft image and helps Microsoft dominate the
workspace. Promoting VSCode vs Visual studio are not competing efforts - the
two tools are solving different problems in different work environments / tech
stacks. They're simply trying to branch out to permeate more of the workplace,
and it's working. Now that I'm in a startup in SF, I look around and I see
some people switching from Sublime to VSCode for our web/backend stack, who
would never ever use Visual Studio (100% macs here).

~~~
erikbye
Sublime, people still use that over Atom? Do you see more people using VSCode
than Atom, or Emacs? What about TextMate 2, no one?

Which language do your backend guys use VSCode for?

~~~
petre
Yup, Sublime Text rules. I still use 2.0.1 at work (on a Mac) mainly for Perl
and JavaScript. It always works, it's fast, doesn't ever crash. I didn't like
VSCode that much (mainly have a problem with the toolbar on the right and
don't want to learn new key bindings/menus etc). Also I don't use debuggers
that much, so it's a useless addition to VSCode for me. Atom is a lot like
Sublime in terms of usage, but it's painfully slow. It is getting a bit better
with every new iteration though. I'm using Atom at home for learning new
stuff, as Sublime's widgets are fairly different from the general UI in Linux
(looks like an editor from outer space) and Atom tends to integrate somewhat
better.

~~~
erikbye
Have you used TextMate 2? Possibly the editor with the best integration UI-
wise, also, easily the most performant.

~~~
petre
No, but if it's not open source and multi-platform (at least Linux and Mac)
then I see no reason to switch. That's why I probably ignored it, in fact;
also why I keep checking Atom out.

------
prplhaz4
Commit for the fix to the npm issue located here:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/commit/b3c10273d7ba34086...](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/commit/b3c10273d7ba340865fd2549603e436e0c062c05)

~~~
eric_b
Looks like you can set an environment variable and still get the automatic
typings/intellisense functionality?

CH_ATA_ENABLE=true

then open VS Code?

------
HalfwayToDice
I love Visual Studio Code for a strange reason:

 _I don 't actually use it_, but by existing and being good, it should force
Sublime Text to up its game!

~~~
DigitalSea
Sublime has served me well for years and I still use it for working with
MASSIVE files as all other editors seem to choke on these, but VSCode is leaps
and bounds ahead of Sublime Text. A great editor that fell behind a while ago,
they didn't step their game up when Atom came out, I doubt VSCode will change
anything sadly. Also worth pointing out that VSCode with its debugger,
intellisense, addons and other things is ahead of all competitors right now on
all fronts.

~~~
Hydraulix989
It's a shame because Sublime is one of the few pieces of software that I use
on my computer on a day-to-day basis that isn't a buggy POS (besides the well-
written venerable UNIX shell apps).

Firefox? Buggy. Chrome? Buggy. Any other GUI editor? Buggy. Android Studio?
Buggy. XCode? Buggy. I could go on all day.

It's written in C++, too, so it's lightning fast. There's no reason UIs should
be laggy in 2016 on the very highest-spec Lenovo Thinkpad mobile workstation,
but that's the sad reality of anything written in Electron JS (along with zero
4K Hi-DPI support on Linux, so I have to squint to read the microscopic text
on Slack, Upwork, Discord, Messenger for Desktop, Whatsie, Skype for Linux
Alpha, ...).

~~~
BrandonLive
That sounds more like a Linux problem than an Electron/JS problem ;-)

~~~
biocomputation
++

Although it's definitely an Electron problem. My few experiences with Atom
have been that it is absolutely and unacceptably slow on top hardware.

------
Gurrewe
I'm impressed by the speed of the releases here. 1.7 to 1.6 to 1.7.1 within a
single day.

~~~
sdegutis
I wonder how many people at MS had to pull an all-nighter to make that happen.

~~~
jongalloway2
It does help that Erich Gamma & team are in Zurich...

~~~
neculaiandrei
5 people. Microsoft employee here. NOT.

------
Pigo
Electron is a great framework. I've used the same applications on several
OS's, each seemed stable and fully functional.

~~~
timdorr
I'm curious why Atom gets so much crap for being an Electron app, whereas VS
Code is generally praised for it's speed. Are they doing something
significantly different from each other?

~~~
ovao
I suspect there's some bandwagonism at play in some of it, but I think the VS
Code team has generally applied lessons learned from some of Atom's more
obvious performance shortfalls (large file handling, for example, for which
support was added very incrementally).

In my day-to-day usage I'm not seeing any significant performance differences
between Atom and Code, but that may just be a function of my particular use
cases, or it may well be that newer versions of Atom have, at least somewhat,
caught up to VS Code.

~~~
arkitaip
The performance difference between Atom and VS Code is very noticeable on low
and mid range PCs. Most of us here on HN are very fortunate that we can afford
high end PCs that minimizes performances bottlenecks but we should keep in
mind that most of the world isn't so fortunate and that good performance still
matters.

~~~
zumu
I've been developing on a chrome book for the past year. I can confirm that vs
code runs very smooth, while atom is finicky and just flat out dies on opening
large folders/files.

~~~
Pigo
Kudos to another chromebook dev! Are you running Ubuntu in a Crouton, or
another setup? I'm doing that and I run Atom without any complaints. It might
just be the way I'm using it however.

~~~
zumu
I removed the write protection screw, upgraded my ssd, flashed on a new bios
from [https://mrchromebox.tech/](https://mrchromebox.tech/), and installed
galliumOS--originally I used chrubuntu, then straight ubunutu. Everything
works great. Even installed display link drivers, so I can dock to 2 monitors
at work.

Can you open arbitrarily large text files/directories in atom these days?
Whenever, I open anything over a few thousand LOC atom seems to lock up for
me. I was actually forced to switch from Atom to VSC, because I had a bad
habit of accidentally clicking on `node_modules` in the file tree and crashing
my session.

~~~
Pigo
I had someone on here mention the write protection screw removal method to me
before, I just couldn't bring myself to do it on my Pixel 2. But I should try
it, I'm glad to hear someone say it worked out great for them. I definitely
want to still be able to boot into the normal Chrome OS because it's
preferable to me when I'm not working.

I think I see what you're saying. Maybe it's because the pixel is actually a
beast, I don't notice it as much. I have VS Code installed, maybe I should
give it another shot. I'm probably just used to Atom, and the only time I
really used VSC I was trying to work on one of our really large .NET solutions
and it just started throwing hundreds of errors at me. I should try one of my
MEAN apps in it.

~~~
zumu
The pixel is in fact a beast. I almost bought one, but was worried about the
tiny ssd. Do you find space limiting at all?

VS Code has been stellar for JS and Go. The ruby experience has been pretty
meh. Definitely depends on language/community support.

------
sctb
From yesterday, the 1.7 release:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12859347](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12859347)
and subsequent reversion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12860806](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12860806).

------
satysin
I enjoy working in C and C++ (on Windows) using Sublime Text however I am
thinking of giving VSCode a proper try. I know many people use VSCode for web
related development but MS seem quite serious about improving its support for
C and C++.

My question is does anyone here use VSCode for C and C++? What is your setup?
task files, etc?

~~~
jhasse
Yes, I'm using it for C++ dev :) I'm mostly using the C/C++ extension from
Microsoft, unfortunately it's still closed source.

I'm developing on Linux and Windows with MSYS2. Here are my config files:
[https://gist.github.com/jhasse/a3898302e4f8be682d053dd5e3b4b...](https://gist.github.com/jhasse/a3898302e4f8be682d053dd5e3b4b62a)

~~~
satysin
Awesome, thank you!

------
butu5
I did a small video showing the new features of v1.7.1. (Note: this is for
beginner only :) ) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQPZPvY-
z_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQPZPvY-z_s)

------
Philipp__
Welp, looks like last night was sleepless for some people.

~~~
fahrradflucht
In Swiss the day just ended. (The vscode team is partly located there)

~~~
Philipp__
I know I am from Europe too, but 1.7 was released and pulled back yesterday
(evening), and this noon 1.7.1 was released. :)

------
ukyrgf
Imagine if Windows 10 updates looked like these Release Notes.

------
ggregoire
For those who want the disabled feature:

Typings auto installer -
[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jvitor83...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jvitor83.typings-
autoinstaller)

I've used this extension for the last 2 months, it works great.

------
laacz
I'm blown by the speed of it, considering it's built upon electron. Since I
haven't yet decided to upgrade to sublime3, might just give VS Studio a shot.
For serious development I use IDE of choice, but for quick text editing
sublime might get replaced with VS Studio.

------
egeozcan
I wish they left a flag for the people running their own npm mirror.

Other than that, it's hard not to be impressed by how quickly they made
another release. Congratulations!

~~~
octref
If you are interested in getting the latest features, try VSCode Insider
version[0].

[0]:
[https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders](https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders)

~~~
KayL
Oh. never known it. how stable is it?

~~~
pixelcloud
Its an insider preview, it will be hit or miss depending on the release.
VSCode release updates often and they have broken things in the past, which
usually get patched within a few days.

Don't do Insider if you need a guarantee of stability.

------
konsnos
> CSS autocompletion within HTML

Wasn't expecting this! I wonder if they plan HTML autocompletion within PHP.
This would really speed up my work.

------
wlk
Is there a Debian/Ubuntu repository somewhere? They provide deb packages but I
couldn't find the repo anywhere.

~~~
jhasse
Not yet. Issues:

deb:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/2973](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/2973)
rpm:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/229](https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/229)

------
Hydraulix989
Why do we get another HN post everytime VS Code releases another update? Can
we consolidate them somehow?

~~~
axefrog
Updates are monthly. Would you prefer a six-or-twelve month digest summary?

~~~
Hydraulix989
There were three in the past few days.

------
dmeagor
Is there any way to import an existing visual studio project/solution into
this?

------
HugoDaniel
I would love to use this but i cannot get used to the syntax highlighting. How
can i remove syntax highlighting in vscode ? There does not seem to be a
obvious config option in the docs.

------
Noseshine
I have a question.

I'm using WebStorm mostly but I'm not "married" to any particular IDE, I've
used others and I switch around relatively easily.

I'm doing a slightly different programming style when it comes to types: I
don't use "no types" or TypeScript or Flow, but I _do_ use "types", sort of.
What I've done is JSDoc the hell out of my code. There is not a variable
without a JSDoc or Closure compiler type annotation. Those are all just
comments, so I don't need to "Babel" my code. Since I'm using the latest
node.js and only those ES 2015+ features that it happens to support that is
enough.

It works because the IDE (WebStorm) uses the JSDoc comments to infer types,
and the IDE itself provides the equivalent of what something like Flow or
TypeScript wold do.

Well - to a point. I'm not really satisfied. I always keep submitting tickets
for WebStorm, and while they have solved a lot there still are too many
fundamental issues with how they infer types. For example, I get offered
object properties from files I don't even include in the file I'm in, not even
indirectly! For example, "mocha" might have an internal (!) variable somewhere
that has a property "data". Since I have a property "data" too I get the
definition inferred from that mocha file, which makes no sense, since a) I'm
not even in a test file that includes mocha, and b) even if I was, that is an
internal variable that's not exported.

They don't seem to be able to solve this issue, and with new EAPs I often get
two steps back for very hard-fought step forward. To be honest, I believe
their code for inferring types in Javascript is just too messy, it seems each
time they plug a hole it doesn't last long and two new ones appear.

However, when I try VStudio it seems that I only get type inference if I use
TypeScript?

I would be open to using "Flow", but I really, really don't want to have a
different language. I just want types and standard Javascript! Yes I know
TypeScript appears pretty much the same as ES 2015, but it still rewrites my
code. I would not mind, except that there really is no reason at all since ES
2015 has everything I need (I don't use classes or even prototypical
inheritance, no inheritance at all, only composition and functions).

From my limited research the best albeit not quite satisfactory solution for
my case still remains only WebStorm? I mean, if they fix the problems
introduced with the EAP version a few weeks ago when all JSDoc based type
suggestions stopped working I can live with that state.

It would be nice though if I could have a "comment based type system"
(JSdoc/Closure compiler) or Flow. How would VStudio do in this scenario?

~~~
svieira
Typescript can actually use the types you provide in JSDoc[1] so you will see
benefits simply by using VS Code in most cases.

[1]: [https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/JSDoc-
support-i...](https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/wiki/JSDoc-support-in-
JavaScript)

~~~
Noseshine
That is interesting, I did not know that.

Still, I don't want to use TypeScript for the reasons I wrote. I'm as
minimalist as possible, and I don't want to use a language that changes my
code to something else without any gain for me since I can write exactly what
I want in ES 2015+ already. So it's just those types, and I could get them
from "Flow" too and in that case keep my ES 2015+ code. Yes I know TypeScript
is very close to ES 2015+, but I never know when it _does_ change the code
unless I look at the transpiled result.

EDIT: Actually, I _did_ know that, looking at that page I remember why I
dismissed it:

    
    
      > Note any tags not listed explicitly below (such as @typedef, or @constructor) are not yet supported.
    

But that is something I make heavy use of. It would be really messy if I
wasn't able to introduce "custom types" even in my limited "IDE based static
type system".

~~~
RyanCavanaugh
> I don't want to use a language that changes my code to something else

TypeScript doesn't change your code. If you're writing ES2015 code and
targeting ES2015 emit, the output code is _always_ exactly what you put in.
There isn't any difference.

~~~
Noseshine
I guess I'll have to look into that again then.

~~~
WorldMaker
Right, most of the code changes Typescript performs are the equivalent of
babel plugins: the closer you write to the target output version of the
language the fewer changes there between the input/output. The further back
compatible you try to target the more "polyfills" and reconfiguring Typescript
needs to do to support the older versions of JS.

Most of Typescript's output changes when you are writing for the same version
of JS that you are outputting are simply just removing the type hints from the
final output.

That said, with allowJS "mixed" mode of Typescript now you can also try for a
hybrid approach of JS and TS files in the same project and that hybrid
approach gets more powerful and capable with each release. I think with some
effort you can even get somewhat close enough to the point that you can have
some Flow-like behavior by using JS for most files and .d.ts and .ts files for
only the really type-dependent stuff.

~~~
Noseshine
I hope that is going to be a major use case for TS (i.e. directly intended and
supported by the makers), i.e. (guaranteed) "just types".

------
lucisferre
The laughable JSON snippet format is enough reason for me not to take VS Code
seriously as much as I want to.

------
aq3cn
I think it has fast paced development because most of the people in MS use
this editor all the time. If it is their native home unlike Store apps or MS
Office then why wouldn't they make it feel good. It's natural to take care of
place where you live most of the time.

