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Microsoft Releases Visual Studio Code Preview For Linux, OS X, and Windows

Posted by Soulskill on from the of-proof-and-pudding dept.

ClockEndGooner writes: Microsoft is still extending its efforts into cross platform development with the release of a preview edition of Visual Studio Code, "a lightweight cross-platform code editor for writing modern web and cloud applications that will run on OS X, Linux and Windows." Derived from its Monaco editor for Visual Studio Online, the initial release includes rich code assistance and navigation for JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, ASP.NET 5, C# and many others.

72 comments

  1. Proofreading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Honestly, how hard is it to give the headline a quick read before posting? "naavigation"

    1. Re:Proofreading by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 0

      It's only a teeny bit harder than logging in before you post.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  2. Well, this wouldn't be so bad if only.. by davidwr · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ... if only
    * His assumptions were backed by solid, peer-reviewed research,
    and
    * Research into the bias or lack of bias in all-male research groups were done and we had solid evidence regarding the whether all-male groups had a bias requiring rejection of all papers on this topic by all-male research teams, and if so, that such papers were rejected.

    Of course, neither one is the case. But if they were ....

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
    1. Re:Well, this wouldn't be so bad if only.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      I think you replied to the wrong story.

    2. Re:Well, this wouldn't be so bad if only.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Honestly, how hard is it to give the headline a quick read before posting?

  3. It is Atom from github by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just re branded with node.js replaced with a fork and Chromium as a viewer. Never thought I would see MS use Chrome.

    But applause as MS is truly adopting to open source

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:It is Atom from github by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      Take the new Azure website: It was built using Chrome & Sublime Text on the development machines because development on Visual Studio & IE10 (at the time) was too difficult. The images for it were made on Apple machines & tools.
      Oh, and it built on pile of discarded Windows 7 machines in the corner because we couldn't figure-out Azure.

      Yes, free unlimited Microsoft tools and the best support in the business (just walk nextdoor literally) and still a no-go.
      To compete, you can't use Microsoft Technologies. Even Microsoft knows this. They still wouldn't let me run Linux on my laptop though.

    2. Re:It is Atom from github by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative

      Its not simply Atom, it uses the Monaco editor MS have been using on VS Online for some time, as well as Omnisharp and a few other things - Atom supplies the shell, and Chromium the runtime, but its much more than simply Atom.

    3. Re: It is Atom from github by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      It most certainly is a fork

      --
      http://saveie6.com/
    4. Re: It is Atom from github by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      Like GP said, it's a fork with significant changes. The editor is replaced entirely, and then there's the whole .NET integration story.

    5. Re:It is Atom from github by Mr.+McD · · Score: 1

      Unlike Atom, Visual Studio Code is MUCH faster. Plus, the Markdown editor is pretty sweet. So far, I like it.

    6. Re:It is Atom from github by fisted · · Score: 1

      But applause as MS is truly embracing open source

      FTFY. We know what follows.

      --
      CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
    7. Re:It is Atom from github by Flammon · · Score: 1

      Adopting.... yeah right. More like embracing and extending. According to the handy dandy MS handbook, the next step is extinguish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E... I'm not sure what the real agenda is yet but TypeScript and .NET seem to be their weapons of choice. Hey, if they can develop some great products and compete without reaching for the monopoly hammer, I'm all for it. However, history has shown that MS uses their monopolistic position to eliminate competition and then sit on a the sub-par product for years.

      --
      ayottesoftware.com
    8. Re:It is Atom from github by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MS Just realized that windows may not be the future of OS. Took them a while. The main foothold they had was when they got early adoption of windows and had a stranglehold on the market due to everything depending on windows. I know many of you will say you hate me of this but windows is a damn good OS. If it were not then it would not have succeeded. I'm not saying that it is the best, in fact i cant think of something that windows does that can not be duplicated in another OS. Heck windows has been stealing ideas from open source for a while now. I can easily assert that this is why MS is pushing into open source now, finally... Now I know that many of you see MS as evil, but if you compare them against many other big software companies then well they just look normal if not something like the good brother in an evil family.

      As to visual studio being developed for other platforms well, I have to applaud this. Visual studio though pricy is really one of the best development platforms I have worked with. It is easy to learn (though newer versions have a higher learning curve, and i wish that they would mark which options compile to .net and which are native) works almost immediately with no post setup configuration required, the plugins seem to work similarly. The only issue I have with it is the long start-up time. Which is why I tend to use Notepad++ for most of my quick edits and visual studio for actual development. Please note this does not mean that I use this editor for everything. I tend to prefer eclipse for java development, and fASM for assembly. I tend to use the tool that I have found gets the job done the easiest. But overall Visual Studio is probably the best editor I have used. i would also be happier if MS would allow other compilers and assemblers to be used. For example if i want to use GCC for a project i would like Visual studio to support it, same with fASM, etc... Hopefully MS will learn that we don't like being locked down, we just the more they let us do the better it is for all of us.

      Maybe others can learn from this. (for example who would like to have android moved from single-user to multi-user, and something like a sudo in there?)

    9. Re:It is Atom from github by noodler · · Score: 1

      "But applause as MS is truly adopting to open source"

      Well, now that systemd is in place there is no reason for them not to.

  4. naavigation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great editing there. Do you actuality read these summaries before posting them?

  5. What's fizz-ual voodi-oo? by spads · · Score: 0

    :) ..

    --
    Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
  6. Extend, Embrace, Extinguish Revised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    MS is doing what it can to stay relevant and muster mind share. The independent software developers are walking away and MS executives are scrambling to keep up.

    At the same time, it may currently be true that Linux, specifically Android, has turned into the next great MS cash cow via patent wars.

  7. Linus Wins by wile_e8 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won.

    -- Linus Torvalds

    1. Re:Linus Wins by Guspaz · · Score: 3

      So I guess Torvalds won when Microsoft became a Linux kernel developer?

    2. Re:Linus Wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kernel code is not applications.

    3. Re:Linus Wins by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If Microsoft ends up making money doing applications for Linux, it means that Microsoft has won, as well.

      The nice thing about this is that there doesn't have to be a losing party.

    4. Re:Linus Wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      "Doesn't anyone remember Windows?"

      hmmm, where have I heard that before?

      When Microsoft loses exclusivity with Windows then Microsoft eventually loses. They've hardly ever competed in the market based on capabilities and quality and the few times they have won it was after years and years of forcing the cracked and hacked code down people's throats via preloads.

      What I see is only a way to let over developers make apps which only run on Windows.

    5. Re:Linus Wins by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2

      When Microsoft loses exclusivity with Windows then Microsoft eventually loses. They've hardly ever competed in the market based on capabilities and quality

      Let me guess, you're still bitter from WinME?

      Look at what's actually making money. Hint: it's mostly Office, not Windows, and it has been that way for many years now. Why would Office for iOS or Android, say, make any less money than Office for Windows?

      Or, say, Azure. It's a money maker, despite playing catch-up with AWS.

      What I see is only a way to let over developers make apps which only run on Windows.

      Yeah, that's why Code runs on Linux: to let people who use Linux make apps that only run on Windows. Makes perfect sense.

    6. Re:Linus Wins by kbahey · · Score: 1

      They already make money from Linux! By collecting dubious licensing fees from Android phone manufacturers, including Samsung.

      This amounts to over $2bn, as of over a year ago.

      Granted, they are not writing apps for it (yet), but they are making money from a Linux platform.

      --
      2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
    7. Re:Linus Wins by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Granted, they are not writing apps for it (yet)

      Well, except for all these.

    8. Re: Linus Wins by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 2

      That was always such a dumb quote because Microsoft had been writing software for Unix since the 80s. Even Microsoft Word ran on Unix 6 years before the first Linux release.

    9. Re:Linus Wins by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Or, say, Azure. It's a money maker, despite playing catch-up with AWS.

      Actually, doesn't Apple use Azure to power iCloud? Rather than Apple trying to do their cloud thing themselves, they rely on a cloud provider, and the one they chose was Microsoft...

    10. Re:Linus Wins by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Microsoft had made software for Macs, and even Unix systems. I remember IE 4 for Solaris.
      So yes Linus wins... But so what it isn't that big of a deal anymore. We are not as closely tied to our operating systems as we were 10 years ago.
      Most of the stuff we needed apps for in the past are available via the web (are they trade offs yes, but this is the way it is) the actual app developers are getting wiser to multi-platform development. And are not touting they undying love affair with the OS. Microsoft cannot afford to be windows only,

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    11. Re: Linus Wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft 'had' their own unix, Xenix at one point, they where not just writing software. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X...

    12. Re: Linus Wins by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple switched to their own data centers after the first year or so. They only used Azure temporarily... It's performance has always been an issue... Better go back to hugging XP for windows speed.

  8. Sigh. More Micro$lop lies. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    VS has and NEVER EVER will be "lightweight".

    1. Re: Sigh. More Micro$lop lies. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should try it. Despite the Microsofty name (I hate MS naming), it is NOT visual studio

  9. Could be good. by Zarjazz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm no fan of M$, far from it, but despite that I'll be the first to admit that Visual Studio has always been a very good product. You can tell those that write the IDE also use it themselves and know what developers need / want. So a cross platform version is certainly interesting.

    1. Re:Could be good. by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

      I hate how much I like Visual Studio and C# in general.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    2. Re:Could be good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, actual Visual Studio is good.

      This is "VS Code". It seems to be little more than a text editor with syntax highlighting?

    3. Re:Could be good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      You can tell those that write the IDE also use it themselves and know what developers need / want.

      I don't know of a SINGLE developer that needed or wanted the following:
      - fucking METRO interface which makes all icons look the same
      - MENU BAR THAT IS CONSTANTLY SCREAMING AT YOU SO THAT IT TAKES EXTRA TIME TO PARSE WHICH ONE YOU WANT

    4. Re:Could be good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I'm no fan of M$, far from it, but"

      I'm no fan of slaughterhouses, but....

    5. Re:Could be good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm no fan of M$, far from it, but despite that I'll be the first to admit that Visual Studio has always been a very good product. You can tell those that write the IDE also use it themselves and know what developers need / want. So a cross platform version is certainly interesting.

      they should concentrate on Win stuff, there is no need to release useless code.

    6. Re:Could be good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Intellisense. And interactive debugging.

  10. Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    I tried that Atom text editor once. The piece of shit couldn't even open a text file bigger than 2 MB! I couldn't fucking believe it! It's 2015, and we have a text editor that refuses to open a 2 MB file?! Fucking unbelievable! I've open 3 TB log files in vim before, and it doesn't even break a sweat. So why the fuck does this JavaScript/Node.js Atom editor shitfest struggle so badly with such small files?

    1. Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      A good thing then that one of the pieces of Atom that this replaces is the editor ...

    2. Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize it hasn't hit version 1.0 yet, right?

    3. Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      I don't give a fuck. It's a text editor, for crying out loud. I could open 2 MB files no problem in Notepad when I was running Windows 95 on my 75 MHz Pentium, with only 4 MB of RAM. I could even open 2 MB files on my shitty old PC running DOS 5, although edit did struggle with it slightly, and that file took up a good chunk of my hard drive.

      Now it's 2015, I have a relatively new, high end ThinkPad laptop running Linux, and this pile of shit Atom editor can't even open a 2 MB file! This computer is probably 400 to 500 times more powerful than those earlier computers, if not more powerful than that, yet it can't do as much as they did 20 or even 30 years ago.

      Everything that uses JavaScript is like this. It's total shit, and it fails to do stuff that could be easily done decades ago.

    4. Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yup, Vim FTW! I particularly like this VIM Cheat Sheet

      MS forgot the first rule of programs:

      "Those who forget the past are condemned to re-implement it, badly."

    5. Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by senatorpjt · · Score: 3, Informative

      Notepad in Windows 95 had a maximum file size of 64K.

    6. Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your comment is blatantly incorrect. A 2MB text file on a 4MB RAM machine is going to be garbage to view let alone edit. I'm not sure what the fresh boot requirements are for OS memory usage on Win95 but I would assume the answer isn't much less than 2MB, so you would have no RAM left- you'll be paging for sure. And I use vim too. One of our 2GB log files on a decent machine will open after 20 seconds but jumping around the file will be very difficult. Its a log so you're probably searching it and that's a linear search. It is not going to be fun even on common, fairly capable (8G of RAM, Core i7 @ 2.2ghz) servers unless all your doing is vim on it. Let alone a multi-TB log file.... And why are you opening logs in a code editor anyway? Don't tell me your source files are 2MB a piece because if they are you are doing it waayyyy wrong.

    7. Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Well considering the OS was made to run on a 486 with 8MB of RAM I'd say that is a decent size, possibly even a little large for a text file.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    8. Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by spongman · · Score: 1

      The goal was to have win95 run as well as OS2 in 4MB ram. I saw graphs of various perf metrics vs build# and I believe they were all made on 4MB machines.

    9. Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around? by ixuzus · · Score: 1

      I could open 2 MB files no problem in Notepad when I was running Windows 95 on my 75 MHz Pentium, with only 4 MB of RAM.

      I don't mean to disrupt your rant but either your memory is failing or mine is. My recollection was that there was a 64k limit on notepad files until either Windows Mistakes Edition or Win2k.

  11. Did they add Brief emulation? by CaptainLugnuts · · Score: 1

    That was the only reason to use VisualStudo's editor a bunch of years ago.

    1. Re:Did they add Brief emulation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They removed the in-built Brief emulation several versions ago. I believe VS 2008 was the last version that included it. I bit the bullet and retrained my fingers when I switched to 2010. It was surprisingly easy, despite the fact I had been using Brief key strokes for over 20 years at that point.

      Yes, I'm old (well, comparatively).

  12. ZzzZzzz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Wake me up from my wet dream when it has IntelliSense for C++ and the solution file works on all three platforms seamlessly and easily.
    Until then, VS for windows and make for everything else.

    1. Re: ZzzZzzz by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. the F U D season has begun. Isn't it developer week at the hugger convention?

  13. Beware of Microsoft bearing "free" gifts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Take a gander at the Privacy Statement...then decide if it's still "great of Microsoft to do this"...

    http://www.microsoft.com/privacystatement/en-us/core/default.aspx

  14. Linux is becoming piece of shit enough for MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Linux is becoming piece-of-shit enough for microsoft's code. All thanks to systemd and SJWs.

  15. The editor can't load arbitrary binary files by snikulin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So for certain developers like me CodeWritght is still alive

    1. Re:The editor can't load arbitrary binary files by jones_supa · · Score: 2

      One tip for those who are using regular VS though. Not many know that there is actually an integrated hex editor.

      In the "Open File" dialog, select a file and then choose "Open With..." from the pull-down menu in the bottom. A new dialog pops up from which you can select "Binary Editor".

    2. Re:The editor can't load arbitrary binary files by Beamer145 · · Score: 1

      And VS does not have a decent multiple document interface anymore ('float' is absolutely horrible). CodeWright FTW

  16. Microsoft and cross platform development? by DougPaulson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Microsoft is still extending its efforts into cross platform development" after spending much effort on making everything Windows only.

    "It was creating a situation where pure 100% Java applications would look just as good as pure Windows applications which we have to avoid." ref

    "possible emergence of a set of API's and underlying system software that lead to lesser or no role for Windows" ref

    "How do we wrest control of Java away from Sun?" ref

    "This summer we're going to totally divorce Sun" ref

    1. Re:Microsoft and cross platform development? by dwpro · · Score: 1

      Thanks for that cutting edge news. Ballmer's "developers developers developers " trojan horse incantation was beginning to take hold. I'm sure glad Sun was able to keep java firmly in their grasp and not let some evil company get ahold of it.

      --
      Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
  17. At first... by SirAudioMan · · Score: 0

    At first I was happy with this news. I grew up with Windows, learned coding with Micro$oft products (QBasic, VB, C#) eventually moving to Linux and embracing C, Python. I soon started to realize that their products may look nice and complete, but their software is poorly designed, bloated and inefficient. I know Linux, et all has it's issues too, but I it's one sanctuary I have left where their isn't bloat and Microsoft crap all over my machine.

    I can just see it now - Visual Studio for Linux will require and only run under root installing it's binaries in /Program_Files/ off root! It will require some silly Win32 emulation and will be a huge pig with ram making Java applications look like small well designed products.

     

    1. Re: At first... by terjeber · · Score: 1

      Moron.

    2. Re: At first... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Instead of replying "moron" you can just say that you tried it, and it's as simple as downloading, extracting as a normal user, and then typing "./Code" at a non-root command line prompt.

    3. Re: At first... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly! Sometimes Java can be a good tool, but after 40 years of programming, I'm back to C and Python. We don't need more 'wizard-clicking-monkeys' or ballmertoids with some half-baked mono framework.

  18. Vim is all you need. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Vim is all you need.

  19. Embrace, extend, and... by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

    ... comply with the terms of GPL by freely distributing the code for their extensions?

    Is this editor FOSS, or does it just use FOSS components?

    --
    This space intentionally left blank
  20. Built-in git support by jez9999 · · Score: 1

    That's great! I truly love the fact that MS has embraced git.

    Now how do I get my company to make the switch over from their huge TFS repo? They all think git is too complicated. :-(

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    1. Re:Built-in git support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Teach them semver.org, then gitflow. In that order. Learn them that version control is about making and maintaining releases of the product. Not about sharing code. You have some gitflow-supporting tools like the gitflow tools themselves and a bunch of github-like websites. If the concept of pushing and sharing feature branches with each other (that'll end up merged in the develop branch) is too difficult, then learn them to code their feature in their own fork (of develop), push their fork to develop of their own repository, and click on "Make merge request" on that github-like website. Then a senior developer reviews and merged it to develop branch. That gets tested, when testing and fixing is done, goes to master, and there you tag releases. That's quite a fine way of working with people who don't (want to) understand version control. And this is something doable to explain to junior developers who first get in touch with git.

  21. I for one can never see any need for more than tht by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    people need to make more effective programs if they go more than that...

  22. So baad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its just a shoddy text editor...

  23. Who writes this crap by opus981 · · Score: 1

    "Visual Studio Code is the first code editor, and first cross-platform development tool - supporting OSX, Linux, and Windows - in the Visual Studio family."

    No shit.

    "For serious coding, developers often need to work with code as more than just text."

    I'm just kidding when I release my life-critical medical device software.