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

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.

Comments

Proofreading

[Anonymous Coward]

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

It is Atom from github

[Billly Gates]

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

Re:It is Atom from github

[Richard_at_work]

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.

Re: It is Atom from github

[Billly Gates]

It most certainly is a fork

Re: It is Atom from github

[shutdown -p now]

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

Re:It is Atom from github

[Mr. McD]

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

Re:It is Atom from github

[fisted]

But applause as MS is truly embracing open source

FTFY. We know what follows.

Re:It is Atom from github

[Flammon]

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.

Re:It is Atom from github

[noodler]

"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.

Linus Wins

[wile_e8]

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

-- Linus Torvalds

Re:Linus Wins

[Guspaz]

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

Re:Linus Wins

[shutdown -p now]

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.

Re:Linus Wins

[shutdown -p now]

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.

Re:Linus Wins

[kbahey]

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.

Re:Linus Wins

[shutdown -p now]

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

Well, except for all these.

Re: Linus Wins

[Gadget_Guy]

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.

Re:Linus Wins

[tlhIngan]

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...

Re:Linus Wins

[jellomizer]

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,

Could be good.

[Zarjazz]

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.

Re:Could be good.

[meta-monkey]

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

Did they add Brief emulation?

[CaptainLugnuts]

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

ZzzZzzz

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around?

[shutdown -p now]

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

Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around?

[UnknownSoldier]

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."

The editor can't load arbitrary binary files

[snikulin]

So for certain developers like me CodeWritght is still alive

Re:The editor can't load arbitrary binary files

[jones_supa]

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".

Re:The editor can't load arbitrary binary files

[Beamer145]

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

Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around?

[senatorpjt]

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

Microsoft and cross platform development?

[DougPaulson]

"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

Re:Microsoft and cross platform development?

[dwpro]

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.

Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around?

[hairyfeet]

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.

Re: Atom? The shittiest text editor around?

[spongman]

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.

Vim is all you need.

[Anonymous Coward]

Vim is all you need.

Embrace, extend, and...

[Gavagai80]

... 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?

Re:Atom? The shittiest text editor around?

[ixuzus]

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.

Re: At first...

[terjeber]

Moron.

Built-in git support

[jez9999]

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. :-(

Who writes this crap

[opus981]

"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.