Visual Studio Code Distilled Evolved Code Editing for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Table of Contents....5

About the Author....11

Acknowledgments....12

Introduction....13

Chapter 1: Introducing Visual Studio Code....14

Introducing Visual Studio Code....15

When and Why Visual Studio Code....16

Installing and Configuring Visual Studio Code....18

Installing Visual Studio Code on Windows....19

Installing Visual Studio Code on macOS....22

Installing Visual Studio Code on Linux....23

Localization Support....25

Updating Visual Studio Code....26

Previewing Features with Insiders Builds....28

Summary....30

Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Environment....31

The Welcome Page....32

The Code Editor....33

Reordering, Resizing, and Zooming Editor Windows....34

The Status Bar....35

The Activity Bar....36

The Side Bar....38

The Explorer Bar....38

The Outline View....40

The Search Tool....43

The Git Bar....44

The Debug Bar....46

The Extensions Bar....47

The Settings Button....48

Navigating Between Files....48

The Command Palette....49

The Panels Area....50

The Problems Panel....50

The Output Panel....52

The Debug Console Panel....53

Working with the Terminal....54

Summary....55

Chapter 3: Language Support and Code Editing Features....56

Language Support....57

Working with C# and C++....58

Basic Code Editing Features....59

Working with Text....59

Syntax Colorization....60

Delimiter Matching and Text Selection....62

Code Block Folding....62

Multicursors....63

Reusable Code Snippets....63

Word Completion....65

Minimap Mode....66

Whitespace Rendering and Breadcrumbs....67

Markdown Preview....69

Evolved Code Editing....70

Working with IntelliSense....71

Parameter Hints....73

Inline Documentation with Tooltips....73

Go To Definition....74

Find All References....76

Peek Definition....77

Renaming Symbols and Identifiers....78

Live Code Analysis....79

Summary....87

Chapter 4: Working with Files and Folders....88

Visual Studio Code and Project Systems....88

Working with Individual Files....89

Creating Files....90

File Encoding, Line Terminators, and Line Browsing....91

Working with Folders and Projects....93

Opening a Folder....95

Opening .NET Core Solutions....97

Opening JavaScript and TypeScript Projects....98

Opening Loose Folders....99

Working with Workspaces....100

Creating Workspaces....102

Opening Existing Workspaces....103

Workspace Structure....103

Summary....104

Chapter 5: Customizing Visual Studio Code....105

Customizations and Extensions Explained....105

Customizing Visual Studio Code....107

Theme Selection....107

Customizing the Environment....109

Understanding User Settings....109

Behind the Scenes: The settings.json File....111

A Real-World Example: Working with Proxies....113

Understanding Workspace Settings....115

Customizing Key Bindings....116

Summary....120

Chapter 6: Installing and Managing Extensions....121

Installing Extensions....121

Extension Recommendations....125

Useful Extensions....127

Managing Extensions....128

Configuring Extensions....130

Hints About Extension Authoring....132

Summary....132

Chapter 7: Source Control with Git....134

Source Control in Visual Studio Code....134

Downloading Other Source Control Providers....135

Managing Repositories....136

Initializing a Local Git Repository....137

Creating a Remote Repository....139

Handling File Changes....141

Staging Changes....143

Managing Commits....144

Working with the Git Command Line Interface....146

Creating and Managing Branches....147

Switching to a Different Branch....149

Merging from a Branch....149

Deleting Branches....150

Adding Power to the Git Tooling with Extensions....151

Git History....151

GitLens....153

GitHub Pull Requests....157

Working with Azure DevOps and Team Foundation Server....159

Summary....163

Chapter 8: Automating Tasks....165

Understanding Tasks....166

Tasks Types....167

Running and Managing Tasks....167

The Default Build Task....172

Auto-Detected Tasks....172

Configuring Tasks....174

First Example: Compiling Pascal Source Code....175

Multiple Tasks and Default Build Tasks....181

Understanding tasks.json Properties and Substitution Variables....183

Operating System-Specific Properties....189

Reusing Existing Task Templates....190

Second Example: Building a MSBuild Solution (Windows Only)....193

Understanding Problem Matchers....195

Running Files with a Default Program....196

Summary....197

Chapter 9: Running and Debugging Code....198

Creating Applications....198

Creating .NET Core Projects....199

Creating Projects on Other Platforms....202

Debugging Your Code....203

Configuring the Debugger....205

Managing Breakpoints....209

Debugging an Application....210

Evaluating Expressions....212

The Call Stack....213

The Debug Console Panel....214

Supporting Azure, Docker, and Artificial Intelligence....214

Summary....216

Index....217

Use Visual Studio Code to write and debug code quickly and efficiently on any platform, for any device, using any programming language, and on the operating system of your choice.

Visual Studio Code is an open source and cross-platform development tool that focuses on code editing across a variety of development scenarios, including web, mobile, and cloud development. This third edition has been updated to match the latest releases of the environment. Additional updates relate to .NET 7 and explain how to consume AI services from code you write in Visual Studio Code. This new edition is also refreshed with the latest updates, such as enhanced merge editor, creating extensions, support for the Julia language, and much more.

The book teaches you how to be immediately productive with Visual Studio Code, from the basics to some of the more complex topics. You will learn how to work on individual code files, complete projects, and come away with an understandingof advanced code-editing features that will help you focus on productivity, and source code collaboration with Git.

What You Will Learn

• Get started with practical guidance on Visual Studio Code, including expansive guidance on writing apps with C# and Python
• Understand how to edit individual files and how to work with folders by working on the latest workspace trust and multi-root workspaces
• Debug code on multiple platforms through real-world guidance, such as working under corporate networks
• Package code into Docker containers and deploy these to Azure
• Acquire valuable tips, tricks, and suggestions from hard-earned, real-world experience to be more productive

Who This Book Is For

All developers (including JavaScript, Java, NodeJS), not just those with a Microsoft background, who will benefit from learning and using VS code as a cross-platform and cross-language tool