VS Code will show that folder content in your view: Both will trigger the file picker view.Ĭhoose one folder where you have source code, or even just text files, and open it. Press the “Open Folder” button in the sidebar, or the Open folder. Let’s start the exploration with the explorer (pun intended). There is a toolbar on the left with 5 icons. When you start the editor for the first time you will see the welcome screen: The installation process depends on the platform, and you should be used to it. Go to that site to download the latest stable release of the editor. Frequent updates foster innovation and Microsoft is listening to its users, while keeping the platform as stable as possible (I should say I never had an issue with VS Code in 1 year of using it every day almost all day). Microsoft releases an update every month. It has won the enthusiasm of the community: there are thousands of extensions, some official, and some made by the community, and it’s winning surveys. It’s fast, easily the fastest editor I’ve used after Sublime Text. It’s built using Node.js, and you can extend it using JavaScript (which makes it a win for all us JavaScript developers). It uses Electron as its base, which enables it to be cross platform and work on Mac, Windows and Linux. The code of the editor is completely Open Source, and there’s no payment required to use it. This editor builds on top of decades of editor experience from Microsoft.

If you’re looking for suggestions for whether to use it or not, let me say yes, you should switch to it from whatever other editor you are using now. In the last 12 months I’ve been using VS Code, the Open Source editor from Microsoft, and it’s quickly become my favorite editor ever.

I largely prefer an editor over an IDE, as it’s faster and gets less in the way. The difference between an IDE and an editor is mostly in the feature set, and complexity. I can remember TextMate, TextWrangler, Espresso, BBEdit, XCode, Coda, Brackets, Sublime Text, Atom, vim, PHPStorm. I used tons of editors and IDEs in the past few years.

In the Unix world you have those Emacs vs vi “wars”, and I kind of imagine why so much time is spend debating the advantages of one versus another. Some people defend their editor choice strenuously. Since the beginning, editors are a strange beast. Find out why, and its main features for developers VS Code, VSCode for friends, is an incredibly powerful editor that's hugely growing in popularity.

Vs code vs studio