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What is Visual Studio Code (VS Code)?

Why VS Code Dominates

Free & Cross-Platform

Mac, Windows, Linux. Microsoft maintains it on a fast release cadence.

Extension Ecosystem

Thousands of extensions for languages, linters, themes, and tools.

Built-In Git

Source control panel handles commits, branches, diffs out of the box.

Integrated Terminal

Run scripts and commands without leaving the editor.

Master Full Stack Development at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Full-Stack Web Development Certificate covers HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the modern web stack.

Learn what Visual Studio Code is and why it’s so popular with developers such as web developers.

View the presentation slides shown in the video.

What is Visual Studio Code?

Visual Studio Code (vs. Code for short) is a free code editor made by Microsoft. It was initially released in 2015. It’s used by many types of coders, including web developers. It works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Why is Vs. Code so Popular?

  • It’s a good code editor that’s updated frequently with new features.
  • There are many extensions that let you add more features or customize how it works.
  • It’s free.
  • It integrates with Git to let you track changes to your code.
  • Microsoft also owns GitHub (where people store their projects in Git repositories), so vs. Code nicely integrates with GitHub.

What Makes Vs. Code Unique?

Vs. code is built with Electron, which enables cross-platform desktop apps to be built with web technology like (JavaScript, HTML, & CSS).That means vs. Code can work in a web browser. For example on any GitHub repository you can hit the period (.) key and you will start editing with a web version of vs. Code without downloading or installing anything! That’s pretty unique.

What About Other Code Editors?

Vs. Code is currently the most popular code editor and is dominating the industry, but developers have (and still do) use other code editors.

TextMate, Dreamweaver, Brackets, and others have seen their popularity grow and then shrink. Some are no longer being developed (like Atom, which was originally developed by GitHub before Microsoft purchased GitHub).

Sublime Text was the most popular prior vs. Code. It’s good, is still being developed, and some developers use it.

A Brief Intro to Vs. Code

Watch the video above for a quick demonstration of how vs. Code works and a few of it’s features such as opening files and previewing in a web browser.

Coding Classes & Certificate Programs

If you’re currently enrolled in one of our programs, we look forward to seeing you in class. If you’re not enrolled in one of our certificate programs or classes, be sure to check out our coding classes. From web development, Python, to data science and more, we offer various different coding certificate programs. You can learn live online or in-person in New York City.