The rise of VS code | Why developers love VS code
VS code is consistently elected as the most loved IDE by developers\ In this video, we will try to understand what makes vs code special and highlight some differences between vs code and the other popular IDEs. Hi, my name is Kevin I make videos on the tech behind products and software engineering so like the video and subscribe for more.
Developers usually work on large projects with 100s of files, modules or components so we need a quick way to navigate the source code and VS code navigation system is outstanding. It’s possible to search for files within the project with partial or full names. The search feature for content within files has the option to use regex to include or exclude some files of the project, you can also quickly jump to the definition of a method, class or interface with CRTL + click. Renaming files automatically update import paths in the project, in the same way, the refactoring option help rename symbols across files.
Other features like code folding help hide blocks of code or comments, improving readability and the code indentation feature automatically help format the code. For web developers *IntelliSense* for Typescript, HTML and CSS come out of the box helping with code completion, parameter info and more.
The magic of IntelliSense in VS code is not limited to just web development, pretty much every programing language is supported thanks to the ever-growing number of extensions built by the community.
The VS code extensions library is huge and there is an extension for everything you may need. Do you want *IntelliSense for* C#, C++, or python? Just use to extension tab to find it. There is an extension for real-time code collaboration, to make HTTP calls, start a Pomodoro timer, use emojis in your code or even change your background picture. Some extensions are built by certifying publishers so you know they work as advertised. Let me know in the comment what your favourite extensions are.
Extensions help expands the built-in capability of VS code but they are not required to have good development experience. One thing that VS code does particularly well is the support for Git.
Git is the most popular version control system and is a critical part of most developers' workflow. VS Code has integrated git by default. You can see all the file changes in the source control tab. You can see side-by-side code changes and with a simple click you can stage files or reset changes, you can stash code and checkout branches quickly, and you can also commit and push with a click instead of typing commands. Solving merge conflicts with VS code is also a breeze it’s easy to see what created the conflict and you can take action to choose what to keep or accept both changes and VS Code will automatically remove the conflicts tokens. It’s the best merge tool I have ever tried and I don’t know if something better exists.
All the previous features mentioned are awesome but most people including myself would not have considered VS code if it was not for the pricing.
My first IDE was Visual Studio, and I used it to program in C++. It’s a very powerful IDE but it always felt slow, so when I used VS code for the first time it felt incredibly light and fast and the interface was less intimidating, combine that with the free license and the result is an IDE that is very appealing to the non-professional programmer. On top of that most people learning to code outside of university usually start with frontend development so VS code is probably the best option.
I was not able to go over all the amazing features of VS code in this short video so let me know in the comment why you love or dislike VS code and what you think is the best alternative. You can watch this video to understand why GIT is so popular, thank you all for watching, please like and subscribe for more videos like this and see you in the next one.
Sources
[Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022](https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/...)
[7 Great reasons why I love Visual Studio code editor, and why it might be the best for screen reader users (techvb.net)](https://www.techvb.net/2021/05/03/7-v...)
[Why Developers Love Visual Studio Code | StackShare](https://stackshare.io/posts/why-devel...)
[Why VS Code is so popular with developers - Shortcut](https://shortcut.com/blog/7-reasons-w...)