Item: Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Rating: 10
Author: Taylor Morgan

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Visual Studio Code

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our professional services web development team uses Visual Studio Code to develop custom websites and web applications. It has become a go-to solution for quick and stable coding without too much extra fluff but with a great deal of extensions and compatibility with other pieces of our development workflow. It handles projects ranging from simple page demonstrations to fully-featured web applications based on multiple modern frameworks.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Integrates tabbed console into editor
Numerous extensions and language support packs
Flexible workspace system for project directories, settings, etc.

Cons

Default workspace settings are not customizable (have to copy and paste from/to settings file)
New users may find the left panel UI and workspace system non-intuitive (even though it is eventually quite good)

Return on Investment

Streamlined workflow for multiple project environments
Ease of returning to completed projects for updates and support -- everything opens just the way you had it the last time you worked on it

Alternatives Considered

Atom

Visual Studio Code has the feel of Atom but with a larger company supporting it. Even though Atom has been around a while, Visual Studio Code feels a little more mature.

Other Software Used

Adobe Illustrator CC, Chrome DevTools, WordPress

Likelihood to Recommend

Visual Studio Code is perfect for web development for those who do a bit more than junior-level work. It seamlessly integrates consoles for task runners, code compilation, etc. and supports numerous extensions for framework support (i.e. parsing .vue files, debugging Symfony with xdebug, etc.). The workspace system is helpful for agency environments or anyone working on many projects concurrently. You are able to add multiple directories to a single project, customize settings (even colors) for just that workspace, and it remembers your tab setup—even how you had them split and arranged.

Comments

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Visual Studio Code: A streamlined and unbiased environment for more advanced web developers