Visual Studio Code

Overview

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a lightweight but powerful source-code editor made by Microsoft. It supports debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, code refactoring, and Git built-in. It is used in our Web Development, Software Development, and related ICT courses.

Key Features

• IntelliSense code completion and syntax highlighting for all major languages
• Built-in Git integration and version control support
• Extensible via a large marketplace of plugins and themes
• Integrated terminal and debugger
• Live Share for real-time collaborative editing
• Cross-platform: Windows, macOS, Linux

Documentation

Full official documentation is available at code.visualstudio.com/docs. VS Code includes a built-in welcome guide and interactive playground to help beginners get started with keyboard shortcuts, extensions, and settings.

How to Install & Use

1. Download the installer from the official VS Code website (link below).
2. Run the .exe installer on Windows or the .dmg on macOS.
3. On Linux, use the provided .deb / .rpm package or Snap/Flatpak.
4. Launch VS Code and install the recommended extensions for your language.
5. For web development: install the Prettier and ESLint extensions from the Marketplace.

Limitations & Notes

• VS Code is a code editor, not a full IDE — some advanced debugging features require language extensions.
• Very large projects (50,000+ files) may experience minor performance lag without excluding node_modules in settings.
• Remote development features (SSH, containers) require additional extensions.