Microsoft has released a new version of the C++ extension for its popular Visual Studio Code (VS Code) code editor.
The new release is an official VS Code C++ extension for Windows 10 and Linux systems, as well as macOS, but not Apple’s new M1 Silicon Macs.
Supported devices for the C/C++ extension – one of the most popular extensions on the Visual Studio Marketplace – now include the Raspberry Pi 4, Google Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks, the Windows 10 on Arm Surface Pro X, and other Arm-based devices.
VS Code is a cross-platform code editor that has always supported Windows 10, Linux and macOS. Microsoft in July told ZDNet it intended to support Apple silicon hardware due to the large VS Code user-base on macOS, but it didn’t have a timeline for when the extension and the VS Code editor might fully support Macs that use Apple’s new Arm-based M1 processor.
In November, Microsoft’s VS Code team assured its Mac users that Apple silicon support was coming by the end of November. The Apple silicon edition of VS Code is available but currently only in an experimental form for users on the VS Code Insiders preview channel.
The C++ extension for VS Code brings support for Microsoft’s AI-powered IntelliSense code-completion. The update is mostly targeted at the Surface Pro X, which now can use IntelliSense’s quick info, autocomplete, and signature help features, as well as code navigation.
The September 2020 1.0 release of the C++ extension enabled building and debugging on Linux Arm and Arm64 machines through remote-SSH, allowing users to pick their own compiler and debugger.
The VS Code team is at Microsoft-owned GitHub’s annual Universe developer conference. It’s all being held online because of the pandemic, so everyone can access it.
The next talk from Microsoft’s VS Code team is at 20:15 CET and looks at how Microsoft is developing VS Code in the open on GitHub. Much like Microsoft’s TypeScript superset of JavaScript, VS Code, built using TypeScript, is being developed in the open.
“While developing in the open, our team has learned how to balance community engagement with delivering value and shipping code. In this talk, we’ll share engineering best practices our team has adopted on GitHub to collaborate with our users, get feedback, and iterate quickly,” Microsoft states.
