This week sees several significant additions to the Visual Studio Code ecosystem: an update to the Python extension; the popular open source MongoDB database; and AI-powered JavaScript code completions from Kite.
Microsoft shipped TypeScript 3.9, quickening the compile times for the increasingly popular programming language used to write software ranging from Angular and Vue to Visual Studio Code.
The May 2020 update of Visual Studio Code's Python extension -- by far the most popular tool in the marketplace -- is mostly routine with a lot of fixes and minor tweaks, though developers showed interest in changes to interpreter path functionality.
Who knew there were so many C# library authors out there? New C# Source Generators unveiled in preview by the .NET and Languages dev team immediately garnered a lot of interest in the .NET dev camp, with more than 100 comments tacked on to an introductory post.
The team continued to improve remote development functionality, especially important during the work-from-home surge caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Container functionality receives a boost in the April update.
One nice thing about the increasing number of online developer events is that the goodies are often made readily available for all to learn from shortly after the live presentations.
Seemingly feeling the need to stir up some more naming confusion, Microsoft-owned GitHub this week announced Codespaces -- a new cloud-hosted development environment based on Visual Studio Code -- just a week after Visual Studio Online was renamed Visual Studio Codespaces.
As TypeScript 3.9 approaches general availability in the next couple weeks or so, the new release candidate boasts several improvements, along with better code editor functionality and other tweaks.
Microsoft has opened up registration for the 2020 Build conference, which is now an online virtual event amid the COVID-19 pandemic and which is refocused on its core audience, developers.
Microsoft has renamed its Visual Studio Online cloud-hosted development environment to Visual Studio Codespaces, also adding new features and lowering prices.
The previews are over as Microsoft today shipped Blazor WebAssembly 3.2 Release Candidate, making the red-hot project just one step away from production-ready general availability on track to debut sometime in May (note: the 2020 Build developer conference starts May 19).
Microsoft has released Xamarin.Forms 4.6, the latest edition of its open-source, cross-platform, mobile-centric development platform that the dev team is "shipping fast and often" while incorporating a slew of new preview features that coders can try out and provide feedback for.
Microsoft has shipped the April 2020 update to the Java extension for its open-source, cross-platform Visual Studio Code editor, continuing a performance improvement effort.
Microsoft shipped a slew of previews in advance of next month's scheduled debut of Blazor WebAssembly 3.2 and the milestone .NET 5 release planned for November.
Tech careers firm Dice's latest job report attempts to gauge the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hiring. One finding of special interest to Visual Studio Magazine readers is less desire for .NET and C# skills.
A new survey reveals Visual Studio Code is the No. 1 editor used by developers coding in Rust, which has become a hot programming language lately, even being considered as a safer alternative to C/C++ by Microsoft's security team.
Contradicting findings in other recent reports, a new study from developer analyst firm SlashData shows some decline in the popularity of C# over the past year.
The latest update of the Python extension for Visual Studio Code -- by far the most popular tool in the editor's marketplace -- boosts its Jupyter Notebooks functionality by adding support for ipywidgets, sometimes called Jupyter widgets.
Microsoft recently beefed up the .NET and Java SDKs for Azure Cosmos DB, a globally distributed, multi-model database service that helps users and developers elastically and independently scale throughput and storage across Azure regions with a click of a button.
Debugging functionality is a pesky problem for the Blazor WebAssembly team, with many limitations still persisting in the project scheduled for a prime-time debut next month.