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What's New in Visual Studio Code 1.25 (June Release)
The usual array of new features has been added to the Visual Studio Code editor's latest release -- v1.25, or the June release -- highlighted by a new grid editor layout.
VS Code developers -- who are known for the painstaking tweaking of their favorite code editor to make it look and work just right -- can now arrange editors either vertically or horizontally, while gaining the ability to display three editors side-by-side.
"Control of the editor layout lets us manage the view of open files all at once," said Cloud Developer Advocate Brian Clark in a highlights video. The new grid layout functionality provides even more flexibility by allowing us to split views both horizontally and vertically."
Clark demonstrated how developers can get the alignment they want by dragging and dropping files onto the Workbench in the direction they want to see the split happen. "The layout possibilities are endless, so give it a shot," he said.
He also singled out a new outline view that provides a symbol tree outline and navigation for documents.
"Do you sometimes feel lost in your own code? Well, no more. Navigating through code is streamlined with the VS Code outline view. This view shows the symbol tree for the active file which we can filter and sort while also spotting warnings and errors."
Other new features worthy of Clark's attention include hover display options that let developers control the appearance of information when a mouse is hovered over code. "Sometimes the suggestions and tips view that shows up while we are hovering over code can be unintentional and get in the way," Clark said. "An additional option in settings can disable that altogether or delay how quickly it comes into view."
Finally, Clark detailed a new floating debug toolbar. "In VS Code the debug toolbar gives us the ability to control the flow of our app as it is running," Clark said. "The location of this toolbar can be tricky at times while using tabs, but it can now be unchained from the top of the window. Click and drag the toolbar down a level and place it anywhere you'd like horizontally within that view."
Other new features in the June release include: Portable Mode, letting developers run or copy their VS Code setups from a USB thumb drive or file share; extension view improvements that let developers easily see Enabled, Disabled and Recommended extensions; a Language Server Protocol Inspector to let coders visualize LSP protocol traffic; and many more.
These and many more are explained in detail in the latest update article.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.