Credit: Dreamstime
Microsoft has released version 1.58 of Visual Studio Code, also known as the June 2021 release, with improvements related to usability, customisation, debugging, and Jupyter Notebook support. Redmond has also published a roadmap of plans for Java support for the rest of 2021.
Unveiled in July, Visual Studio Code 1.58 is accessible from the Visual Studio website. Among the debugging improvements, VS Code now remembers the chosen debugger per file, so the next session can start without any prompts. This fixes a situation in which the editor prompts users to choose from multiple debug extensions for some languages.
Further, debug console suggestions are no longer accepted on Enter, only on Shift-Enter and Tab. Prior to this, it was easy to accidentally accept a suggestion when the user merely wanted to evaluate what was already typed in the Debug Console input. To make the Tab key more discoverable for accepting suggestion, VS Code now has a hint status bar (“Insert (Tab)”) in the Debug Console input.
Other new features and improvements in Visual Studio Code 1.58:
- Experimental support is offered for debugging Jupyter notebooks, so developers can set breakpoints in notebook cells, execute cells step-by-step, and use all other VS Code debugger features.
- A Jupyter interactive window option enables the Jupyter extension to open the built-in editor instead of the webview implementation when running code from Python files or directly launching from the command palette.
- Terminals now can be created in or moved to the editor area, enabling a multi-dimensional grid layout that persists and remains visible regardless of panel state.
- The Workspace Trust capability added in VS Code 1.57 last month offers improved customisation in this iteration.
- New settings are provided to customise the editor’s scroll bars.
- The editor’s Markdown preview now can render math equations using the KaTeX typesetting library.
- A transient workspace capability has been added, in which restarting or reloading VS Code will not attempt to open the workspace again. Nor will workspaces set as transient show up in the list of recently opened workspaces.
- A Troubleshoot view for Settings Sync contains logs and last sync states.
Microsoft also unveiled a roadmap for Java support in Visual Studio Code for the remainder of 2021. Java plans include improvements to the fundamental development experience and improved support for build tools including Gradle. For Java debugging, the Visual Studio Code team may enable virtual threads powered by Project Loom.
Java support in Visual Studio Code has been provided through a range of extensions. The roadmap calls for Java enhancements for Remote Development extensions, including support for more Java versions and the Spring Framework in containers. For the GitHub Codespaces online development environment, which leverages Visual Studio Code, plans call for supporting Java language extensions.
For securing Java code, support is eyed for trusted/untrusted workspace capabilities. For starters, when Java projects are opened in untrusted workspaces, the Java language server will run in a restricted mode. In the testing realm, plans call for having Visual Studio Code Java adopt new Testing APIs.
