Visual Studio Code roadmap: The new features you can expect

Microsoft’s 2018 roadmap for its open source Visual Studio Code code editor includes better performance, reduced memory consumption, and more support for JavaScript and TypeScript.

The multilanguage Visual Studio Code, which Microsoft has been updating monthly, is designed as a streamlined editor for debugging, running tasks, and version control. More complex workflows require the use of full-featured IDEs. Visual Studio Code 1.0 debuted in April 2016 and supports Node.js, JavaScript, and TypeScript.

Performance-improvement features planned for Visual Studio Code

Microsoft’s performance-oriented plans for Visual Studio Code include:

• Reducing memory consumption.
• Improving accessibility.
• Support of language packs for community-contributed translation.
• Improving the Windows update experience.
• Adding more diagnostics.

Editor features planned for Visual Studio Code

Among changes to the editor itself that Microsoft plans for Visual Studio Code are:

• Better scalability and performance for editor decorations.
• Investigation of a native model layer.
• A look into semantic coloring.
• Rendering of more than text on the minimap.

Workbench-related improvements under consideration include:

• Finishing multiroot folder workspaces support.
• Showing SCM (source control management) status in the explorer.
• Vertical panel layout support.
• Improved notification UI.
• Better intrafile navigation.
• Enabling users to manage contributions to the status bar.

JavaScript and TypeScript features considered for Visual Studio Code

For JavaScript, Microsoft’s plans call for improving the discoverability in the use of TypeScript to type-check JavaScript code.

For both TypeScript and JavaScript, Microsoft wants to investigate improving source maps so they can be more precise and feature variable mappings. Also, the Visual Code Studio editor would gain the ability to organize imports and remove unused imports for the two languages.

Other features considered for Visual Studio Code

Microsoft plans to improve support for the Language Server Protocol, for integrating different languages into editors and IDEs.

For extension users, Microsoft wants to improve both the extension recommendation system and searching. Tracking down issues caused by extensions would be simplified. Users also would get more information about extension usage.

Also on the drawing board for Visual Studio Code is support for splitting and viewing of multiple terminals, along with source control integration improvements that include the ability to view changes inside the editor using a peek/inline experience.

An integrated history view also might be added.

Where to download Visual Studio Code

You can download Visual Studio Code from the project website.