Visual Studio Code previews ML-based language detection

Visual Studio Code 1.59, the latest version of the popular code editor from Microsoft, has a list of improvements ranging from machine learning-based language detection to a debug Disassembly view.

Also called the July 2021 edition, Visual Studio Code 1.59 was published on August 5. It is downloadable from the Visual Studio website. 

Visual Studio Code 1.59 includes a preview of automatic language detection of untitled files. This feature uses machine learning to determine which programming language developers are coding in and automatically sets the language mode of the untitled file, drawing on the Tensorflow.js machine learning library and a machine learning model from Guesslang. If the model is not confident enough in its language prediction, then the editor will stay in the current language mode and no results will show in the language picker until language detection has more confidence. The feature is off by default in the current release.

For debugging, Visual Studio Code 1.59 features a preview of a debug Disassembly view. Accessible from an editor’s context menu, this view shows the disassembled source of the active stack frame and supports stepping through assembly instructions and setting up breakpoints. The Disassembly View is only available in an active debug session and only when supported by the underlying debug extension. Microsoft C++ and Mock Debug extensions supported the feature in early-August.

Other capabilities in Visual Studio Code 1.59 include:

• The Settings editor adds support for validation on objects. Multiline string settings are supported as well, where the value is rendered in a multiline text area instead of a single-line input box. Also, array settings now have drag-and-drop support in non-editing mode.
• For extension authoring, testing APIs have been finalized, providing improved flexibility, performance, and UX.
• New color customizations have been added to customize colors of the current theme.
• Jupyter notebooks can be opened in a clean install of Visual Studio Code without having to install the full Jupyter extension.
• For extensions, the latest edition of the editor offers an improved Extensions view on resize. The Extensions view with default width shows all details. Previously, the icon, ratings, and install count were not shown. And as the view shrinks, a smaller extension icon is shown. When its width reduces further, the icon and ratings are hidden. Also, the Extensions view now shows a custom hover on an extension, which includes the description of the extension and other information such as why an extension is disabled or recommended.
• TypeScript 4.4 support is included.
• The Remote – Containers extension, for working with Docker containers from within Visual Studio Code, now includes a devcontainer command line interface to let a developer open a folder within a dev container or build a new container image.

The predecessor Visual Studio Code 1.58 release was published last month.