Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Visual Studio Code adds port forwarding

news
Sep 11, 20232 mins

Built-in port forwarding system allows developers to share locally running services over the internet with other users.

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Visual Studio 1.82, the newest iteration of Microsoft’s popular open source code editor, features built-in port forwarding, for sharing services over the internet with others. WebAssembly debugging also is highlighted in the release.

Introduced September 7, VS Code 1.82 introduces a port forwarding system that allows developers to share locally running services over the internet with other people and devices. To use it, developers select the Forward a Port button in the Ports view available on the Panel region.

VS Code 1.82 also improves debugging for WebAssembly. With the new release, VS Code’s JavaScript debugger now will automatically decompile WebAssembly modules to the WebAssembly Text Format and allow developers to step through and set breakpoints in decompiled modules.

VS Code 1.82, also known as the August 2023 release, also now displays the Command Center by default. Introduced last summer as a quick way to discover and interact with VS Code, Command Center can be used as a launch pad for finding a command in the Command Palette, running a task, and other quick experiences.

Developers can download VS Code 1.82 from the project website for Windows, Linux, or Mac. This month’s release follows last month’s VS Code 1.81, which brought diff editor improvements and GitHub capabilities. Other new features and improvements in VS Code 1.82:

  • The diff editor is enabled by default, with improvements and bug fixes.
  • Code detection has been polished, and can be enabled with "diffEditor.experimental.showMoves": true or in the diff editor context menu.
  • For notebooks, the cell output menu now has an option to copy the output to the system clipboard.
  • The “status area” below the filter box in the Testing view now is more concise and provides a clickable action to rerun the most recently run tests.
  • Source map loading has been improved. Source maps in some common cases like applications compiled with the ts command line now are loaded 3x to 5x faster. Hot module reloading from the Vite dev server now is supported. Source maps also can be automatically loaded from authenticated endpoints.
  • The Move to File refactoring for JavaScript and TypeScript lets developers move a class, a function, or constant into an existing file.
  • TypeScript 5.2.2 ships with the editor, bringing language features, better performance, and bug fixes.
Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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