Visual Studio Code

Software starts out as pure text: lines of instructions that the computer later executes. To write this text, you need a program, much like you need a word processor to write an essay. Visual Studio Code is exactly such a program, made by Microsoft and available for free on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It knows the rules of common programming languages, colors the text accordingly, and points out errors even while you’re typing. The name is a bit confusing: there is also an older, much larger Microsoft product called Visual Studio, with which Visual Studio Code shares only the name. Since its release in 2015, it has become the standard tool in the software industry.

How an editor became the industry standard

In surveys among developers, Visual Studio Code has ranked first for years. In the large Stack Overflow survey, around 70 percent of participants regularly name it as their tool of choice. This makes it no niche product, but the place where a very large share of the world’s software is actually created.

This is also economically significant. Whoever controls the editor controls the environment in which programmers spend eight hours a day. Microsoft uses this position to offer its own services there: the code platform GitHub, its own cloud Azure, and the AI assistant GitHub Copilot. The free editor is thus an entry ticket to paid offerings.

For beginners, its widespread use is a practical advantage. Almost every tutorial online, every school project, and every video assumes Visual Studio Code. Anyone working with it will find an answer to every problem that fits their program exactly.

Core, extensions, and language servers

Visual Studio Code is deliberately built to be lean. The core can edit text, manage files, and run commands. Everything else is added via extensions, i.e., small add-on programs from a built-in marketplace. Anyone learning Python installs the Python extension; anyone building websites installs others. You can think of it like a smartphone: the operating system is the same, the apps make the difference.

For the editor to truly understand a language, a so-called language server runs in the background. This helper program analyzes the code and reports back which commands are allowed at that point. This is where the suggestions while typing and the red underlines for errors come from. Because this interplay follows an open, publicly documented procedure, any language community can contribute its own server.

Technically, Visual Studio Code itself is built with web technology, that is, with the same building blocks as a website. This makes it platform-independent, but it costs more memory than classic editors. Incidentally, a common misconception is equating the editor with a complete development environment. Compiling, testing, or publishing are still handled by separate tools, which Visual Studio Code merely calls.

From school projects to AI headlines

In computer science classes and at universities, Visual Studio Code is often the first tool that gets set up. It also appears outside of programming: server configuration files, data tables, or text files for websites are edited in it. There is also a variant that runs entirely in the browser, i.e., without installation.

In tech news, the name usually comes up in connection with artificial intelligence. GitHub Copilot, the best-known AI assistant for code, was first released as an extension for Visual Studio Code. By now, entire companies build their products on the editor’s open source code; the AI tool Cursor is the best-known example.

Anyone reading reports about the competition for AI coding assistants will therefore almost inevitably come across this editor. It is the stage on which this competition is played out. Small changes to its interfaces can therefore affect entire business models.