What are the differences between Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio

Question

Microsoft recently released Visual Studio Code and I am a little confused about its usage  since Visual Studio has lot of similarities functionally with it

User · Answer

I will provide a detailed differences between Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code below.

If you really look at it the most obvious difference is that .NET has been split into two:

.NET Core (Mac, Linux, and Windows)
.NET Framework (Windows only)

All native user interface technologies (Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Forms, etc.) are part of the framework, not the core.

The "Visual" in Visual Studio (from Visual Basic) was largely synonymous with visual UI (drag & drop WYSIWYG) design, so in that sense, Visual Studio Code is Visual Studio without the Visual!

The second most obvious difference is that Visual Studio tends to be oriented around projects & solutions.

Visual Studio Code:

It's a lightweight source code editor which can be used to view, edit, run, and debug source code for applications.
Simply it is Visual Studio without the Visual UI, majorly a superman’s text-editor.
It is mainly oriented around files, not projects.
It does not have any scaffolding support.
It is a competitor of Sublime Text or Atom on Electron.
It is based on the Electron framework, which is used to build cross platform desktop application using web technologies.
It does not have support for Microsoft's version control system; Team Foundation Server.
It has limited IntelliSense for Microsoft file types and similar features.
It is mainly used by developers on a Mac who deal with client-side technologies (HTML, JavaScript, and CSS).

Visual Studio:

As the name indicates, it is an IDE, and it contains all the features required for project development. Like code auto completion, debugger, database integration, server setup, configurations, and so on.
It is a complete solution mostly used by and for .NET related developers. It includes everything from source control to bug tracker to deployment tools, etc. It has everything required to develop.
It is widely used on .NET related projects (though you can use it for other things). The community version is free, but if you want to make most of it then it is not free.
Visual Studio is aimed to be the world’s best IDE (integrated development environment), which provide full stack develop toolsets, including a powerful code completion component called IntelliSense, a debugger which can debug both source code and machine code, everything about ASP.NET development, and something about SQL development.
In the latest version of Visual Studio, you can develop cross-platform application without leaving the IDE. And Visual Studio takes more than 8 GB disk space (according to the components you select).
In brief, Visual Studio is an ultimate development environment, and it’s quite heavy.

Reference: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Visual-Studio-and-Visual-Studio-Code

User · Answer

Visual Studio  full version  is a  quot full-featured quot  and  quot convenient quot  development environment  Visual Studio  free  quot Express quot  versions - only until 2017  are feature-centered and simplified versions of the full version  Feature-centered meaning that there are different versions  Visual Studio Web Developer  Visual Studio C   etc   depending on your goal  Visual Studio  free Community edition - since 2015  is a simplified version of the full version and replaces the separated express editions used before 2015  Visual Studio Code  VSCode  is a cross-platform  Linux  Mac OS  Windows  editor that can be extended with plugins to your needs  For example  if you want to create an ASP NET application using Visual Studio Code you need to perform several steps on your own to setup the project  There is a separate tutorial for each OS

User · Answer

For Unity3D users      VSCode is incredibly faster than VS   Files open instantly from Unity   VS is very slow   VSCode launches instantly   VS takes forever to launch   VS can literally compile code  build apps and so on  it s a huge IDE like Unity itself or XCode   VSCode is indeed  quot just quot  a full-featured text editor   VSCode is NOT a compiler  far less a huge  build-everything system that can literally create apps and software of all types   VSCode is literally  quot just a text editor quot    With VSCode  you DO need to install the  quot Visual Studio Code quot  package    Not to be confused with the  quot Visual Studio quot  package     It seems to me that VS works fine without the VS package  but  with VS Code  you must install Unity s VSCode package       When you first download and install VSCode  simply open any C  file on your machine  It will instantly prompt you to install the needed C  package  This is harmless and easy   Unfortunately VSCode generally has only one window  You cannot  really  easily drag files to separate windows  If this is important to you  you may need to go with VS   The biggest problem with VS is that the overall concept of settings and preferences are absolutely horrible  In VS  it is all-but impossible to change the font  etc  In contrast  VSCode has FANTASTIC preferences - dead simple  never a problem   As far as I can see  every single feature in VS which you use in Unity is present in VSCode   So  code coloring  jump to definitions  it understands autocompletes every single thing in Unity  it opens from Unity  double clicking something in the Unity console opens the file to that line  etc etc   If you are used to VS  And you want to change to VSCode  It s always hard changing editors  they are so intimate  but it s pretty similar  you won t have a big heartache    In short if you re a VS for Unity3D user  and you re going to try VSCode     VSCode is on the order of 19 trillion times faster in every way  It will blow your mind   It does seem to have every feature   Basically VS is the world s biggest IDE and application building system  VSCode is just an editor   Indeed  that s exactly what you want with Unity  since Unity itself is the IDE    Don t forget to just click to install the relevant Unity package    If I m not mistaken  there is no reason whatsoever to use VS with Unity  Unity is an IDE so you just need a text editor  and that is what VSCode is  VSCode is hugely better in both speed and preferences  The only possible problem - multiple-windows are a bit clunky in VSCode  That horrible  quot double copy quot  problem in VS     solved  If you are using VS with Unity  There is an infuriating problem where often VS will try to open twice  that is you will end up with two or more copies of VS running  Nobody has ever been able to fix this or figure out what the hell causes it  Fortunately  this problem never happens with VSCode  Installing VSCode on a Mac - unbelievably easy  There are no installers  etc etc etc  On the download page  you download a zipped Mac app  Put it in the Applications folder and you re done  Folding   Mac Windows keystrokes are different  Bizarrely there s no menu entry   docu whatsoever for folding  but here are the keys  https   stackoverflow com a 30077543 294884 Setting colors and so on in VSCode - the critical tips Particularly for Mac users who may find the colors strange  Priceless post  1  https   stackoverflow com a 45640244 294884 Priceless post  2  https   stackoverflow com a 63303503 294884 Meta files     To keep the  quot Explorer quot  list of files on the left tidy  in the Unity case

User · Answer

Visual Studio Code is integrated with a command prompt   terminal  hence it will be handy when there is switching between IDE and terminal   command prompt required  for example  connecting to Linux

User · Answer

Complementing the previous answers  one big difference between both is that Visual Studio Code comes in a so called  portable  version that does not require full administrative permissions to run on Windows and can be placed in a removable drive for convenience

User · Answer

Visual Studio   IDE Except for free editions  it is a paid IDE  It is quite heavy on CPU and lags on lower end PCs  It is mostly used for Windows software development including DirectX programs  Windows API  etc  Advanced IntelliSense  best one ever  Visual Studio Code s IntelliSense extension takes second place  It features built-in debuggers  easy-to-configure project settings  though developers tend to not use the GUI ones  Microsoft support  more than Visual Studio Code  Mostly used for C C    Windows    NET and C  projects along with SQL Server  database  etc  Extreme large download size  space utilization and the slow downs over time    It is the only con that forces me to use Visual Studio Code for smaller projects   Includes tools to generate dependency graphs  Refactoring tools have great support for Visual Studio  Has a VYSIWYG editor for VB NET  C   NET  and C    It is easy enough for first time users instead of getting through windows h    Visual Studio Code   Free open source text editor Has IntelliSense  but it doesn t work out of box if Visual Studio is not installed  need to configure to point to MinGW  etc   Smaller download size and RAM requirements  With IntelliSense it requires around 300 MB RAM   Edit   Some header files tend to blow up memory requirements to 7-8 GBs eg  OpenGL and GLM Libraries  It works on lower-end PCs   it is still slow to start up especially if PowerShell is used instead of CMD  Lower support  open source  so you can modify it yourself  Build tasks are project specific  Even if you want to build it in a vanilla configuration  Mostly used for web development  this applies to all free text editors   They tend to show off JavaScript   HTML support over C C    Visual Studio shows off Visual Basic C   over other languages  Lack of good extensions  it s still new though  Gives you a hard time to reconfigure your project workspace settings  I prefer the GUI way  Cross platform Has an integrated terminal  PowerShell is too slow at startup though  It is best for smaller projects and test code  you know if you are bored and want to print  Hello  World    it does not make sense to wait 3-5 minutes while Visual Studio loads up  and then another minute or 2 at project creation and then finally getting it to print  Hello  World

User · Answer

Visual Studio Code is an editor while Visual Studio is an IDE  Visual Studio Code is cross-platform and fast  while Visual Studio is not fast  Note that Visual Studio for Mac is available now but is a different product compared to Visual Studio  Windows   It s based on Xamarin Studio and lacks support for some older  NET project types  It does successfully build solutions created in Visual  Studio  2017  Visual  Studio for Mac has a more limited UI  for example  no customizable toolbar   So for cross-platform work  Visual Studio Code may still be preferable

User · Answer

Out of the box  Visual  Studio can compile  run and debug programs  Out of the box  Visual Studio Code can do practically nothing but open and edit text files  It can be extended to compile  run  and debug  but you will need to install other software  It s a PITA  If you re looking for a Notepad replacement  Visual Studio Code is your man  If you want to develop and debug code without fiddling for days with settings and installing stuff  then Visual Studio is your man

User · Answer

One huge difference  for me  is that Visual Studio Code is one monitor only  With Visual Studio you can use multi-screen setups

User · Answer

For me  Visual Studio on Mac doesn t support Node js  editing and debugging  whereas Visual Studio Code does this very well

[visual-studio] What are the differences between Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio?

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