Writing C# in VS Code Is Finally Awesome! 

For the record, I still find the licensing they used for this a terrible idea on a personal level. Still, since not everyone shares that opinion with me, I decided to not present it as the de-facto opinion, especially given that I am actually a Rider user, not a VS user so such an opinion would look suspicious to many people.

Brilliant - this is exciting. I haven't used Visual Studio for a long time, so this is great news.

Blink if you were threatened to take down the previous video.

Excelent information. I shy away from VS Code in favor of VSpro because I don't like the command line driven interactions required by VScode. But this seams to do a lot to bring parity between them, and I'm sure it'll get better. This will let me do more coding on my Mac when Im away from home too.

i'm really happy for this working out cause c# is on my list of programing languages i want to learn as a backend dev an i've been using it for a while so it will good to have it close to home

Did not see enough good points that were not mentioned yesterday to justify this much of a change in the tone. The only new thing you said was the test ui.

From awful to awesome in one day.Great job vscode team 😂

Oh my God thank you. I've been trying to switch from Visual Studio to VS Code for C# because I already use VS Code for all my other programming. But I could NOT figure out how to access Soltuion Explorer. You saved my sanity :D

Finally! That was missing for me to such an extent that I decided to stay with VS. Now, I can finally move to VS Code.

I'm a big fan of VS Code and I'm happy we get new features

Hey Nick, great stuff! I wonder how did you resolve the Roslyn issues?

This is a great start but there's a long way to go. I prefer using VS Code nowadays but I still need VS for connected services (SOAP/OData) and reverse nuget package search (getting a package suggested after typing something that's not imported yet), although the former is the main reason I haven't fully switches to VS Code yet. That and maybe project templates as I cba using the cli for those.

I think I can see where it is going. Most of good features now would not come in omnisharp open source extension rather in closed source dev kit. This a very very bad move by Microsoft. Atleast the vs code experience should be free and open source. I don't think the official extension of any popular language in vs code is paid or closed source so why C#?

I think that's another great tool for me to use. I prefer VS Code over VS, because for work I use a lot of different languages and this new extension just makes it more handy to do high level solution stuff. Don't really care about the license yet.

Yesterdays video was mostly still right though, the extension should be free.

Any general-purpose programming language aiming for long-term relevance must include at least one robust, cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) that developers can utilize professionally, free from paywalls. Alternatively, if not offered for free, there should be pricing options that consider purchasing power parity. After all, $1000 may hold different value for individuals in the US/EU compared to those in Latin America, Africa, or Asia. Maintaining a language requires a company or organization to prioritize the trust and goodwill of its users, avoiding excessive greed. Microsoft's past shortcomings in addressing these factors have contributed to Java's ongoing global popularity over C#. It is crucial for VS Code to remain freely accessible and available across platforms. Additionally, concerted efforts should be made to develop a commercial version of Visual Studio for Linux while enhancing Mac support. Such measures would undoubtedly satisfy a wide range of users, fostering a positive scenario for all.

Sorry to sound like an idiot, but regarding the license, is this covered under your visual studio subscription or would it be an additional subscription? I already have a VS subscription through work so just wondering if I would be covered to use this at work or no?

Thank u man, this helped me al lot!!

Hi Nick, hope you see this, I saw in the comments a lot of people who think you changed your mind for all kinds of reasons, and don't understand that you just wanted to present the plugins in a different way because the license didn't bother most people. And some of the comments were written in a less nice way, So just ignore them... By the way, this is my opinion on the plugins: I am a software engineering student and we are learning C# and also web development, I used VS for C#, and VSC for web development, So I experienced both and always found VSC much more comfortable than VS, VS is heavy and clunky, And VSC is lightweight, fast, customizable, and I'm also used to his keyboard shortcuts, So if the development experience in C# was at the same level in VSC as in VS (or at least enough for me as a beginner) I would definitely use VSC, So when you introduced the new plugins yesterday I immediately tried them, But even though I really prefer the use of VSC, I think it is not yet mature enough to move to full development in VSC A few things that bothered me - When creating the project, there is no options beyond choosing a name, and that is quite lacking... - When I created an API project with VSC it was created with the usual template as I would create it in VS - including with Swagger in program.cs, but the Swagger package was not installed so that the code has errors from the beginning (until I install the package manually) - Which leads me to the next point - there is no interface for installing NuGet packages, and of course you can manage without it and install through the terminal, but for me as a beginner it is more complex... - Another thing, when creating a file there is no template for creating a controller, which requires creating a regular class, and manually adding inheritance from controller and the attributes... - I also did not see an option to add a project to the dependencies in the menus So all in all, as I said, I would summarize it as a tool that is not yet mature enough, especially for me as a beginner who uses the initial templates, and the user interface, Maybe for those who are already an expert in C# and know exactly the structure of the files, and know all the parts of the application and what they do, will be able to use this. I hope it will improve - because as I wrote, I prefer VSC and one last thing The default VSC folder icons are not comfortable enough imo, so if you or anyone wants to improve their visibility, there is the Material Icon Theme plugin, which imo has a much more comfortable design

I'm worried that the scope and purpose of VS Code is going to get confused with the main purpose of VS Studio. Perhaps the venn diagram between these is already overlapped too much, and MS is thinking the plugin architecture of code is much better than studio? Or is the same "plugin functionality" used in both? Either way, I'm confused as a developer which too focus on, or do I need to be skilled up on both? If so, where is the delineation between them?

One of the Riders best features is the Configurations Manager. With it I can start a dozen of apps in one click, restart individual ones. Once VS Code can do that I'm all in

Vs code solution explorer is free extension that can be use it, provides functionality like visual studio solution explorer tree and doing almost samething

Great overview and take on the release of this. Something I seem to have lost is the ability to switch between active projects when I have a directory open with multiple projects. That is when I'm just using the C# extension (no dev kit). Why is that?

I was waiting for this kind of extension otherwise we were feeling like an old coder

most wanted feature i would like in VS code or VS 2022 is dump feature and export any data collections like that of LinqPad , its very helpful for those working in data related tasks, VS2022 now has IEnumerable Visualizer so kind of helpful but its not seamlesss expierence way to connect to Sql and then work on some C# logic and then export (csv,excel) like that of Linqpad

Hello nick, could you please make a video about debuggind docker compose projects in c# with rider? it's a real pain comparing with visual studio

You were brave but the boss is the boss $$$

JetBrains does indeed have more features in this case, but does it have all the other extensions that VSC offers?

I thought your other video was very good. There is an issue with cost and how to handle it, and how to trade, and how to exchange value for value, and how to evaluate the exchange and all that entails. The pricing model will drive some people out of C#, but what is the quality of totally gratis development environments? How well are they developed and improved? How should developers think about paying for development? Many software developers have a serious problem of thinking that software should be free, but they should be payed.

I was very confused until I got to the 40s mark lol

As I mentioned in yesterday's video: Microsoft found a way to be Microsoft (as almost all of these big tech companies do). It's insane, IMO, to have a free editor with an extension that you need to pay for!

After installing this, every time i try to run one of the commands i get an "csdevkit command not found" error. Any ideas what could be causing this? Solved: Update the C# extension (not c# dev kit) to pre release version. Or just wait until microsoft update it properly

definitely concerned with the licence. i probably won't use this plugin in case i get too dependent on it. i'm sure that will be the case with new dotnet devs that try it. i just cancelled my rider licence and came over to vscode because I love the ai plugins and i'm happy using the dotnet command line tool. was hoping there was something introduced in this video that i could use but i probably wont due to the licence. im with you on your point of view on this

My workplace uses VS 2022 Enterprise so I don't think this effects me professionally. I also still use Community personally, and am comfortable with it. I use VS Code to bring up one-off files (.cs and .sql for example) that are outside the solution I'm working on in VS, so for that reason I've never added extensions to VS Code. So I guess no problem for me. I hope more people are able to use this though since it really sounds promising for "simpler" projects. Thanks Nick.

Thanks Nick!

Edit: I should have watched the entire video and my question will have been answered Original: Is there still a Licencing concern with the new plugins using the Visual Studio License. I watched your video on this yesterday, or the day before.

I've always wondered if VS Code will replace VS at some point in the future (far future) . Wonder if Microsoft or any of their devs have mentioned such plan

You shouldn’t have taken down the previous video. You had valid concerns that were good. 😢

What font is this? Looks nice.

One of the biggest differences between Code and VS is that Code dropped the whole "Visual programming" motif with heavy mouse dependency and a "design surface". They're in the process of returning to keyboard-driven, so Code has the command palette and easily searchable settings in JSON, and evrything is ASCII. Microsoft is dealing with a decades-long u-turn on the fantasy of thinking that clicking and dragging pictures with your mouse is faster than typing words.

got some whiplash from the first video in my feed this morning

I agree with your take on the license. JetBrains Fleet is really coming along for C# development and it even has an integrated AI assistant with the latest update. It’s still in preview and we’re still waiting on plug-in support, but it’s wicked fast and it, too, will be cheaper than buying the license for this from MS. This is great news for JetBrains.

Nick, I am curious: Why did you decide to take down yesterday's video? Was it just RU-vid comments and the like/dislike ratio? Or were you actually contacted by someone from a certain corporation?

I wonder if they scrap VS for Mac in the long term in favour for this. I heard the VS for Mac team was affected by the recent layoffs.

Seems like this makes vsc viable for c# now🎉

Fantastic option for VSCode. Booooo for the license!!

Is it possible to use VS Code and/or VS Studio Community, to compile a c# sln that was built with VS Studio Pro 2017? ("VisualStudioVersion = 15.0.28307.329 , MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1") Just looking to build a csharp project from gh.. no debug, just need the exe. Is there any other way to build it? Google Project IDX?

For existing solution (which was previously made by Rider) the VS Code will NOT open "Solution explorer". Fired a bug at github of this extension.

How's this different from Fernando Escolar's vscode-solution-explorer extension?

Does this mean you get code coverage dor C# displayed in VSCode?

Is there a reason to use VS Code over VS Community if you are not an enterprise?

Do you know how to enable auto closing of the html tags in the cshtml files?

How does Rider work with blazor? An alternstive to VS?

Your previous take was spot on. This video on the other hand felt a bit forced or pressured from the big giant that is MS.

Is there a way to enable K&R code formatting for C# in Visual Studio Code?

Did you really remove the video you shared yesterday about this topic?

what about debugging tho?

Nice, but still no official nuget package manager?

Do you prefer using Rider for C# or VS Code?

The main problem with the OG C# (omnisharp) extension was that it just dies every now and then, you can working for an hour and suddenly intellisense won't work and you have to restart VSCode etc, I just hope this new extension is reliable enough. Btw, this intellisense issue actually occurs in their flagship VS as well but very very occasionally, I find that VSCode intellisense is more "less intrusive" and receptive, only issue was it just dies every now and then. So I hope the new extension addresses this sudden death issue, excited to try it out. but why build the new extension with all the fixed closed source, come on. Just hope it eas worth it. We can probably see the code if we want to though. Personally I used VSCode to get used to the dotnet command line, I wish the context menu commands generated terminal code below, or an option to enable that :(, VSCode is about more flexibility right. Also I'm kind of comcerned, somwthing so big happned yet I was not in the loop? How to get these newses quickly, like from MS.

i need help i have the c# dev kit but shoulde you not see how you shoulde be like so i dont say procat viod but say private void

it is a great tool if you are working with a lot of microservices and you just need to check something. Instead of opening VS/Rider you can just quickly open up VSC and you are done :)

I code for fun (not for profit and my projects are either open source or the projects are completely private (what I mean about private is I am the only one who has access to the binaries or source) (some of these may be open sourced if I ever make them public) (so I assume this plugin is OK, I use the normal vscode not vscodium so aparently I am OK with properitary as long as it does not conflict with what I am trying to do) (but hopefully my personal scripting language matures enough for me to switch to it, so I don't need to use Microsoft's software anymore)

This is great for me as an individual, but at work i use Rider so i dont actually have a VS license anymore. I do use VSCode for many other stuff though. What if i accidentally use this plugin at work, what would happen? Since i use my company laptop for both personal and company stuff.

Great, but it should be free. For SLN I have used another extension called solution explorer. For tests there isn't a good one though.

I wonder if a VS license entitles you to this DevKit or if you'd have to pay for both? One other benefit here is a single IDE for someone who works with Typescript for frontend and C# for backend.

I just tried this extension with a .NET SDK 7.0 project given to me. It said it was unable to find any tests, despite there being a nunit test project. Unsure how the author got it to work, but I'll be forced to used Visual studio for now. This is a bit annoying to me because I don't use specific IDEs for any other languages I work with.

Still no nuget package manager? Would be a really nice addition...

Still waiting for fleets plugins from jb so I can do all simple tasks or rust there

I normally use Visual Studio for my C# applications and VSCode for Javascript frameworks and such.

I wonder if they will add Blazor support

I know I'm late on this discussion but why the licensing disclaimer? What does this extension add that the old OmniSharp version didn't have? At the end of the day, if all it's adding it some fancy UI on top of dotnet commands and dependent calls to OmniSharp, couldn't anyone build an extension to do exactly that (or even better) and thus avoid the licensing?

Does it have a nuget manager?

What is the difference between an Organization and an Enterprise?

This seems more like a less featured vs or rider for the same price... Why would I want it for work over either of them?

I wonder why no one mention the vscode-solution-explorer extension. In my opinion there is no need for the microsoft extensions. With that extension you can do pretty much the same as shown in this video.

Like it, i will maybe use it with copilot chat until rider has copilot chat. But still prefer rider over this for now

Does this new extensions have better C# language support and fix Omnisharp issues? Can anyone explain what is changed?

Even withh the tons of themes that there are for VS Code, the default colors for C# are the greatest ones 😛!

I simply won't be bothering with this. For C# I'll stick to the proper IDE's. My IDE, for all my life, has been VS and I'll stick to it. Though, in my younger years it was VS + Resharper. These days, my company won't pay for it, so it's just VS Enterprise. JS/TS however --> VS Code over VS, since VS sucks for anything JS/TS. Somehow such an expensive product has managed to keep a very sub-par experience on that for years now.

Well thats a lot better indeed, still prefer VS tho...

Takes for ever in to install c# base and they have removed the omin lsp

Look awesome!

My boy nick got Hiltoned

Hm, I think this could be seen like a cross-platform VS replacement. Our company is moving away from Windows but we have a lot of .NET code so this could be a way forward.

Love all your work dude. Hope you didn't wake up to a horse's head in your bed 😬

I still cannot create a c# class/interface using key board though.

5:06 "Since it is made by Microsoft we know it's going to be well supported"... bruh... since when are Microsoft supporting their free stuff? In fact, they're barely supporting their paid stuff, especially not "well".

idk what you're talking about honestly, i've been coding c# for the past 6 month excursively on linux with vscode, it's honestly better that way as you're forced to do things manually and always know what's happening in the background

Cant they import the c# keyboard shortcuts? Thats what kills me the most.

So OmniSharp is now going to miss out of future features so they can upsell you on this? Yikes. Especially since it's closed source.

Thank you for the video. I think it's Microsoft's attempt to bring a little bit of money from VS Code and try to compete with other IDEs. A lot of folks don't like VS for its bulkiness, subsequent slowness, and lack of some utility features that IDEs like Rider have. Overall, I would still prefer a Rider, it has all I need, but I like to see if this will ever reach close to feature parity with it. P.S. I hope MS didn't harass you into taking down the previous video :(

c# => Jetbrains Rider :)

If only NCrunch ran on VSCode 🥺

I like VS Code better than VS. You can use it with any folder, not just projects, and when you add a file to a folder you can see it in the editor. Better support for Notebooks and REPLs and the CLI and git and PowerShell and ad hoc automated processes, things i used to use Sublime Text for, but much more. I've been using Code since it was first announced (along with VS) and the pace of innovation is much faster.

Την παλεύει κάπως θα έλεγα, όμως το συνολικό Flow και experience του visual studio, ούτε το rider ούτε το vs code το ακουμπάνε.

Accepting being wrong is only for the braves.

You were not wrong

Eh, I get why you took down the last video. There's going to be comments that preferred you didn't. You can't win 😂 I'm curious though, and maybe I'm missing something but why can't someone just make a similar vscode extension that's free? Are there some limitations with what standard extensions can do?

Bro software is easy but how to manage stress bro do one video plzz yaaar dear NICK