Microsoft Visual Studio Code Updated With Official Apple Silicon Support

[MacRumors]

Microsoft has updated Visual Studio Code with official support for M1 Apple Silicon Macs, offering developers the ability to use the software without the need for emulation on Rosetta.

The support is coming to the web and cloud app code editor as part of its February 2021 1.54 build, which alongside Apple Silicon support, includes several improvements and updates. Microsoft says that with native Apple Silicon support, M1 Mac mini, MacBook Air, and Macbook Pro users will notice better performance and longer battery life.

We are happy to announce our first release of stable Apple Silicon builds this iteration. Users on Macs with M1 chips can now use VS Code without emulation with Rosetta, and will notice better performance and longer battery life when running VS Code. Thanks to the community for self-hosting with the Insiders build and reporting issues early in the iteration.

With version 1.54, Visual Studio Code is now also a Universal build download. Users with Intel or Apple Silicon-based Macs will be prompted to download the same file, which will automatically work for whichever Mac chip they're using. Microsoft is also offering users the ability to download the specific version of Visual Studio Code that works for their Mac's architecture on its Downloads page.

Article Link: Microsoft Visual Studio Code Updated With Official Apple Silicon Support

 

[Eddy Munn]

I love VS Code! Proof that an Electron app—when done right—can work really well.

 

[star-affinity]

I love VS Code! Proof that a Chromium app—when done right—can work really well.

Agree. Really good code editor. Good job Microsoft – it feels like a modern app both in MacOS and Windows 10.

So, Electron apps are based on Chromium? ?

 

[martyjmclean]

So, Electron apps are based on Chromium? ?

Kinda... they’re JavaScript/websites inside a Chromium browser.

 

[page3]

I keep trying it, but always return to Sublime Text.

 

[panthro100]

Moved over years ago from Sublime, never looked back.

 

[Merode]

Yeah, I love VS Code as well. Really great editor with wonderful extensions.

 

[page3]

Moved over years ago from Sublime, never looked back.

I must try again. I’m sure it’s just familiarity rather than anything else.

 

[Mc0]

Finally! Happy Friday y’all ?

 

[vagos]

Let's hope atom is next!

 

[Eddy Munn]

I must try again. I’m sure it’s just familiarity rather than anything else.

When I did, there was an option to use Sublime's keymapping which helped me get used to it.

 

[LeeW]

Every time I tried it always found me back on Sublime before long but when you really take the time to explore VS it really is very good. Use it all the time now.

 

[Stella]

Prefer Jetbrains IDEs. I’ve tried VSCode and was very unimpressed. Don’t see what the fuss is about, other than that it’s free.

 

[funkypepper]

I'm sorry -- I understand that it works great etc. etc., but if it consumes tens of times more system resources and power than its counterparts, it's a pass for me. Just waste.

Instead go and support companies that write native Mac software, like BareBones (BBEdit) or Panic (Nova).

 

[Smooch]

Nova by Panic.

 

[Captain Trips]

I am currently learning how to use Xcode and Swift, so this isn't something I can take advantage of now.

But having more developer tools that will run natively on M1 / Apple Silicon chips is a good thing. ? ?

 

[randolorian]

Panic Nova is a good, albeit expensive, alternative.

 

[DekuBleep]

Awesome news!

 

[nvmls]

I love VS Code! Proof that an Electron app—when done right—can work really well.

Funny you say, to us being an Electron app is still the worst thing about it, although it's among the best & most maintained electron apps for sure, but still lipstick on a pig. Obviously it's strengths are out of the box features & being free, it's a good editor for some technologies.

In terms of performance, Sublime > * any day but it's true that as a stripped text editor you need to spend a decent amount of time setting up git tools, terminal packages, style pre-processor packages, JSX syntax which most don't work reliably with multi-line comments and other nuances, also the autocomplete gets broken easily with common packages like Emmet. Apparently in v4 beta many of these are fixed, we'll see.

 

[Merode]

Prefer Jetbrains IDEs. I’ve tried VSCode and was very unimpressed. Don’t see what the fuss is about, other than that it’s free.

I use VS Code for .NET Core development as well as Angular. I can work with both in the same editor (as opposed to Rider + Webstorm) and it cost me 0. I can't name one thing I lost moving from Rider + Webstorm. In other words I saved a lot of money. It's also nice that VS code is snappier than Rider/Webstorm. The only con: I had to spend a couple minutes installing several extensions, instead of having out of the box experience.

If you use Rider, how's 'dotnet watch run' working out for you? Last time I used Rider, it was impossible to attach debugger in such scenario.

 

[jwhazel]

I’m a little bit confused.

With version 1.54, Visual Studio Code is now also a Universal build download. Users with Intel or Apple Silicon-based Macs will be prompted to download the same file, which will automatically work for whichever Mac chip they're using.

https://www.electronjs.org/blog/apple-silicon

You will need to ship two versions of your app: one for x64 (Intel Mac) and one for arm64 (Apple Silicon).

In the future, we will release a package that allows you to "merge" your arm64 and x64 apps into a single universal binary, but it's worth noting that this binary would be huge and probably isn't ideal for shipping to users.

Did Electron release this tool that allows to merge into a Universal build and I’m just missing it? If so MS ignoring the that last line warning against using it for production?

 

[ruka.snow]

I'll stick with TextMate 2. I tried VS Code a few times and it always had weird rendering issues and higher CPU usage to being an electron app.

 

[star-affinity]

Panic Nova is a good, albeit expensive, alternative.

Was just stumbling over Nova over at their website the other week.
Looks impressive for sure and Panic's software always felt really OS X/MacOS native (well even MacOS ”Classi” back in the day).

 

[peneaux]

Visual Code is garbage like all Electron apps. You want the best? https://nova.app (from Panic). Native and amazingly snappy!

 

[nanosaur]

Prefer Jetbrains IDEs. I’ve tried VSCode and was very unimpressed. Don’t see what the fuss is about, other than that it’s free.

I find them different tools for different tasks.

I use VS code for small projects, scripts, rapid prototyping etc, and jet brains (pycharm mostly) for actual project work.

no arguments from me that the jetbrains tools have a lot more features, but that’s also the point.
At the end of the day, for me there’s a reason VS code is nearly always open but I still keep paying jetbrains every year.