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Microsoft unveils Visual Studio Code For Mac, a cross-platform code editor for developers

Visual Studio Code for Mac

Microsoft’s BUILD conference for developers is currently underway, and the first Apple-related piece of news that came out early in the event is a new code editor for Mac. The Windows-maker announced a version of its coding app called Visual Studio Code that runs natively on the Mac.Visual Studio Code is a cross-platform code editor with availability on Windows and now Linux in addition to OS X. Microsoft describes the program as a “code optimized editor” with support for Intellisense, debugging, and GIT. The developer tool also features integration with GitHub.

Developers can use the code editor to write apps for each platform it supports: Windows, Linux, and OS X. The announcement comes as Microsoft continues its cloud-first, cross platform approach with support for OS X, iOS, and Android with a number of its services and apps including Office. Late last year, Microsoft purchased the now Apple-owned TestFlight competitor HockeyApp which allows developers to distribute application betas to testers and view analytics information.

Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code for Mac will be available to download for free later today. Update: Here’s the link.

[tweet https://twitter.com/code/status/593449017398407169]

[tweet https://twitter.com/code/status/593454672720973824]

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Comments

  1. Greg - 9 years ago

    I’m on this site because I love me some Apple but Microsoft has been stepping up its game over the recent months.

    • Don Horne (@DonHorne) - 9 years ago

      Agreed. I’m liking the direction the post Ballmer Microsoft is going with it’s new CEO, Satya Nadella.

      • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

        I agree. But the reason for the change is that Microsoft finally gave up on it’s number one mantra of being the conquering giant. They finally got rid of Balmer and learned a bit about humility.

        As a result Apple has “won,” but Microsoft has also won by realising that they don’t have to be number one to be a good company. They might even be a better company than Apple in the long run, although Apple will still “win” on the monetary and world-domination front.

        It makes one question what the word “win” really means and whether Apple and Microsoft have switched places to an extent. Apple now straddles the world but has lost it’s soul, Microsoft has regained it’s humanity, but lost it’s place at the top of the heap.

    • Danielle Hallett - 9 years ago

      Same here; it was this sort of thing that brought me to Apple from Microsoft, and it’s this sort of thing that could one day lure me back.

      Since Balmer left, MS seems to be doing everything right.

  2. OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 9 years ago

    I wasn’t TOO surprised when they showed this on stage because I expected them to move in this direction when they open-sourced .NET and I’ve just gotten the vibe they were moving towards being a more open technology platform.

    I’ll definitely be checking this out because from the glimpse they showed on-stage and my experience with Visual Studio, this has the potential to replace Sublime and Komodo for me (on both Mac and Linux)

    • Kawaii Gardiner - 9 years ago

      Agreed and the big thing is this – they want you to run your stuff on their cloud service so it necessitates Microsoft catering for developers be they on Linux, Windows or OS X particularly when you see the new businesses that are starting up the new generation of developers are going straight for MacBook’s or a Linux laptop – Microsoft doesn’t want to be left out of that potential growth because they’re not in the game

  3. Dan Guisinger - 9 years ago

    It unfortunately is too watered down for me. I do ASP.NET MVC development on my Mac laptop using Parallels for a VM. Visual Studio Code doesn’t let you do solution & project oriented coding, its only a file at a time…. I was excited with the news, but after installing it and finding out how weak of an offering it is, it will never run again…

    • Kawaii Gardiner - 9 years ago

      Considering that it is a preview release I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future Microsoft addresses the short comings – this is a 1.0 preview release so best to keep those expectations in check.

    • Ales Ucman - 9 years ago

      This is Microsoft plan: Get out text editor quickly so people will have their hands on something. Imagine 2 to 3 year ahead and we could have Visual Studio for Mac and Linux.

    • OneOkami (@OneOkami) - 9 years ago

      Well it’s a code editor, they never said it was an IDE.

      • Brian ૐ Williams - 9 years ago

        They called it visual studio. its not visual studio.

      • drhalftone - 9 years ago

        They called if “Visual Studio Code” and its only version 0.1.0. It has a long way to go to reach official release status. I think they might just be testing the waters to see if there is much demand for a full IDE on these platforms.

    • Måns Sandberg - 9 years ago

      I am programming in Visual Studio in my programming class in school, and I would be very thankful if I was able to walk home from school without my damn heavy Windows laptop, and still be able to easily do some programming from home.

  4. Michael David Woolweaver - 9 years ago

    Will you be updating this post when it gets released later today?

    • Zac Hall - 9 years ago

      Yep, updated with a link now that it’s available.

  5. XOJO already does all of this, across all platforms, without the .NET crap.

  6. These are some desperate times. Has Microsoft finally come to the realization that they’re in the software business and not the window business?

  7. Well it’s not the IDE but only a code editor, and no one want to use Visual Studio for editing codes. Everyone I know writing codes in Source Insight, Sublime Text, or Eclipse.

  8. Ad Adnan - 9 years ago

    It’s Just Super :)

  9. J Wolfe - 9 years ago

    It is a great move. I feel that MS is finally going in the right direction. It is a preview version and my first file view was kind of disastrous. I am working on jQuery plugin and it underlines bloody red curly lines. I don’t know how to fix it. Keep up the good work. I hate sublime text editor and hope this is a godsend editor for me.

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.