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Vscode.dev

code.visualstudio.com

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Re: Vscode.dev

#61

Post by qbasic_forever »

n8cpdx wrote: post #5

Very cool stuff. I remember being at Build 2018 and asking the PM on the Live Share team if they had any plans to bring VS Code to the browser. Maybe do managed environments for labs and companies (what GitHub code spaces now is), would be great for education. Lots of students (especially non-CS nerds, like the physics kids with a CS requirement) find environment setup to be one of the hardest parts. He seemed to thi…

The PM on the live share feature only gets a promotion if they can prove the value and engagement of their feature. Sadly this leads to very close-minded and hostile attitudes at different levels in the product. You want to talk to the group PM for the VS code product to pitch an idea about new features (but you aren't going to see this person spending time at a trade show booth).

Re: Vscode.dev

#62

Post by peakaboo »

tppiotrowski wrote: post #10
ARandumGuy wrote: post #4

This seems really cool, and seems like it took a lot of man hours to put together. However, I'm not sure who this is for. Downloading and installing an application is not a particularly big ask for the type of people who use VSCode. The browser version will always be a compromised experience, given the inherent limitations of browser applications. Even if it works 99% of the time, that 1% would add enough friction to…

Downloading and installing is a big ask if you don’t have the required system permissions (computer labs, work issued laptops, Chromebooks). Another data point: I used to compile VSCode for ARM to run it on a RaspberryPi and had to do it anytime there was an update.

So you as a developer are not allowed to install a code editor... To edit code... Which is... Your profession...

So you need to use a Web browser as a code editor because... Installing a binary to the disk is not allowed?

It's crazy!

Re: Vscode.dev

#63

Post by easton »

tiffanyh wrote: post #48
easton wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly anything that relies on having a real system attached to it instead of the browser JS engine. Running code, or a terminal, or things that rely on the git binary. Lots of extensions are working to remove their dependencies on the local system though.

So these limitations don't exist for Codespaces then?

They do not.

Re: Vscode.dev

#65

Post by lostintangent »

n8cpdx wrote: post #5

Very cool stuff. I remember being at Build 2018 and asking the PM on the Live Share team if they had any plans to bring VS Code to the browser. Maybe do managed environments for labs and companies (what GitHub code spaces now is), would be great for education. Lots of students (especially non-CS nerds, like the physics kids with a CS requirement) find environment setup to be one of the hardest parts. He seemed to thi…

I'm really sorry to hear you had this experience :( I'm not sure who you spoke with, but this perspective definitely isn't representative of the team and/or how I'd ever want to see us talk with developers.

I'm actually a PM for both Live Share, Codespaces, and some of our education-related experiences (e.g. the GitHub Classroom extension for VS Code). A web client for collaboration, with zero-install/onboarding, has always been our north star, and so your intuition/feedback was 100% right back in 2018.

Now that we have Codespaces, vscode.dev/github.dev, and Live Share support for the web, we're actually looking to further optimize our support for education, since we believe we have a lot to offer. In fact, I'd love to connect and hear your thoughts, to make sure we're going in the right direction. If you'd be interested in letting me make up for that terrible conversation in 2018, you can reach me at joncart@microsoft.com. Thanks for sharing this feedback, and letting us know where we can do better.

Re: Vscode.dev

#66

Post by ncallaway »

peakaboo wrote: post #60
wffurr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTA: "This simple gateway to the local machine quickly opens some interesting scenarios for using VS Code for the Web as a zero-installation local development tool, such as: * Local file viewing and editing. Quickly take notes (and preview!) in Markdown. Even if you are on a restricted machine where you cannot install the full VS Code, you may still be able to use vscode.dev to view and edit local files. * Build clie…

Your solutions are to problems that a decent developer doesn't accept anyway. Working on locked down machine where you are not allowed to have visual code? Seriously? Working on a chromebook? Why? Sorry to be negative but I feel sometimes you tech guys get excited about solutions to problems that doesn't actually exist in the real world.

> about solutions to problems that doesn't actually exist in the real world.

Problems that don't exist, or that you personally don't have?

Why is enabling development on a Chromebook a bad thing? You ask "Why?", but it seems a more reasonable question to me is: "Why not?" This seems to pull one of the bricks away from "why not?" for working on a Chromebook. I don't see why that's a bad thing.

Re: Vscode.dev

#67

Post by moonchrome »

Androider wrote: post #13
ARandumGuy wrote: post #4

This seems really cool, and seems like it took a lot of man hours to put together. However, I'm not sure who this is for. Downloading and installing an application is not a particularly big ask for the type of people who use VSCode. The browser version will always be a compromised experience, given the inherent limitations of browser applications. Even if it works 99% of the time, that 1% would add enough friction to…

Surely shoving VSCode into a tab is just step 1. Think about what this could do, that your local app couldn't. Off the top of my head: Complete remote state. Open vscode.dev on your desktop, work for a while. Then open vscode.dev on your Macbook Air later, and be in _exactly_ the same state. I don't mean, the same project, I mean the text cursor is at the same position in the same file with the same set of tabs open.…

But this is already far better if you use code server [1] because you get your extensions/compilers/etc. running on the same host

This particular implementation (opening local files via browser) sounds rather useless.

[1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server

Re: Vscode.dev

#68

Post by aquova »

ARandumGuy wrote: post #4

This seems really cool, and seems like it took a lot of man hours to put together. However, I'm not sure who this is for. Downloading and installing an application is not a particularly big ask for the type of people who use VSCode. The browser version will always be a compromised experience, given the inherent limitations of browser applications. Even if it works 99% of the time, that 1% would add enough friction to…

I'm not sure what the use of the standalone site is, however Microsoft has already integrated VSCode-in-a-browser into Github. If you go to a Github file and press . then that repository will open up in a VSCode instance in browser. It's quite useful to have it's search features rather than needing to clone down a project first.

Re: Vscode.dev

#69

Post by LuciusVerus »

peakaboo wrote: post #60
wffurr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTA: "This simple gateway to the local machine quickly opens some interesting scenarios for using VS Code for the Web as a zero-installation local development tool, such as: * Local file viewing and editing. Quickly take notes (and preview!) in Markdown. Even if you are on a restricted machine where you cannot install the full VS Code, you may still be able to use vscode.dev to view and edit local files. * Build clie…

Your solutions are to problems that a decent developer doesn't accept anyway. Working on locked down machine where you are not allowed to have visual code? Seriously? Working on a chromebook? Why? Sorry to be negative but I feel sometimes you tech guys get excited about solutions to problems that doesn't actually exist in the real world.

This "decent developer" thing sounds a bit gatekeepy - this solution isn't here to replace a fancy IDE on a MacBook Pro, it's here to help make coding easier to beginners or on shitty machines. I'd have loved to use this in high school/college instead of relying on the IDEs already installed in the lab.

Re: Vscode.dev

#70

Post by Gracana »

peakaboo wrote: post #60
wffurr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FTA: "This simple gateway to the local machine quickly opens some interesting scenarios for using VS Code for the Web as a zero-installation local development tool, such as: * Local file viewing and editing. Quickly take notes (and preview!) in Markdown. Even if you are on a restricted machine where you cannot install the full VS Code, you may still be able to use vscode.dev to view and edit local files. * Build clie…

Your solutions are to problems that a decent developer doesn't accept anyway. Working on locked down machine where you are not allowed to have visual code? Seriously? Working on a chromebook? Why? Sorry to be negative but I feel sometimes you tech guys get excited about solutions to problems that doesn't actually exist in the real world.

Even if everything about remote workspaces were bad for professional developers, they will accept it if that's what companies are offering. Just like they accepted open offices, standup meetings, all-day video calls, agile, etc. And there's a lot to like for an employer: spend less on computers, reduce IT costs by locking down machines, get new employees productive sooner, make developers more interchangeable...

It's going to happen, and it doesn't matter much if employees like it or not.

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