Visual Studio Code recently received its monthly update, presenting devs with a need to customise with an array of new options to adjust the IDE’s user interface to their liking.
Amongst other things, VS Code 1.64 lets users decide how wide the bottom panel should be, with options ranging from the classic width of the editor area, the span of either the two leftmost or rightmost subwindows (think Explorer plus Editor or Editor plus side panel), or the full VS Code window width.
The update also introduces an additional side panel for displaying views from the side bar or bottom panel. The new element can be populated using drag & drop or the Move View command, and replaces the option to move the bottom panel to the side. Users who feel that the bottom panel is just a bit much can still get rid of it using new commands “Move Views From Panel To Side Panel” and “Move Views From Side Panel To Panel“. The old Move Panel commands are said to have been remapped accordingly, though Microsoft recommends updating keybindings just in case.
To configure the layout as wanted, developers can either use View > Appearance menu, the new commands, or play around with a new Configure Layout button in the title bar. The latter can be used to toggle elements on and off, or access a Customize Layout picker for extra alignment control. The configuration button however needs to be enabled first, which can be done by setting workbench.experimental.layoutControl.enabled to true and putting the window.titleBarStyle setting to custom.
There isn’t much happening in terms of editor improvements with the release, however, the VS Code centrepiece now includes audio cues indicating error or breakpoint markers as well as folded regions when a screen reader is attached.
Users tending to work with the terminal component can meanwhile start setting up automatic replies for things like the reassurance prompt that will appear under Windows after CTRL+C was hit. The update also comes with an experimental shell integration that injects previously invisible sequences into the terminal window, letting developers know about the current working directory and providing ways to re-run recent commands.
Another preview was fitted into the Explorer to display the files in a directory in a logically nested layout.
Apart from that the VS Code improved the git integration and moved the project’s Notebook handling capabilities forward. Users should now have more options to control what is scanned when looking for repositories as well as a command to clear all stash entries and a control to set the default sort key. When working with Notebooks, they now can collapse cells and get more hints about hidden cells. The IDE also learned to find text in rendered markdown cells and code cell output, which should be helpful as well.
More details about the release can be found on the VS Code blog.