Microsoft has released Visual Studio Code 1.60. The new release of the open source source code editor expands the automatic recognition of programming languages ??as well as the syntax highlighting and has experimental features in its luggage. This includes experimental support for using all debugging features in VS Code for debugging Jupyter notebooks.

Automatic speech recognition

Last month, VS Code 1.59 brought the automatic recognition of programming languages ??based on the JavaScript library for machine learning TensorFlow.js and the Machine-Learning-Modell Guesslang based, as a preview feature. There it was still necessary to activate the feature manually. In the current version 1.60, on the other hand, it is activated by default and has also received the new functionality of being able to recognize the programming language used even in files without a file extension.

The Visual Studio Code team justified the introduction of speech recognition with the fact that not all users were aware of how to set the language mode and that the setting of the language used opens up additional features such as syntax coloring and recommendations for extensions. Speech recognition is also said to offer advantages for power users, as the step of setting the speech mode is not necessary if they use an unnamed text editor for quick notes.

Extended syntax highlighting and inline suggestions

VS Code 1.60 has revised the syntax highlighting in various places. Among other things, the editor now supports the native coloring of pairs of brackets using "editor.bracketPairColorization.enabled": true. Up to six colors can be selected, which can also be inserted into themes and are visible in real time.

Visual Studio Code 1.60 introduces syntax highlighting for brackets.

(Image: Microsoft)

The editor also offers inline suggestions for autocompletion. To do this, the preview for suggestions must be activated ("editor.suggest.preview": true). Then not only does a suggestion appear in the Autocomplete widget, which can be accessed using the arrow keys and Tab can be selected, but – if available – also an inline suggestion displayed in italics, which can be accessed by pressing the TabButton.

New preview features

VS Code presents a number of experimental and preview features each month. This time, support for all VS Code debugging features for Jupyter Notebooks is included as an experimental feature. To use it, the kernel ipykernel must be selected in version 6 or higher. After setting "jupyter.experimental.debugging": true and setting a breakpoint, the command Debug Cell choose.

As a preview feature, VS Code 1.60 also has the ability to “lock” editor groups to prevent users from accidentally covering a terminal editor with a file editor – because files in the active editor group open by default so that a new file can also overlay an active terminal. The new Lock GroupFunction is available not only for terminal editors but for all types of editors. New editors only open in locked groups if a user explicitly places them there. A lock icon in the action toolbar at the top right indicates that a group is locked.

Visual Studio Code is both as a stable release as well as in an Insiders Edition available for Windows, macOS and Linux. All new features in version 1.60 can be found in the release notes.