• Goodbye, VS code! Hello Github!
• Introducing Codespaces (Small Beta)
• Moving bricks (writing code) without compromise
• Simplified Workflow
• Extend and customize
• Write code anytime, anywhere
• Development environment simplified
• Developer feedback
• The era of "remote development" is coming?

The latest Codespaces launched by Github can realize cloud code compilation based on VS Code. Now, you can develop directly on both mobile phones and tablets. Cloud development couldn't be better. After using Codespaces, not only can the IDE be uninstalled, but Conda and Docker can also delete "big mistakes".

Goodbye, VS code! Hello Github!

At GitHub's first virtual conference this year, Satellite, GitHub released Codespaces, an online IDE tool powered by Visual Studio. This is a development tool integrated in the GitHub webpage, which provides developers with an "immersive" development experience without leaving the page, and is currently open to the public for small-scale testing.

Codespaces Portal: github.com/features/codespaces

It is worth mentioning that, on Satellite, along with Codespaces, are:

• GitHub Discussions: a new way to collaborate outside the codebase;
• Code scanning and secret scanning: Help the community in GitHub make or use more secure code;
• GitHub Private Instances: Designed for users with stringent security requirements.

Introducing Codespaces (Small Beta)

Contributing code to the community can sometimes be difficult. Each repository has its own development environment configuration, and often many steps are required before we can start writing code. What's more, we are working on two development work environments that conflict with each other. Codespaces provides us with a fully functional cloud development environment integrated in GitHub, allowing us to contribute code to a project instantly. The following picture shows the interface of Codespaces. Those who have used VS Code must not be unfamiliar with this interface.

Codespaces is powered by Visual Studio technology and integrates a full browser version of VS Code editor, supporting code completion and navigation, extension plug-ins, and terminal access. If developers prefer to use the desktop IDE for development, they can also open the codespace in GitHub and then connect it to the desktop IDE.

Moving bricks (writing code) without compromise

A complete development experience from writing code, compiling, testing, debugging, and deploying can be achieved in the browser.

Simplified Workflow

Automatically set dependencies and SSH keys. Now it's much faster for any project to go from code to managed library.

Extend and customize

You can use dotfile and VS Code extensions to set up your editor to create a consistent environment in each code space.

Write code anytime, anywhere

Because the development environment becomes the cloud, you can now write code on any smart device through a web browser or VS Code.

Development environment simplified

Contribute code to a project without cumbersome local configuration. Even projects that have never been done before can be configured with just one mouse click and can be easily switched between different development environments.

Developer feedback

Visual Studio Online is an online code editor based on VSCode launched by Microsoft a year ago. It is basically a complete editor and hosting environment, and can be stored in the browser.

However, less than a few days ago, VS Online was officially renamed VS Codespaces, which is only a prefix difference from Github Codespaces launched today. This is very interesting. Some developers speculate that these details seem to indicate that Microsoft wants to merge these two products. .

From the perspective of VS Online alone, since the name change to VS Codespaces, the official has also lowered the service price by more than 50%, and provided developers with new options to allow them to run on relatively low-performance virtual machines. Running, priced at $0.08 per hour.

On the other hand, some developers admitted that it is very friendly to be able to edit the code completely on Github, but it is impossible to pay for it as a product at this stage.

At the same time, it is also analyzed that the core logic of this product release is to improve the ecology. For example, the release of this product will greatly improve the user experience of using tablet computers and mobile phones for work. At a time when the mobile terminal is still the mainstream trend, it will attract a large number of new users, such as students in colleges who only use ChromeOS devices.

The era of "remote development" is coming?

As early as the end of last year, the official Facebook developer blog also stated that they had set VSCode as Facebook's default development environment and cooperated with Microsoft to help enhance its remote development capabilities, enabling engineers to conduct remote development on a large scale.

It is also worth mentioning that when the Microsoft VS Code team first launched the remote development extension package, it also stated that remote development is an emerging trend, which can enable any developer to use more efficient and more efficient than local hardware facilities. Faster and more professional hardware device support.

There is also a product owner who claims to be Codespaces, Github Codespaces uses the same underlying technology as VS Codespaces, and aims to bring a completely localized experience to Github users.

In short, no matter from last year's Facebook trends or Microsoft and Github series of operations, they are all releasing the same information point. The remote development environment that is more and more considered by engineers, the related ecology is also gradually improving, which is worth looking forward to.

At this moment, are you excited about the new features of Github this time? Lost VS Code?