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Visual Studio Code 1.29 was released yesterday – this was the October update of Microsoft’s planned monthly updates. This update to the code editor includes multiline search, and improved support for macOS.

Features of Visual Studio Code 1.29

Multiline search

Visual Studio Code now supports multiline search. A regex search executes in multiline mode only if it contains a \n literal. The search view pops up a hint next to each multiline match. The ripgrep tool helps in implementing multiline search.

macOS full-screen support

To enable full-screen mode for Visual Studio Code, window.nativeFullScreen is set to false. Visual Studio 1.29 has an advantage of entering full-screen mode without creating a macOS space on the desktop. By default, Visual Studio Code uses macOS native full screen.

Highlight modified tabs

Visual Studio Code 1.29 comes with a new setting workbench.editor.highlightModifiedTabs.  Whenever the editor has unsaved changes, then this new setting displays a thick border at the top of editor tabs. It makes easier to find files that need to be saved. Even the color of the border can be customized.

File and folder icons in IntelliSense

The IntelliSense widget is now updated. It shows file and folder icons for file completions based on the File Icon theme. This provides a unique look which helps in quickly identifying the different file types.

  • Format Selection

With Visual Studio Code 1.29, it is now possible to speed up the small formatting operations. Without an editor selection, the Format Selection command will now format the current line.

  • Show error codes

This editor of this version, now shows the error code of a problem if an error code is defined. One can check the error code at the end of the line in square brackets.

  • Normalized extension samples

The Visual Studio Code extension samples at vscode-extension-samples have been updated in this release for consistency. Each extension sample includes a uniform coding style and structure and a README that explains the sample’s functionality with a short animation. It also includes a listing of the vscode API or Contribution Points used in each sample.

  • Start debugging with a stop on entry

The team at Visual Studio Code has introduced a command for Node.js debugging. The command, Debug: Start Debugging and Stop On Entry(extension.node-debug.startWithStopOnEntry) is used for debugging and immediately stopping on the entry of your program.

  • Clear terminal before executing the task

A new property called clear got added to the task presentation configuration in this release. If the clear property is set to true then it is possible to clear the terminal before the task is run.

Major Bug Fixes

  • Previously, the startDebugging method in Visual Studio Code used to return the value ‘true’ even when the build failed. This issue has been fixed in this release.
  • In previous releases, the Settings UI never used to remember its search on reloading. But with this release, this issue has been resolved.
  • Earlier it wasn’t possible to cancel a debug session while it was initializing. But now it’s possible with Visual Studio Code 1.29.

Read more on this news on the Visual Studio Code website.

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