Visual Studio Code 1.94 improves file search

The September 2024 release of Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code editor, version 1.94, features improvements for finding files using the File Explorer. The upgrade also introduces the ability to run Python tests with coverage.

Introduced October 3, Visual Studio Code 1.94 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac, or Linux via the project web page.

In the Visual Studio Code 1.94 release, Microsoft has improved the Find feature in the Explorer view to make it easier to search for files in large projects. Developers can open the Find control in the File Explorer by using the Ctrl+Alt+F keyboard shortcut. When searching, users can switch between fuzzy matching and continuous matching for more flexible results.

For Python, developers now can run Python tests with coverage and get rich results in the editor, Microsoft said. To run tests with coverage, users must select the coverage run icon in Test Explorer or “Run with coverage” from any menu that triggers test runs. The Python extension will run coverage by using the pytest-cov plugin if developers are using pytest, or by using coverage.py if using unittest. Once the coverage is complete, lines are highlighted in the editor for line-level coverage. The Python extension also has added a default problem matcher, simplifying issue tracking in Python code and providing more contextual feedback.

The Source Control Graph in Visual Studio Code 1.94 features a new history item reference picker in the view title, allowing developers to use the reference picker to filter the history items shown in the graph to a different branch or to view multiple branches. The Source Control Graph also expands the list of actions available in the context menu for source control history items. Actions have been added to create a new branch/tag from a history item, cherry-pick a history item, and check out an item.

Elsewhere in Visual Studio Code 1.94:

Visual Studio Code is now fully converted to ESM (ECMAScript modules). All layers of VS Code core (Electron, Node.js, browser, workers) now use the import and export syntax in JavaScript for module loading and exporting. The move to ESM improves startup performance “massively,” Microsoft said.

The native REPL editor, used by the Python extension, now supports GitHub Copilot Inline Chat and code completions right in the input box. Also, GitHub Copilot Inline Chat has been upgraded to the GPT-4o mini model, for faster, more accurate, and higher-quality code explanations when using chat in the editor. And when using GitHub Copilot Inline Chat to generate code in a notebook, users now can accept and directly run the generated code from Inline Chat.

Developers can now easily attach additional files as context for a GitHub Copilot Inline Chat prompt by dragging files or editor tabs from the workbench directly into the chat.

A test failure preview feature adds specialized logic for diagnosing failing unit tests.

JavaScript and TypeScript support now use TypeScript 5.6, which includes language and tool improvements as well as bug fixes and performance optimizations.

Visual Studio Code 1.94 follows last month’s VS Code 1.93 release, which introduced a new Profiles editor.