Microsoft updates VS Code C# Dev Kit extension

Microsoft announced updates to its C# Dev Kit for Visual Studio Code extension, including enhancements to Razor/Blazor Hot Reload and for debugging and testing Blazor web pages.

In a February 11 blog post, Wendy Breiding, Microsoft senior manager for product management, said the improvements to Razor/Blazor cover Hot Reload, currently in experimental mode, as well as boosts for Razor error management and IntelliSense. Developers can enable the improved Hot Reload by setting csharp.experimental.debug.hotReload to true.

For IntelliSense,  Microsoft has addressed issues with go-to definition reliability and erroneous errors appearing in the problems pane. When a user fixes a problem, the error now goes away without a build. This makes the Razor editing experience more productive, Breiding said.

Additional enhancements cover Blazor web page debugging and the ability to debug Azure Functions apps locally. These updates make it easier for developers to identify and resolve issues in cloud-native code for faster, more efficient debugging, said Breiding. To improve testing, issues with diffing were fixed and support was added for call stacks in test failures. A new diagnostic level has been added for testing, as well.

The improvements are intended to boost coding efficiency, said Breiding, along with making  C# development more productive and enjoyable for developers. The C# Dev Kit extension can be accessed from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Additional enhancements to the C# Dev Kit:

An update to Solution Explorer has a Solution-free workspace mode in preview for developers not needing a solution file.

Developers can make any solution a.NET Aspire solution by adding the.NET Aspire App Host and Service Defaults projects..NET Aspire features tools, templates, and packages for building observable, production-ready apps, according to Microsoft.