Visual Studio Code finalizes test coverage API

Latest update of Microsoft’s code editor brings native support for test coverage, custom editor labels, locked scrolling, and more.

Editor at Large, InfoWorld |

Developers work together to review lines of code in an office workspace.

Microsoft has unveiled Visual Studio Code 1.88, also known as the March 2024 release of the company’s popular code editor. The update brings capabilities such as a test coverage API, custom editor labels, and locked scrolling.

Introduced on April 4, Visual Studio Code 1.88 can be downloaded for Windows, Linux, or Mac from the project website.

In this release, Microsoft has finalized its Test Coverage API, bringing native coverage support to VS Code. If a developer’s testing system supports it, coverage can be accessed using the new Run With Coverage button. Using test coverage requires that your VS Code extension implements the new API.

Custom editor labels, meanwhile, allow developers to customize the display label for editor tabs and the Open editors view. This functionality can be used to distinguish between editors for files with the same name, Microsoft said. And with locked scrolling, developers can synchronize scrolling across visible editors by using the View: Toggle Locked Scrolling Across Editors command. When developers scroll in one editor, all the other editors scroll by the same amount, keeping everything aligned.

Also in Visual Studio 1.88:

The minimap now recognizes and renders sections defined by folding markers, such as //#regioncode in TypeScript. This lets users quickly scan and navigate across large files.
In Quick Search, file name separators have been made sticky to make it clearer which file a search result is associated with. This can be useful when developers have many occurrences of a search term in a file.
The Activity Bar can be moved to the bottom of the Side Bar as well as the top. When positioned at the top, the Activity Bar now fits better with the rest of the interface.
GitHub Copilot inline chat now starts as a floating control, making it more lightweight, then expands to take up more space after the first request.
Accessibility signal sounds have been added for voice recording.
To more easily run related cells in a notebook, users can now run cells grouped together by a markdown section header with the Run Cells in Section action.

Visual Studio Code 1.88 follows the late-February release of Visual Studio Code 1.87, which introduced voice dictation.

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Paul Krill is an editor at large at InfoWorld, whose coverage focuses on application development.