back to article Mmm, instant Java: Visual Studio Code 1.36 brings tasty updates – unless you run 32-bit Linux

Microsoft has brought a bunch of enhancements with version 1.36 of Visual Studio Code, its popular open-source editor. VS Code's updated Java installer will now set up a Java development environment for you, using a JDK (Java Development Kit) from AdoptOpenJDK rather than Oracle's more encumbered version. It will also install …

  1. Andrew Williams

    Hoovering?

    Being a product from the vacuum cleaners of Redmond, does it hoover up everything you do to the great dust-bin in the Microsoft cloud? Kept securely, and perused at their leisure?

    1. Mike Lewis

      Re: Hoovering?

      Not after they bought GitHub.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Hoovering?

      VSCodium

      No telemetry here.

  2. really_adf

    Indent guides

    "Indent guides, vertical lines which connect items of equal indentation, are now optionally available in tree views such as those in the File Explorer."

    So, more like they used to be (on Windows at least)? Maybe those GUI designers of yesteryear had a point after all...

  3. bombastic bob Silver badge
    Linux

    Want to connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH and edit files in [a GUI editor]

    why do we need VS Code for that when it can be ALREADY DONE using standard Xorg capabilities?

    It's all very simple. For example, if you have any X11 system running (FreeBSD, Linux, 32-bit or 64-bit, does not matter) and you started Xorg with the appropriate parameter (usually -listen tcp or -listen_tcp or similar, see the .xserverrc file or the 'slim' startup file [the one that invokes the X server] or whatever OTHER desktop manager you're running's startup file for that) then you can use a remote TCP/IP connection on port 6000H for that.

    It's *kinda* built into X11 already. No need to re-invent it "the Microshaft Way".

    THEN of course you ssh in, do an "export DISPLAY=othermachine:0.0" in the session, and every X11 application you run will display and interact with THE REMOTE DESKTOP. I run 'pluma' like this ALL of the time. I suppose Slickedit, IntelliJ, Eclipse, and other 'big tools" wil work, though I've noticed that these *kinds* of tools [which are usually piggy java applications] don't perform quite as well as a native X11 application would [I'v tried it with IntelliJ for Android stuff, with Linux in a VM on FreeBSD].

    And of course if you have NATIVE TOOLS available, why do you need some HACK in a JAVASCRIPT APPLICATION (aka VS Code written in, of all things, NodeJS] to do what is _ALREADY_ _POSSIBLE_ _AND_ _CONVENIENT_ ???

    Microshaft, here's a thought: Why don't you re-write VS Code using C++ and either GTK or Qt, and *THEN* make it TRULY cross platform!!! Then have it run NATIVELY [not using NodeJS or some OTHER stupid javascript pile of excrement] and make sure it works correctly using the method I just described..

    wouldn't THAT be worth something?

    and of course I've been using editors like pluma on RPi to develop stuff for quite a while, on headless systems that display the GUI on my FreeBSD Desktop...

    this stuff is NOT ROCKET SURGERY, but if you ARE a rocket surgeon you've probably been doing this already.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Want to connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH and edit files in [a GUI editor]

      Now imagine, if you would, you've got a Windows computer with pretty terrible NFS support which craps out every so often, non-existent SSHFS support, no cross-compiling to ARM on VS, no remote debugging.

      And the same goes if you develop Linux software but your workplace forces you to use a Windows PC.

      So this why this a big deal, although MS are fixing OS problems such as poor remote filesystem support in VSCodium.

    2. J27

      Re: Want to connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH and edit files in [a GUI editor]

      Isn't the X11 protocol in the middle of being replaced by Wayland? Maybe they just want something future-proof and cross-platform.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Stop

        Re: Want to connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH and edit files in [a GUI editor]

        "Isn't the X11 protocol in the middle of being replaced by Wayland"

        yeah SOME ARROGANT LInux people *FELT* this would happen, and yet it has NOT, and the OBVIOUS deficiency of NOT being able to support "remote GUI" is keeping Wayland off of MANY desktops!

        Poettering *FELT* as if systemd was better. A _LOT_ of people became ANGRY at the "mandated change", and some WONDERFUL DEVS forked Debian into Devuan [which is what I use for Linux] so we could keep SysV init on Linux.

        The Gnome 3 devs *FELT* as if their feature creep was BETTER, and a *LOT* of people (including Linus himself) became ANGRY and some WONDERFUL DEVS forked gnome 2 into Mate so we could KEEP OUR DESKTOP AS-IS without the unnecessary and unwanted FEATURE CREEP (which was more like 'take away what we like and replace it with something we do not').

        And a LOT of us STILL USE WINDOWS 7 because the FEATURE CREEP of 8-10 is NOT wanted, either.

        SO I'd say *NO* - Wayland is *NOT* going to replace X11. Not NOW, not ANY TIME SOON. It's not even really ready for 'prime time' in and of itself...

        Arrogant developers and their SHOVING FEATURE CREEP INTO OUR BODY ORIFICES... and TAKING AWAY WHAT WE WANT TO KEEP just to get security updates and fixes... THAT needs to STOP.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Want to connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH and edit files in [a GUI editor]

          You seem angry. Take a break from the screen.

    3. InNY

      Re: Want to connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH and edit files in [a GUI editor]

      Rocket science, me old China, rocket science, attended to by rocket scientists...

      Oh, by the way, Apple still have their keyboard replacement program. You might want take advantage of it...

  4. J27

    If you're running 32bit Linux on your development machines at this point you're doing something wrong.

    1. david 12 Silver badge

      Q: How many developers does it take to change a light bulb?

      A: "That's funny. It works on my machine."

      1. alisonken1

        Q: How many developers does it take to change a lightbulb?

        A: None. That's hardware.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge
    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Stop

      "If you're running 32bit Linux on your development machines at this point you're doing something wrong."

      *cough* Raspberry Pi *cough* still runs 32-bit Linux

      And 32-bit Linux works pretty well IN A VM

      And 32-bit Linux is actually *slightly* *faster* if you're not running some PIGGY THING that WASTES RAM BY ITS VERY EXISTENCE [like maybe IntelliJ or chromium or anything written by Micro-shaft].

      Or the worst: If it has NodeJS in it. Like "guess what" does!

      If you have less than 4G of RAM, it's smarter to run 32-bit than 64-bit. And last I checked a LOT of things run really well on a system with less than 4G RAM, _INCLUDING_ developer tools. No need to spend $$$$ on bleeding edge hardware when "what you already have" can easily do the job... for those of us with budgets, who's mommy and daddy aren't paying for it, and when money is better spent elsewhere.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        He was wrong and should've said: x86 and not simply all 32-bit arches.

        I agree to this corrected statement. Nobody is using 32-bit Intel arch anymore. Nobody sane at least, it is dead since long time.

        I havt that the writers here keep on going about it as if dropping a dead arch is something bad.

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Linux

          strangely enough, the "dead arch" makes sense in too many cases:

          a) very low end priced portable computers [lets say with Atom processors on them and limited RAM], sorta like 'netbooks' even. Usually those are ARM-based, but not always

          b) embedded boards. often useful to do development on them directly if you can plug in a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Some are still x86 arch (but most, like RPi, seem to be ARM based these days)

          c) >15 year old (aka ancient) computers being recycled for new purposes. I've got a few of these laying about that can easily run an old version of Linux [and in some cases, do, and some have XP on them].

          Some time ago I brought a 17 year old laptop on site for contract work because I needed a Linux box, and they didn't have one (yet), to do embedded kinds of stuff with an RPi. I got MORE WORK done on that old thing, with 512M RAM and a 20G hard drive in it, than I could have on a BRAND NEW WIN-10-NIC box with the usual hardware load.

          32-bit is NOT DEAD, just not all that popular right now, in places where people have plenty of money to spend on new stuff. But amazingly enough, with the developer tools that _I_ use, that 17 year old Toshiba laptop worked EXTREMELY WELL for the purpose that I needed it for. I could not run Firefox on it (with a responsive user interface, anyway), but I could do just about everything else I needed to do with it.

          not so amazing, really, when you consider that Linux was designed for old klunky hardware, that it does NOT require the latest hardware and GIGABYTES of RAM and TERABYTES of DISK "just to load".

  5. karlkarl Silver badge

    Keeping first class support for older "less cool" architectures is actually a good way of discovering bugs and other issues.

    It is why the OpenBSD team support a massive number of architectures including VAX. Yes, no-one really uses VAX but it is a way of keeping quality up.

    Also... developing countries get all our old PCs and thus they are generally x86. I don't particularly want to exclude any talented developers from these parts of the world and instead have to work with greedy fat kids because they are the only ones who can run the newest stuff.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like