Talk:Visual Studio Code

The purpose of this article and any future conflation with Visual Studio

I recently attempted to clean up this article, and in the process I removed the stub notice because I don't think the article needs to be expanded. From what I could tell, this article and its template mainly got as far-reaching as they did because some editors were conflating it with Visual Studio, a separate program which is integral to programming with the engine's C++ source code. I do think having an article for Visual Studio Code on this wiki has some merit (mainly because of its useful Source-related extensions), although giving Visual Studio Code a distinct presence on other articles via its own icon template is a bit superfluous, and I've removed instances of it being confused with Visual Studio. However, while I was clearing up confusion in this article, I realized there's not a comprehensive place for me to direct people looking for Visual Studio proper. I think there remains a bit of an imbalance just because Visual Studio Code has an article + template while Visual Studio itself does not.

Compared to Visual Studio Code, which is merely a useful text editor, Visual Studio is effectively (but not technically) a required IDE for programming with Source on Windows. However, it never had its own article on the VDC, and while I could see some benefits to it having one now (e.g. having one place to clear up confusion between versions or other currently esoteric/obscure knowledge), I'm not particularly convinced it's necessary. Many articles and tutorials related to Visual Studio (see Category:Programming) already exist on this wiki, although they are not organized and some only apply to older SDK versions. Still, the very fact Visual Studio Code has its own article and highlighted template give it a more emphatic presence, and I feel like further confusion or disparity is inevitable as long as that's the case.

Given the fact this wiki is currently going through a massive transformation and there's a lot more scrutiny over redundant articles/templates, I'm curious if anyone else has an opinion on this. I could see further action being taken towards minimizing Visual Studio Code's presence, expanding Visual Studio's presence, or both. I'm personally beginning to favor a unique "Visual Studio" category with a Visual Studio redirect page, as I could see it providing the best of both worlds in explaining what Visual Studio is without letting it overstay its welcome, and it would provide a more organized index for the existing VDC tutorials compared to them being mixed in with general Source SDK content in Category:Programming. This is just my suggestion, however, and I'd like to see more input before going forward with anything. --Blixibon (talk) 16:01, 22 June 2024 (PDT)