Visual Studio Live Share takes the pain out of collaborative coding
0Visual Studio Live Share takes the pain out of collaborative coding.
NEW YORK—Decades after introducing IntelliSense, the code completion and information features that transform Visual Studio into something more than just a text editor, Microsoft is introducing something that it claims is just as exciting: Live Sharing.
Collaboration is critical for many developers. Having another pair of eyes look over a problematic bug can offer insight that's proving elusive; tapping the knowledge of a seasoned veteran is an important source of training and education. Some developers advocate pair programming, a system of development where two people literally share a keyboard and take turns to drive, but most feel this is intrusive and inconvenient. Ad hoc huddles around a single screen are common but usually mean that one developer has to contend with the preferences of another, hindering their productivity. Screen sharing avoids the awkward seating but also means that the sharer either has a loss of control if they give the other person keyboard and mouse access, or, if they don't, it prevents the other person from taking the initiative.
Live Share is Microsoft's solution. It provides a shared editing experience within Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code (currently only for JavaScript, TypeScript, and C#) that's similar to the shared editing found in word processors; each person can see the other's cursor and text selections; each person can make edits—but it goes further, by enabling shared debugging, too. A project can be launched under the debugger, and both people can see the call stack, examine in-scope variables, or even change values in the immediate window. Both sides can single step the debugger to advance through a program.