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- Where Is Tf.cmd In Visual Studio Code For Mac Os
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Visual Studio Code on macOS Installation. Download Visual Studio Code for macOS. Open the browser's download list and locate the downloaded archive. Select the 'magnifying glass' icon to open the archive in Finder. Drag Visual Studio Code.app to the Applications folder, making it available in the macOS Launchpad.
Visual Studio has not always been as user-friendly on the Mac as it is on a Windows machine. Lately, however, the stable release of VS for Mac is really starting to feel like a simple, but luxurious cousin to Visual Studio 2019. Different, but related. Installation on a Mac is quick, simple, and allows you to get into coding right away - whether you are already familiar or an Apple-only dev getting into something new like Xamarin.
Visual Studio for Mac bears a striking similarity to xCode’s solution navigation feel, but brings the power of VS intellisense and an ability to focus on your code in a much cleaner looking environment. In my opinion, this brings the best of both worlds together. But don’t take my word for it: here are five reasons to give Visual Studio for Mac another go!
1. The C# Editor in Visual Studio for Mac is Completely New
Roslyn, the .NET compiler platform, is now in the Visual Studio for Mac editor - making your intellisense as powerful as its big brother on Windows. Marrying the functionality ported over from the Roslyn compiler with the (frankly, beautiful looking) simplicity of a native-feeling Mac UI editing experience gives this girl all the feels. It has full support for third-party Nuget packages for .NET Core (utilizing .NET Standard) along with Unity, Xamarin and Cocoa apps.
I didn’t notice a big difference gating my progress of a .NET Core app. At this point, I don’t know why I would switch over to a windows VM in order to build a microservice API in .NET Core at all!
Finally, I’m loving that VS for Mac now includes “Go to implementation” as an option in the latest release. Exciting! The C# experience is pretty great now.
2. CLI Developers Can Open .NET Core Projects in Terminal
Ah, the command line. Many developers love using it for .NET Core instead of the “visual” click and drag aspect of the Visual Studio IDE. At first, the use of command line programming with ASP.NET Core was the only way you could build those apps. Over time, and especially with the release of Visual Studio 2019, the File > New Project templates for ASP.NET Core apps have been baked into the install bringing a truly visual experience to that build.
For a while, it was unclear if the same command line net new project CLI functionality would be available on Mac, but I am happy to report that it is and it works beautifully! The use of the Terminal app brings that experience to you harcore command line devs.
3. Improved Build Time for Xamarin
Remember those build and deploy coffee breaks? Well say goodbye (unless you don’t want to of course). On one of my Xamarin projects I saw a super impressive 30% faster incremental build time. That’s not an insignificant improvement.
This metric is also supported by the April 2019 press release from the VS for Mac team. I used to design my development process in such a way that I could multitask to stay efficient and productive. I’m happy to report those days are gone with much improved build speeds, making the Xamarin app building process something I can say I truly enjoy.
4. .NET Core 3 Support Available Right Out of the Gate
Does Visual Studio 2019 have .NET Core 3 support? Yes, but that’s no reason to jump over to your Windows machine! You can use all the same, wonderful new stuff on your Apple machine, too.
In fact, I’d argue that Visual Studio for Mac is an excellent place to start learning how to build apps for .NET Core 3. With fewer small windows everywhere like it’s Windows-based cousin, VS for Mac allows for a more-focused process.
5. Robust Source Control Options
This is where some “same but different” comes into play. I find that developers coming over from Swift or Objective C development enjoy the experience of source control within Visual Studio for Mac. While there IS a difference in the process for Windows users, I don’t find it particularly difficult. Visual Studio for Mac supports Git and Subversion built into the IDE, as well as TFS with a little more effort.
I have used the Github Desktop app for source control of my folders without much issue. This is also my source control workflow for VS Code, and while it is not integrated into the IDE of VS for Mac, it’s also not a bad option. For the hardcore command line peeps, you can alternatively use Git inside the CLI tool Terminal, which is native to Apple OS. There is no learning curve here at all for developers who use command line.
Who Should Use Visual Studio for Mac?
Visual Studio for Mac is a strong choice for many developers and many use cases. Here are a few that come to mind:
.NET users building Xamarin mobile apps that require IOS builds will benefit tremendously from having all their development on a single machine.
Developers working with .NET Core, who love working on a Mac, and currently use a virtual machine or Bootcamp to run Visual Studio in a windows environment will benefit from not having to switch over from the Apple operating system constantly.
Unity game developers will find VS for Mac be very intuitive option.
The last group to come over will be .NET Framework developers who have worked with Visual Studio on Windows as their only option for .NET 4.7.2 for example. Sadly no, .NET Framework cannot run on VS for Mac. However, once you are ready to start building your apps or microservices in .NET Core - check it out!
New functionality, extensions and templates are all coming this next year to Visual Studio for Mac that make living in harmony with Apple + Microsoft a real joy.
Learn More About .NET Core, Xamarin, Apple & OAuth
If you’d like to learn more about ASP.NET, Xamarin, or Apple, we’ve also published a number of posts that might interest you:
For other great content from the Okta Dev Team, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
Since I code on both Windows and Mac, I want my Visual Studio Code shortcuts to be interchangeable on both systems.
So I dug deep into Visual Studio Code’s keyboard shortcuts for both systems and made my personal customisations.
I want to share these customisations with you so you can use them to rock at Visual Studio Code too 😃.
Things you need to know before you continue
Four things:
- Modifiers’ locations are different on Mac and Windows.
- This guide is Qwerty-friendly
- Small bugs with Visual Studio Code and Dvorak-Qwerty on Windows.
- Why I ditched the sublime text importer plugin.
Modifiers’ locations are different on Mac and Windows.
Modifiers on Mac (Command
, Option
, Control
) and modifiers on Windows (Ctrl
, Alt
, Win
, Appskey
) are placed in different locations on the keyboard.
Here’s where the original modifiers are located on Mac:
On my Windows PC (which is a Surface Laptop).
I changed modifier locations of my Windows PC with a program called Auto Hot Key. Here’s what they look like right now:
You can learn how I changed the modifiers in this article.
This guide is Qwerty-friendly
All keyboard shortcuts in this article are friendly for Qwerty users.
People who’re familiar with me know I use Dvorak-Qwerty on both Mac and Windows.
This means:
- I use a Dvorak keyboard layout.
- The keyboard switches to Qwerty when I hold down
Command
on Mac. - The keyboard also switches to Qwerty when I hold down
Ctrl
orWin
on Windows.
Since all shortcuts I recommend in this guide involves the Command
or Ctrl
key. they’re useable for all Qwerty users.
Windows Visual Studio Code and Dvorak-Qwerty
Visual Studio Code’s keyboard shortcut panel gets a little cranky when I tried using used Dvorak-Qwerty on Windows.
For example.
- I changed the “Go To File” keyboard shortcut to
Ctrl
+T
- But the keyboard shortcuts panel shows
Ctrl
+Y
.
This is likely because of two reasons:
Y
holds the position ofT
on a Dvorak keyboard.- Windows doesn’t have Dvorak-Qwerty built-in by default
But the keyboard shortcut still works. When I press Ctrl
+ T
, I still fire the “Go To File” action.
So, if you use Dvorak-Qwerty, I recommend switching to Qwerty to examine keyboard shortcuts in Visual Studio Code. You can always switch back to Dvorak-Qwerty later.
Ditching Sublime Settings Importer
TL;DR: I removed the Sublime Text Keymap and Settings Importer extension from Visual Studio Code. This allowed me to create keyboard shortcuts that synced up between Mac and Windows.
(It didn’t work on my Windows PC because I don’t have Sublime Text installed).
Longer version:
I used the Sublime Text Importer when I switched to Visual Studio for the first time. This extension helped me create keyboard shortcuts that I was familiar with in Sublime Text.
I did this when I was on Mac.
Unfortunately, Sublime Text shortcuts did not get synced to my Windows PC because Settings Sync doesn’t sync keyboard shortcuts across different platforms.
Then, I noticed Sublime Settings Importer doesn’t work on my Windows Computer. It tried to find a Sublime Text application (which doesn’t exist). It will never work since I don’t intend to install Sublime Text on Windows.
But my Mac has Sublime Text shortcuts and My Windows PC doesn’t. This gets confusing quickly. To make my life easier when creating keyboard shortcuts, I decided to uninstall the Sublime Text Keymap and Settings importer extension.
Ok, that’s a ton of things you need to know before actually diving into the key bindings. I’m sorry you had to read through the preamble, but some of my bindings wouldn’t have made sense otherwise.
From now on, let’s jump into the exciting part!
Go to File
The Go to File shortcut is my bread-and-butter shortcut. It opens a list box that lets you type a file you want to go to.
The default shortcut is:
- Mac:
Command
+P
- Windows:
Alt
+P
I changed the shortcut to:
- Mac:
Command
+T
Command
+P
- Windows:
Control
+T
Control
+P
Command
+ T
overwrites Go to Symbol in Workspace. I don’t mind overwriting this shortcut since I don’t use it. I find Go to Symbol in Workspace hard to use because the search is too broad. I prefer using Go to Symbol in File instead.
How to change
First, open up the keyboard settings preferences. There are three ways:
Method 1: From the menu
- Mac:
Code
->Preferences
->Keyboard Shortcuts
- Windows:
File
->Preferences
->Keyboard Shortcuts
Where Is Tf.cmd In Visual Studio Code For Mac Os
Method 2: Use show all Commands
- Mac:
Command
+Shift
+P
, then type keyboard shortcuts. - Windows:
Ctrl
+Shift
+P
, then type keyboard shortcuts.
Method 3: Use a keyboard shortcut
- Mac:
Command + K
,Command + S
- Windows:
Ctrl + K
,Ctrl + S
Search for Go to file in the keyboard shortcuts panel. You should see one option from the list box on Mac. Change this to Command
+ T
. On Windows, you’ll see many options. Change the Ctrl
+ P
one to Ctrl
+ T
.
This creates a shortcut with Command
+ T
.
Next, I brought back Command
+ P
as a keyboard shortcut. To do this, open up keybindings.json
by clicking on the third icon from the top-right corner.
Look for workbench.action.quickOpen
. You should find two values:
Delete the -
from -workbench.action.quickOpen
from the cmd+p
entry.
Do the same thing for Windows. You’ll see ctrl+t
and ctrl+p
instead of cmd+t
and cmd+p
.
Why this change?
I use Command
+ T
to open new tabs in browsers. It makes sense for me to use Command
+ T
to open a new tab in Visual Studio Code as well.
I kept Command
+ P
because it’s a leftover shortcut I use once in a while (mostly by accident).
On Windows, my Ctrl
key is in the position of the Alt
key. Since Ctrl
is in the same position as Command
(on Mac), I’m effectively hitting the same thing on both Mac and Windows.
Selecting a tab
I open many tabs when I’m coding, so I need a shortcut to switch between tabs.
The default shortcut is:
- Mac:
Control
+ Number key - Windows:
Alt
+ Number key
I changed it to:
- Mac:
Command
+ Number key - Windows:
Ctrl
+ Number key
How to change:
Look for openEditorAtIndex in the keyboard settings panel. You should find 9 entries (both Mac and Windows). Change this to Command
(or Ctrl
) + Numbers 1 to 9.
Why this change?
I use Command
+ Number keys to switch between tabs when I browse. It makes sense to use the same keyboard shortcut to switch between tabs in Visual Studio Code.
- First Tab:
Command
+1
- Second Tab:
Command
+2
- Third Tab:
Command
+3
- And so on…
On Windows, my Ctrl
modifier sits on my Alt
key. This means Ctrl
is in the same position as the Command
key.
Creating code panels (and switching between them)
It’s super helpful to have two (sometimes three) panels to edit code. I use this for referencing code.
For example, I would open a HTML file on one panel. Then, I would open a CSS file on the second panel. Sometimes, I would use a third panel to open a JavaScript file. (But I stick with two panels most of the time).
Visual Studio Code offers a variety of ways to split the text editor. I found focus on editor group the best shortcut because it:
- Opens a new panel when there isn’t one.
- Lets me switch between panels
In this example below, I jump from the second panel to the third panel, then back to the first panel.
The default shortcut is:
- Mac:
Command
+ Number key - Window:
Ctrl
+ Number key
I changed it to:
- Mac:
Alt
+ Number key - Windows:
Alt
+ Number key
How to change:
Look for focus editor group in Visual Studio Code’s keyboard shortcuts panel. You’ll see options that say workbench.actions.focus[Number]EditorGroup
. (Where Number
is first, second, third, fourth, and so on).
Where Is Tf.cmd In Visual Studio Code For Macbook Pro
Change the shortcuts to Alt
+ the corresponding number.
- First:
Alt
+1
- Second:
Alt
+2
- Third:
Alt
+3
- And so on…
I use up to three editor groups, but I still changed all eight of them to maintain consistency.
Why this change?
Command
+ Number to switch tabs and Alt
+ Number to switch panels? That’s the best combination I came up with. Alt
is right next to Command
. It’s easy to access. You can see how fast I switched between the panels in the video earlier!
(Ok, I slowed down when I made the video… but you get the point).
On Windows, my Alt
is right next to Ctrl
. It makes sense. I’m pressing the same buttons on Mac and Windows.
Move editor into group
What happens I opened a tab from the wrong panel? This is where Move editor into group comes in handy. It lets me move a tab from one panel to another.
Move editor into group also lets me open up a panel if there are none.
You can even create a Vertical + Horizontal split combination with Move editor into group!
You can move panels (which Visual Studio Code calls editor groups) in 8 ways:
- First group
- Last group
- Previous group
- Next group
- Up
- Down
- Left
- Right
The first four are generally useless. I prioritised the last four.
The default shortcut is:
No default keyboard shortcuts are assigned to the last four actions 😢.
I changed it to:
- Mac:
- Move up:
Command
+Alt
+Up
- Move down:
Command
+Alt
+Down
- Move left:
Command
+Alt
+Left
- Move right:
Command
+Alt
+Right
- Move up:
- Windows:
- Move up:
Control
+Alt
+Up
- Move down:
Control
+Alt
+Down
- Move left:
Control
+Alt
+Left
- Move right:
Control
+Alt
+Right
- Move up:
How to change:
Search for “Move editor into” in Visual Studio Code’s keyboard shortcuts panel. You should see 8 entries.
Change key bindings to the ones I mentioned above.
Then, remove the key bindings for previous and next group by right-clicking and selecting “remove key binding”. This ensures there are no conflicts between key bindings.
Command + Alt + Up
overrides Add cursor above while Command + Alt + Down
overrides Add cursor below. Feel free to remove their key bindings. I find this ok because I use another shortcut to add cursors.
Why this change?
Command
+ Number keys to switch tabs. Alt
+ Number keys to move focus between tabs. And if you make a mistake, use Command
+ Alt
+ Direction keys to move the tab.
I find that this makes a lot of sense!
Closing an empty panel
Let’s say you create an empty panel by accident. You want to close this panel.
Visual Studio Code lets you close this empty panel with the following shortcuts:
- Mac:
Command
+W
- Windows:
Ctrl
+W
I didn’t change this shortcut. I just wanted to tell you about this because I find it useful.
Toggle Vertical/Horizontal split
I prefer to split the screen vertically. But when I need code gets long, it makes sense to split things up horizontally. This is especially useful for those pesky JavaScript methods with super long names.
Visual Studio Code lets you close this empty panel with the following shortcuts:
- Mac:
Command
+Option
+0
- Windows:
Ctrl
+Alt
+0
I didn’t change this shortcut. I just wanted to tell you about this because I find it useful.
That’s it for today. I’ll share more keyboard shortcuts with you next week.
If you enjoyed this article, please tell a friend about it! Share it on Twitter. If you spot a typo, I’d appreciate if you can correct it on GitHub. Thank you!