Product Overview: Visual Studio IntelliCode
Visual Studio IntelliCode is an AI-powered tool integrated into both Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code, designed to enhance software development by providing context-aware code completions and other intelligent features.
What it Does
IntelliCode leverages artificial intelligence to predict and suggest the most relevant code completions, methods, and properties based on the developer’s current code context. This AI-assisted development helps developers write code more efficiently and accurately, reducing the time spent searching through lists of possible completions.
Key Features and Functionality
Context-Aware Code Autocompletions
IntelliCode provides AI-assisted IntelliSense that suggests the most likely correct API or method for the developer to use, rather than a simple alphabetical list. These suggestions are derived from patterns observed in thousands of highly rated, open-source projects on GitHub, ensuring that the recommendations are contextually relevant and based on best practices.
Whole-Line Autocompletions
For languages such as C#, Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript, IntelliCode offers whole-line autocompletions. This feature predicts the next chunk of code based on the current code context and presents it as gray text inline predictions. This functionality is particularly useful in Visual Studio 2022 and later versions, as well as in Visual Studio Code.
API Usage Examples
IntelliCode provides access to real-world examples of how other developers have used specific APIs. With just one click, developers can view examples from over 100,000 different APIs, all sourced from public open-source repositories on GitHub. This feature supports languages like Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
Starred IntelliSense Members
The tool highlights recommended completion items at the top of the IntelliSense list, marked with a star icon. This ensures that the most relevant members are presented first, saving developers time and effort in navigating through extensive lists.
Offline and Air-Gapped Support
The model that powers IntelliCode runs locally on the developer’s machine, making the feature available even in offline or air-gapped environments.
Multi-Language Support
IntelliCode supports a variety of programming languages, including C#, Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Java, and SQL. This broad support makes it a versatile tool for developers working in different ecosystems.
Integration and Availability
IntelliCode is included by default in most Visual Studio workloads and can be installed via the Visual Studio installer. For Visual Studio Code, it is available as an extension that can be installed from the Extensions marketplace. The extension requires Visual Studio Code version 1.29.1 or later.
In summary, Visual Studio IntelliCode is a powerful AI-driven tool that enhances the coding experience by providing intelligent code completions, whole-line predictions, and access to real-world API examples. Its integration into both Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code makes it a valuable asset for developers across various programming languages and environments.