Microsoft announces July 2023 release of Visual Studio Code with accessibility enhancements, new features, and Unity extension preview

Microsoft has announced the July 2023 release of Visual Studio Code 1.81 with numerous updates. Key enhancements feature accessibility improvements such as Accessible View support for notifications, chat responses, and hovers. The new version also introduces VS Code Profiles for finer control and new diff editor features like the ability to collapse unchanged regions and better text alignment.

The release supports repository paths with symbolic links for Git repositories with symlinks and offers notebook updates like the ability to search text in closed notebooks and 'sticky scroll' displays for Markdown headers. Python test discovery has been improved with error-tolerant pytest discovery and users can now connect to remote Jupyter servers in Github Codespaces. The GitHub pull request creation process has been enhanced with better base branch detection and memory for previous create PR options.

Microsoft has also launched a preview of the Unity extension for Visual Studio Code. This extension enables users to write and debug Unity games within Visual Studio Code, integrating features from Visual Studio and Visual Studio Tools for Unity. The Unity Extension is free for individuals, academia, and open-source development, and is included with certain subscriptions for organizations. It aims to improve Unity development with C# in Visual Studio Code by offering streamlined debugging and coding features. Check out the full changelog here.