Simplify debug

Hi VS Code PM here 👋

I just followed this tutorial to setup a simple C# app and to debug it. Here’s my feedback on what I think we could improve:

1. C# should consider contributing to the Editor title area menu, such that a Play button would appear in the Editor Title area. Example how to do this
2. You ask the user via a notification that “things are missing to run and debug…” and your intention is to automatically create a launch.json. This helps the flow, but is out of the context, since user did not even trigger debugging. Instead of this I suggest that your extension simply provides a dynamic resolveDebugConfiguartion that will provide a launch configuration on the fly. Example. That way you can generate the config when it is needed, and in memory. Alternatively: if you really want to write into launch.json you should do it when the user starts debugging I think.
3. If the user does not see the notification it is impossible to debug since you are not resolving debug configurations on the fly
4. If I have a purple no folder VS Code it is impossible to debug a simple C# file
5. Consider contributing to an Empty debug view to make C# debug setup easier (C++ does this for example)

I would love if we could improve this experience, since we see in user studies that users want a confirmation that VS Code can do C#, and providing an easy way to run and debug simple C# files would be great for this.

Let me know if I can help somehow. I am also open to a quick 30 min meeting where we can discuss about the new cool VS Code debug features that C# could potentially adopt and you could let us know what are your biggest ask for the VS Code debugger.

fyi @gregg-miskelly @weinand

[WardenGnaw]

I am not aware of any way to make that make that a smooth experience today. Today, I would highly recommend instead starting with an empty folder and using dotnet new.

The omnisharp-vscode extension can contribute a walkthrough similar to vscode-cpptools.

This is what you see with VS Code with no folder open.

This way we can get users who have the C# extension installed to open VS Code in a folder and execute dotnet new with a selection dialog of the choices.

Common templates are:
Template Name         Short Name    Language    Tags
--------------------  ------------  ----------  -------------------
ASP.NET Core Web App  webapp,razor  [C#]        Web/MVC/Razor Pages
Blazor Server App     blazorserver  [C#]        Web/Blazor
Class Library         classlib      [C#],F#,VB  Common/Library
Console App           console       [C#],F#,VB  Common/Console
Windows Forms App     winforms      [C#],VB     Common/WinForms
WPF Application       wpf           [C#],VB     Common/WPF

Here is a view of the (C++) walkthrough:

[weinand]

@WardenGnaw you said:

So it is not that feasible to just open a file with an extension .cs and debug it. It heavily depends on the user going through the dotnet new <project-type> that will create the project directory for them and open that folder in VS Code.

But when a user has a .cs file open in an editor and presses the editor’s Run/Debug button, it would be possible to detect the missing .net project setup and present a QuickPick with some dotnet new <project-type> suggestions. And after a selection is made by the user, VS Code could reopen the newly create folder and run the file, right?