Practice IDE extension vocabulary: Language Server Protocol, VS Code extension API, activation events, extension host, contributes commands, and extension marketplace language.
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What is the Language Server Protocol (LSP)?
LSP decouples language intelligence from the editor. A language server (e.g., for Python or TypeScript) communicates with any LSP-compatible editor via JSON-RPC, providing features like diagnostics, hover info, and refactoring without custom editor-specific code.
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In VS Code's package.json, the 'contributes.commands' field defines:
'contributes.commands' in package.json declares the commands an extension adds to VS Code. Each entry defines an id and title — the title appears in the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) for users to invoke.
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What is an 'activation event' in a VS Code extension?
Activation events control when VS Code loads an extension. Using specific triggers (e.g., 'onLanguage:python' or 'onCommand:myExt.doThing') keeps VS Code fast by only loading extensions when they're actually needed.
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What is the 'extension host' in VS Code's architecture?
VS Code runs extensions in a dedicated 'extension host' process, separate from the UI renderer. This isolation means a buggy or slow extension cannot crash the editor itself — it only crashes the extension host, which VS Code can restart.
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A team says 'we built a VS Code extension and published it to the ___.' What word fits?
VS Code extensions are published to the Visual Studio Marketplace (marketplace.visualstudio.com). The 'vsce' CLI tool packages and publishes extensions to the marketplace, where users can install them directly from VS Code's Extensions panel.