Visual Studio Code has always been the recommended code editing tool for the SharePoint Framework projects. Up until recently, it was also the only one for which Microsoft provided guidance and documentation.
Developers, especially those coming from a SharePoint full-trust solution background, are still using Visual Studio, not VS Code. Several developers have asked us why they cannot use Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2017 and are forced to use VS Code. The thinking here is that Visual Studio could have had a new project template for the SharePoint Framework, instead of having to learn a new tool. One reason might be the speed of development for SPFx, as new features and functionality are being rapidly introduced and the Visual Studio release cycle has often been much slower.
This also proves non-productive if most code is written in Visual Studio and only SharePoint Framework-related elements have to be written in VS Code. Having...
