Contributing to Visual Studio Code (v1.102)

Visual Studio Code is one of those rare tools that quietly shapes the everyday work of millions of people. When I started contributing, I wasn’t thinking about “big changes.” I was thinking about a simpler goal: understand how a world-class open-source project is built, and find a responsible way to participate.

Over time, I learned that open source impact is not only about large features. It’s also about improving clarity, reducing friction, and making the product more reliable for everyone.

Why VS Code contributions matter

When a project sits in the daily workflow of so many developers, small improvements can have disproportionate value:

• A bug fix can save hours across the community.
• A documentation improvement can help thousands of newcomers.
• Better developer experience in the codebase makes future contributions easier.

My contribution mindset

I approach contributions with three principles:

• Be evidence-driven: start from an issue, a reproducer, or a clear user pain.
• Be careful and respectful: a large project has context. Review history, prior decisions, and style.
• Make the work easy to review: small, focused changes with clear explanations.

Even when the change is small, the process builds skills: debugging, communication, and the discipline to write changes that other people can understand.

Release context (v1.102)

If you’re interested in what shipped around that time, here are the official release notes:

• https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_102

I like reading release notes not just to follow features, but to learn how improvements are explained, scoped, and communicated, because communication is part of engineering.

The real impact

Contributing to VS Code influenced how I think about software quality:

• Testing and reproducibility are not optional.
• User experience is a technical concern.
• Collaboration is a skill you build through practice.

If you want to see my open-source activity, you can always find it through my GitHub profile:

• https://github.com/mohiuddin-khan-shiam