  Involving integrated development environments (IDEs) in introductory-level
(CS1) programming courses is critical. However, it is difficult for instructors
to find a suitable IDE that is beginner friendly and supports strong
functionality. In this paper, we report the experience of using Visual Studio
Code (VS Code) in a CS1 programming course. We describe our motivation for
choosing VS Code and how we introduce it to students. We create comprehensive
guidance with hierarchical indexing to help students with diverse programming
backgrounds. We perform an experimental evaluation of students' programming
experience of using VS Code and validate the VS Code together with guidance as
a promising solution for CS1 programming courses.
