Particle Launches New Professional Desktop Developer Offering, Powered by Microsoft Visual Studio Code

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Particle, one of the most widely used Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, today announced it is collaborating with Microsoft to provide robust professional development tools for IoT developers. Particle Workbench includes Visual Studio Code and is available free of charge, making it accessible to developers at any stage. This expands Particle's suite of IoT developer offerings, delivering one of the most comprehensive end-to-end platforms in the industry to help bring IoT products to market.

Particle Workbench and Visual Studio Code provide a free, all-in-one and ready-to-use out-of-the-box experience to develop, program and debug professional-grade apps on Particle's IoT platform, as well as on Microsoft Azure. As a robust and flexible complement to Particle Web IDE, Particle Workbench and Visual Studio Code provide everything a developer needs to create and deploy IoT devices locally and offline. By including Visual Studio Code, developers will have access to over 8,000 extensions from Microsoft's Visual Studio Marketplace in addition to custom extensions that drive Particle Workbench.

"Our vision is to provide a fully integrated, seamless platform for developers to build the best IoT products possible, without the need to piece together individual costly features. We made the choice to work with Microsoft on the release of Particle Workbench in response to the urging of our customers who wanted access to a robust desktop development tool. Microsoft's leadership in building developer experiences and commitment to open source made them a natural choice," said Zach Supalla, chief executive officer and co-founder, Particle. "Together, we're taking IoT development to the next level to make it even easier to solve real-world problems."

Visual Studio Code ranked No. 1 by developer community
Visual Studio Code is a free, lightweight, feature-rich code editor that has steadily increased in popularity with developers since its release in 2015. It was ranked as the most popular developer environment in the Stack Overflow 2018 Developer Survey.

Particle Workbench and Visual Studio Code are available through a single, downloadable installer that provides IoT developers with:

• Visual Studio Code's cross-platform desktop developer environment for Windows, macOS and Linux operating systems
• A managed toolchain that supports local and offline compilation and programming, in addition to cloud compilation and over-the-air (OTA) programming
• Smart autocompletion of Device OS APIs while coding by leveraging Visual Studio Code's powerful IntelliSense engine and C/C++ support
• Advanced hardware debugging for actions such as setting breakpoints and step-through debugging, preconfigured for Particle hardware
• Access to more than 3,000 official and community Particle libraries, enabling more reusability and less typing
• Visual Studio Code customizations such as quick snippets, keyboard shortcuts and dark and light themes, developed specifically for Particle Workbench

"Microsoft is committed to fostering innovation, and we're happy to work with Particle to bring Visual Studio Code to more developers so they can bring their IoT products to life," said Amanda Silver, Director of Program Management, Developer Tools, Microsoft.

Particle Workbench is available now at <www.particle.io/workbench>. The company announced several additional technology products today at its Spectra user conference in San Francisco. To learn more, please visit spectra.particle.io.

About Particle
Particle helps connect anything to the internet. The company provides a scalable, reliable and secure Internet of Things platform that enables any enterprise or developer to easily build, connect and manage any device and unlock the power of the IoT. More than 8,500 customers, 160,000 developers and half the Fortune 500 have deployed the company's hardware and software offerings to add value and reduce costs, with customers ranging from global energy provider Engie and design studio Ideo to indoor crops provider Grow Labs and coffee pioneer Keurig. To learn more, visit Particle.io.

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SOURCE Particle