I have seen that VSCode has a lot of cool features, but forcing people to change work habits is usually not welcome. Maybe Autodesk should put in the Marketplace an Extension that can be used with previous releases. This way many people that do not have access to 2021 could start testing it right now.I have tested the other ones available, the one by garciadelcastillo looks good, but does no seem to have a Debug Adapter.
Also, one of the most interesting features in VSCode is Source Control Management (SCM) that is lacking in VLIDE, but there is nothing about it in the AutoCAD documentation.
About the MAKELISPAPP command, I believe it should have the option of creating a FAS instead of a VLX if only LSP files are selected. It should also include those features from the VLISP Project that are missing like:
-Choosing Internal link mode, so the compiler tries to resolve all explicit function calls by referencing the function's definition in memory.
-Selecting Localize variables, so the compiler would also remove all local symbol names directly linking their references.
-We could also select Safe optimize to reject problematic optimizations.
-Full reports Message Mode so we have all the information including errors, warnings and compiler statistics.
In other words, AutoCAD could merge the Project window that is now missing if VLIDE > 0 with the MAKELISPAPP Wizard window in order to preserve all these options.
I have been considering how to update the books I've written on Visual LISP to the new situation with the projected phasing out of VLIDE. But it seems to me that all this, the AutoLISP extension for VS Code, the LISPSYS environments, and the MAKELISPAPP workaround are a bit inmature.
As a temporary solution I decided to publish an addendum to both my English and Spanish books, rewriting those chapters that deal with the VLISP IDE to the new VS Code option. In the Spanish version I have experimented with changing the default user interface language by installing the Spanish Language Pack.
For those who may be interested, the books are now available in Amazon:
English:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087646CY6 Spanish:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087SGS4TG