Enable single-file (no workspace) debugging experience

[daviwil]

One important part of the PowerShell ISE workflow that needs to be replicated in VS Code is opening the editor, typing in some PowerShell script, setting a breakpoint, then running the code. Currently VS Code requires you to open a folder to define a workspace where a launch.json file can be found. This limitation will have to be removed before we will be able to provide this experience.

The VS Code limitation is being tracked here: microsoft/vscode#285

[rkeithhill]

Minor clarification on ISE behavior. ISE will not allow you to set a breakpoint until you save the script to file.

[daviwil]

True! Good point.

[dragonwolf83]

Please allow it to set a breakpoint without saving a file! That is probably my top annoyance in using ISE.

My main use case is that I'm often creating concept scripts to try out ideas that I don't want to save yet. I use the Editor instead of the Terminal to script because I can read it, structure it, and can go back to run individual lines. The debugger would help a lot to figure out why a concept or script is not working so that I can fix it

[daviwil]

@dragonwolf83 unfortunately this just isn't possible right now because the PowerShell debugger does not allow it. We are using the Set-PSBreakpoint command to set breakpoints in the runspace. As you can see from the documentation, there's no way to set a line breakpoint without a script path. This may change in the future, though.

[daviwil]

Closing this issue because it is now supported in v0.9.0 and the upcoming VS Code 1.9.0!