What is the difference between VS Code and the "Code" package on the Arch Linux packages website?

From my research, I've come across some conflicting information:

I first saw the mention of "code" on the Arch Linux packages website. It appears that "code" is a package available in the Arch Linux community repository. The package size is approximately 14.3 MB. I installed it and it looks exactly like VS Code.

I've conducted some online research to understand the differences between VS Code and Code. I referred to several sources, including StackShare 1, 2, and 3, and a page on the Arch Linux wiki. However, the information I found was either incomplete or ambiguous, leaving me uncertain about the exact differences between the two tools. Therefore, I'm seeking further guidance and a comprehensive explanation.

Please note that while the provided search results mention VSCode, VSCodium, Xcode, and GitHub, none of them specifically address a tool called "Code." Therefore, the lack of information on "Code" makes it difficult to provide a precise comparison. It's possible that "Code" refers to a different tool or may not have been mentioned in the search results provided. Further clarification or additional context would be helpful in order to address the difference between VS Code and Code more accurately.

The page https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/code/ says

> Description: The Open Source build of Visual Studio Code (vscode) editor
> Upstream URL: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode

which reads pretty clearly to me that it's a build of VS Code. You can find the instructions for building and running VS Code at https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/How-to-Contribute.

See also this comment from @chrisdias (a member of the VS Code team), which they wrote:

> The cool thing about all of this is that you have the choice to use the Visual Studio Code branded product under our license or you can build a version of the tool straight from the vscode repository, under the MIT license.
>
> Here's how it works. When you build from the vscode repository, you can configure the resulting tool by customizing the product.json file. This file controls things like the Gallery endpoints, “Send-a-Smile” endpoints, telemetry endpoints, logos, names, and more.
>
> When we build Visual Studio Code, we do exactly this. We clone the vscode repository, we lay down a customized product.json that has Microsoft specific functionality (telemetry, gallery, logo, etc.), and then produce a build that we release under our license.
>
> When you clone and build from the vscode repo, none of these endpoints are configured in the default product.json. Therefore, you generate a "clean" build, without the Microsoft customizations, which is by default licensed under the MIT license (note, i made this commit to help make this more clear).

That's probably something along the lines of you're looking at in this Arch package: a build of VS Code, and is what VSCodium is.

The difference is what product.json they use for the build. If you click the "Source Files" link in the right sidebar of the page you linked, you'll see a file called product_json.diff, which just looks to me like a patch on top of the default product.json.

Also, I'm not surprised that you're seeing a package manager use "code" as an alias for VS Code. on the Snap store, VS Code is registered as "code". https://snapcraft.io/code.