I have not used an IDE since I ditched Turbo Pascal in middle school, but now I am at a place where everyone and their mother uses VS Code and so I’m giving it a shot.
The thing is, I’m finding the “just works” mantra is not true at all. Nothing is working out of the box. And then for each separate extension I have to figure out how to fix it. Or I just give up and circumvent it by using the terminal.
What’s even the point then?
IDK maybe its a matter of getting used to something new, but I was doing fine with just vim and tmux.
Funny to read VSCode described as an IDE.
Where I work, I’m the weird one for preferring VSCode over Visual Sudio or Rider.
I prefer using a terminal to run build tasks and execute tests and do version control, and have mostly Language Server stuff integrated into the editor.
Funny to read VSCode described as an IDE.
Why would VSCode not be called an IDE?
Nobody loves arguing semantics more than a programmer. VSCode is absolutely an IDE. Jetbrains is entirely plugin based, Eclipse is totally plugin based, and yeah so is VSCode.
🙏 Happy to see this opinion somewhere else. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when I see folks adamant that Code-like editors aren’t IDEs while saying other plugin based editors are.
No, it’s a code editor. It can become an IDE with the right set of plugins.
It’s a modular IDE.
Visual Studio Code is a streamlined code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running, and version control. It aims to provide just the tools a developer needs for a quick code-build-debug cycle and leaves more complex workflows to fuller featured IDEs, such as Visual Studio IDE.
~ code.visualstudio.comThey’re just saying that so that they have a justification for making two IDEs.
What is your definition of an IDE?
I don’t think there’s an exact definition but broadly I would say if it has the majority of these features it’s definitely an IDE:
- Integrated debugger
- Intellisense
- Build/debug shortcuts that start the build in the IDE
- Parsing of error/warnings from the build output into a structured list that you can click on
If you make something with all those then it’s definitely an IDE. Without some of them it’s more debatable. For example the old Arduino editor… I would still say is a very basic IDE even though it doesn’t have a proper debugger - it has other heavily integrated development tools, e.g. the UART viewer.
Sublime Text with plugins. It’s 100% because it’s what I’m used to.
I switched to Zed recently. Very basic and definitely is not as feature rich as VSCodium but I’m sure it’ll get better.
Zed looks very promising. There are only 2 things that prevent me from using it.
- The git lens vs code extension
- Rust-analyzer configuration
I’ll keep an eye on zed, but I think most people will stay on VSCode until zed gets feature-rich enough that they won’t miss VSCode.
I’ve not had any of these issues with VSCode and i do use it just for the seamless Remote Development over SSH abilities.
The learning curve for it is a lot less than Vim even if Vim is likely a much more powerful tool imo
I use it because I’m switching between different projects and frameworks a lot. I found that me aligning with expected use patterns was easier than constantly adapting things for my magic setup.
I’m also not a config hound.
Just to add my two pennies (that’s a saying, right?), I do use VS code as my default text editor. Professionally and for other projects in C++/C# I use the full fat visual studio. But for scripting, config editing, hex files, todo lists and such I use Code.
I’ve never been much of a person who needs to shave off every possible second in my workflow with macros and plugins, my brain is just not fast enough to out pace my hands, and the command palette does pretty much all I could wish for.
I of course wish it was fully open source, but for being the only Microsoft product I daily it isn’t too bad.
Just to add my two pennies
It’s to add my two penis, if you are a snake and a male.
I of course wish it was fully open source
Allow me to introduce you to Codium
Last time I checked codium out it couldn’t support the vs code marketplace/plugin repo. Is this still the case? I should take another look at it either way though :)
Edit: I answered my own question by reading some more comments. So looks like there are alternative plugin registries. I’ll definitely have a go at switching now.
Well it may absolutely suck, but they’ll tell you
- it’s everywhere
- once you learn a few tricks it’s great
- you’ll get used to a non-intuitive macro and command setup
- adapt your entire workflow around it and you’re fine
- it’s … fast?
- it has such power
The last two are lies. And I was talking about vi here, in the hopes you’ll get it. And like when I first used vi, the best thing was learning there were alternatives.
Do not use Microsofts Telemetry Studio Code but Code-OSS or VSCodium.
See: https://github.com/VSCodium/vscodium/issues/267
Regarding your question Code is not powerful enough of what we do at work. There we use IntelliJ IDEA. Our frontend guys use Code as it’s enough for them and they usually are not that quality oriented, be it their tools or their product. Sadly mediocre is enough.
Honestly I don’t care about telemetry. I’m not trying to start an argument about it, I’m just explaining to readers that there are still reasons to use VSCodium over Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code (the build available) masquerades as open source while having a non-FOSS license. https://code.visualstudio.com/license Also, Microsoft does not allow other programs (like VSCodium or Code - OSS) to access the Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace. Being plugin based, that essentially means all useful functionality in Code-like editors is gated behind a proprietary website you aren’t allowed to access except with a proprietary editor (Visual Studio Code). https://open-vsx.org/about
could you give a couple examples of how vscode degrades quality?
Check out Pulsar
It’s basically the continuation of Atom. It’s got rough edges though regarding plugins but it’s good enough to allow me to avoid VSCode.
Vs codium, which is based on vscode but spyware is stripped out
VSCodium > VSCode
Since no one told me this, I will trek people:
If you go for codium, be warned that one of the big points of vs code, extensions, gets a lot more of a hassle.
One of the things you lose is access to Microsofts extension store, and they’ve added their own instead, and that one is missing a lot.
If you want extensions from the Microsoft store, you need to download them manually from the website, and keep them updated manually.
This includes the Python extension, so no Python for you (or at least no Pylance ;_;)
What issues specifically?
It takes maybe 10 minutes to find good extensions and get them set up
VS Code is a great text editor for me. I write Markdown documents, manipulate bulk strings, and diff files with it. Aside from small scratch projects, its consistency and reliability as an IDE is varied for me. It’s far from “just works”, at least for the types of things I do (C, C++, C#, Rust) and isn’t really on my list of editors I’d recommend for those workloads.
You can make it work, but it’s going to require extensive time spent figuring out what extensions to use (and their quirks), ensure that you have a working setup to the language server, and learn how each environment wants you to setup its tasks and launch configurations, if applicable. Unlike larger IDEs like VS or Rider, it doesn’t have a consistent “new project” process either, so you’re on your own for that.
I wonder what troubles you had with rust in vscode. In my experience. I just install the rust-analyzer extension and it works every time.
Plus some (optional) extension to display the available dependency versions in the Cargo.toml.
Maybe debugging can be a bit tricky, but other than that it’s just installing 1 (or 2) extensions.
It’s exactly that: the trickiness around debugging is the main thing that feels like it’s got some barriers compared to a turnkey solution in an IDE. I heard VS Code and Godot was available until I realized that the LSP and debugger for Godot 4.x was unusable for months until the recent refactor.
Don’t get me wrong though, I am totally using VS Code for my Rust projects. It just isn’t a turnkey solution that I’d recommend to someone if they just want to hit “New project” and do the whole write-compile-debug loop without needing to understand anything. (I had also used it a while back prior to rust-analyzer being the main go-to extension, I think…)
Hell no, Emacs and nvim UX is far superior. I won’t ever go back to clicking.
VSCode isn’t an IDE, although you can kinda make it work like an IDE with extensions.
I use Visual Studio Professional as my IDE at work, but we do a lot of C#.
With these modern extensible text editors the line between IDE and editor is too blurry to really tell. Many things people would agree are IDEs (like Eclipse) are entirely based around a plugin architecture too. I don’t think it’s worth it to split hairs over whether Visual Studio Code and similar programs are or aren’t IDEs. With enough plugins, they’re IDEs. With too few, they aren’t. Where that line is is entirely subjective.
Like (Neo)vim, it’s a PDE: Personalized Development Environment
Props to TJ DeVries for coming up with that term.
lazyvim is enough for me.
