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Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

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Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#1

Post by lopatin »

I just wanted to hear peoples experiences with AI IDEs.

For context, I'm a heavy user of Gemini / ChatGPT for coding and Copilot. But I haven't used Cursor / Windsurf / etc..

Copy pasting into chat apps is a first world problem: it will do the work for you, but you have to give it all the context in the prompt, which for a larger project, gets tedious.

The issue with Copilot is that it's not as smart as the "thinking" chat apps.

This makes it clear why there's such a need for AI IDEs. I don't want to construct my context to a chat app. The context is already in my codebase, so the AI should pick up on it. But I also hear that it gets expensive because of the pay-per-use pricing, as opposed to effectively unlimited prompts for a thinking chat app if you pay the monthly subscription.

So I just wanted to get the lay of the land. How good are these IDEs on constructing your context to the LLMs? How much more expensive is it, and is it worth it for you?

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#2

Post by TowerTall »

If it is a single function or a class I most of the time prefere copy/paste from the chat. If multiple files needs to be updated then there is a lot of convinience with using a AI IDE.

For writting code the old fashion way. You type the code the intellisense/auto-complete build in to the like of cursor AI is the most annoying thing i have ever seen in a IDE. You constantly sitting hitting the escape key try to get their auto-complete suggestion to go away. Most of the time is it guessing where wrong and is mostly useless.

The biggest issue is when you try to use a class that has properties. When you press the dot after the class name normally the IDE will list the public properties on the class.

Now you have to battle that the list now longer contains just the properties found on the class but also non-existing properties invented by the AI IDE. As clever as this AI autocomplete can be, i really hate it because I can no longer rely on that my IDE is telling the truth about what properties and functions there is exist on a class.

and if you are the type of programmer that like to put empty lines in your code for readability. Then moment you hit enter you now get an often completly irrelevnat code suggestion and need to battle that suggestion to go away. I just want an blank line for crying out loud.

PS: my AI IDE is cursor

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#3

Post by oxfordreno »

TowerTall wrote: post #2

If it is a single function or a class I most of the time prefere copy/paste from the chat. If multiple files needs to be updated then there is a lot of convinience with using a AI IDE. For writting code the old fashion way. You type the code the intellisense/auto-complete build in to the like of cursor AI is the most annoying thing i have ever seen in a IDE. You constantly sitting hitting the escape key try to get th…

I definitely agree with the points about empty lines of code and properties on classes. Same problem with Copilot and VSCode.

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#4

Post by system2 »

I’ve built multiple apps just for myself using the API and honestly it sucked. The chat remembers context and talks to you like a real conversation. The API is crazy expensive and painfully slow. It’s best for one-shot queries where you ask one thing and expect nearly identical results every time. Anything beyond that and it struggles.

With ChatGPT Canvas I’ve completed small projects like WordPress plugins, handy personal Python scripts, chrome extensions (my favorite use of ChatGPT) and most importantly debugged faster than any tool I’ve ever used. Sure, my customer-facing GPT API apps are burning credits like a rocket on full throttle but at least I’m billing them for it. The API speed is wildly inconsistent so you can’t rely on it for everything.

One key tip is you can’t keep a single chat going forever. It gets sluggish, especially when you paste long code blocks. My method is simple. I ask for the final clean code, then request a complete detailed summary of what we built and what the functions do. Then I start a fresh chat, paste the summary and code, and continue clean. Think of it like making a commit, just a very crude version.

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#5

Post by Flux159 »

I've gone through a few AI IDEs / agents and CLI tools now, currently on Cline with Gemini 2.5 Pro which is doing a pretty good job at my web app code with a decent .clinerules file in the repo.

To answer why I don't use chat at all for coding anymore, some benefits of IDE / CLI agents: Copy pasting into chat apps don't allow for agentic runs (ie run bash commands, edit code, validate with linting / testing before marking task as 'complete'). I can mostly just write my descriptive task (usually with code references if they aren't already there in clinerules / claude.md, etc.) and come back after a short walk or drinking some tea and check the code or just check at runtime to ask it to fix up the code. This is honestly very similar to "waiting for code to compile."

For reference, I've used the following to make production code changes:

- Cursor: which when Claude 3.5 was out seemed to be the best AI IDE, but the changes they've made around agent mode and 3.7 haven't really worked super well for me. Migrated to claude code after 3.7 came out.

- Claude Code: Very good, I generally just ran it in dangerous mode and it could accomplish tasks fairly well. Wrote a decent Claude.md file as well. Only con is that it got expensive quickly. On the order of $3-5 per session which would accomplish a single task.

- Cline with Gemini 2.5 Pro: Moved to it yesterday, it's been doing a good job and is effectively free right now using my own API key for Gemini. Seems a bit verbose at times although that might just be Cline's prompts.

I haven't tried Aider or Windsurf, but have heard good things about Windsurf's agentic mode. Although I might not move to Windsurf at all since Cline with Gemini works pretty well & is free to use.

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#6

Post by LanceJones »

I've been using Windsurf for a few weeks. I'm a novice programmer trying to build a web app using React and NextJS.

The "context-in-the-codebase" thing for AI-based IDEsis overrated IMO. To extract the most from it, you have to remember to @mention the files.

If you don't remember to @mention specific files, the agent simply tries to perform searches (i.e., it has access to that tool) on the files and folders until it gets some results... and will usually keep broadening the search until it does.

It works well enough I suppose. But I still find myself beginning new chats (for example, per feature) because the model still loses its place, and with all the code/lint fixes it does, it starts to lose context.

Then you're right back having to @mention more files to ensure the model knows how to structure your front end, back end, etc.

(Please excuse any misnamed development terms.) :-)

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#8

Post by ValtteriL »

I use copilot through VSCode. The copilot plugin lets me either ask questions or ask for edits to my code. I can choose which files to include as an additional context to the prompt. I can additionally choose which model to use. Some models are unlimited, others have some monthly quota. GPT-4o is unlimited and quite good with short tasks.

It has also shortcuts for instance fixing errors in the code by just selecting "fix with copilot". Its a bit hit or miss but for simple things work well.

It is very good and seamless. Cannot think of ever copy pasting multiple files of code to some web chats and back.

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#9

Post by beefnugs »

Well the smarty pants people think its $3B and $9B dollars worth of "choosing what to shove in the context for you"

I guess they try to do things to give better results: give the context a list of file names, give the context the full class graph of the Classes in the current working file (not sure about any specifics really) Reality is they don't do a whole bunch... but without doing what they do, it would be infuriating to figure that all out yourself , over and over and over for each thing you want to work on.

But dont worry, we just have to wrap layers of LLMs around layers of LLMs around loops of retrying and testing around loops of detecting when the censorship starts evolving and breaking until we finally just all decide to become farmers

Re: Ask HN: How much better are AI IDEs vs. copy pasting into chat apps?

#10

Post by olalonde »

I use Claude Code (cli tool) and it's on another level. Not even comparable to code autocomplete à la Copilot or copy/pasting into a LLM chat app. It knows about your whole code base, can use external tools, read documentation, run tests, etc. Even as an experienced developer, it's been a huge productivity boost. The main downside is that it can quickly get expensive.
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