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Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

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Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the VIm mode issues he mentioned improved? I keep moving back to VIm because while all of these tools make excellent IDEs none of them are great editors. The other thing that drive me a bit nuts is the multiple versions. Webstorm vs Rubymine. I build on Rails, but do most of my UI work with Angular+JS+Webpack. So which should I use Rubymine or Webstorm? It's all too confusing.

I really don't know what issues the author is referring to. I have used IdeaVim for PyCharm and was very satisfied with it. It has its own vimrc file which allows you to not only copy paste your existing bindings, but also keeps them separate form your default bindings in a clean way. If you compare this level of support for Vim with MonoDevelop, you'd realize just how good it actually is.

I have the same issues w/ the vim plugin as the author(especially re: the weird "middle" state)

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#83
"Symbol and definition lookup is another great feature of WebStorm. "

Webstorm does a great job here. But unfortunately like any "intelligent" tool, when there is a bug in the system you end up with a very frustrating tool. Right now there is a bug that causes properties defined on objects to be available in the global scope. I filed this bug some time ago, wish it would get some attention:

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/WEB-19183

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#84
post #17

The new Webstorm version coming up is several times faster, its amazing. On a Mac its so fast its literally like using Sublime. This is due among other things due to their upgrade to Java 8. This is the link to the early access program https://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/WI/WebStorm+EAP

Are the VIm mode issues he mentioned improved? I keep moving back to VIm because while all of these tools make excellent IDEs none of them are great editors. The other thing that drive me a bit nuts is the multiple versions. Webstorm vs Rubymine. I build on Rails, but do most of my UI work with Angular+JS+Webpack. So which should I use Rubymine or Webstorm? It's all too confusing.

As far as VIM goes I'm on the same boat. If Webstorms VIM plugin had the ability to move from panes and specially into the file tree explorer (use the hjkl), that would probably make me want to use it.

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#85

I tried Emacs many times, but I still can't understand its appeal. Yes, everything can be changed, but there are layers and layers and layers of legacy code, cryptic keystrokes and shortcuts from 30 years ago, conflicting packages, elisp (I don't have anything against Lisp in general, but this particular dialect is quite quirky), etc etc.

try spacemacs! http://spacemacs.org/

This is what I see after I install Spacemacs on my Macbook:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6vhweatnrb98ow/spacemacs.png?dl=0

Are you _sure_ it is something usable? :)

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#87
post #17

The new Webstorm version coming up is several times faster, its amazing. On a Mac its so fast its literally like using Sublime. This is due among other things due to their upgrade to Java 8. This is the link to the early access program https://confluence.jetbrains.com/display/WI/WebStorm+EAP

That's cool... but Sublime is already like using Sublime.

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#88

What would take Node integration in Emacs to the next level would be to do something like the various Lisp implementations and their Emacs modes (SLIME, Geiser, etc.) do: Talk to a running program to get information. When I develop Scheme with Geiser, it knows which module I'm working in currently and it knows how to jump to the definition of any symbol by inspecting the source information attached to any Scheme obje…

That's exactly how I use ClojureScript and one of the main reasons why I'll never go back to JavaScript. :)

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

try spacemacs! http://spacemacs.org/

This is what I see after I install Spacemacs on my Macbook: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6vhweatnrb98ow/spacemacs.png?dl=0 Are you _sure_ it is something usable? :)

Strange... Reach out to the maintainers, they act pretty quickly on issues.

On my MBP and the ones of my colleagues, plus my windows machines, spacemacs works great and without issues the last couple of months.

It even convinced 10y+ vim and IDE users to jump ship after testing it for a week.

From my own experience: developing in go, elixir, javascript + react ... It feels exceptionally great with the correct "layers" installed. And being a top notch crosslanguage IDE is just the tip of the iceberg of what spacemacs/emacs actually is capable of...

Re: Emacs vs. WebStorm for Node.js Development

#90

I tried Emacs many times, but I still can't understand its appeal. Yes, everything can be changed, but there are layers and layers and layers of legacy code, cryptic keystrokes and shortcuts from 30 years ago, conflicting packages, elisp (I don't have anything against Lisp in general, but this particular dialect is quite quirky), etc etc.

Yet the amount of cruft is still not enough to make it irrelevant.

IDEs come and go. Emacs stays. It used to be mocked to be too large, today it's an average package, and tiny compared to other IDEs. It does a lot and let you extend it very freely (as of 2008, doing anything in Eclipse was a burden, can't speak of todays state though, I'll add that Emacs cruft has nothing to be ashamed of to the Eclipse Plugin and Workspace model, hundreds of (Object) list.get(arbitrary-index), TIMTOWDI.. )

People drool over features that were present in emacs for decades (flex match), and I've seen emacs absorb new ones (in-place evaluation of code with value preview for instance) faster than I would hope (a few years ago, a 2h sublime demo had literally nothing special).

It's syntax system felt (I never looked into it) superior to Eclipse (except for JDT) and VS.

Also Emacs users have a way of doing things. No mouse, often very lean. I'll rant about Eclipse again, but it really is bad. My hands hurts after one day (I morphed into an emacs alien maybe). Git integration is between unusable and useless (after 10y+ of work). etc etc

Plus energy is still flowing, look at Spacemacs, it's a lot less absurd than emacs, with a more stable plugin mechanism. People are still working on bringing guile elisp mode as the base vm.

Emacs have a lot of issues, and they don't matter.

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