Why don’t we have good code editors?
kristofer.reykjal.in
Why don’t we have good code editors?
1–10 of 74 posts
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#2His first topic / sub-heading answers the question for itself: people are too fussy about editors. Everyone has different tastes when it comes to editors, some want syntax highlighting, some like integrated command line, some just want plaintext.
There are no two people with the exact same preference in editors, and that's why there are too many editors and yet still a perceived lack of quality overall.
It's also why most people end up customising the ever loving shit out of their own editors anyway.
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#3>a terminal does not a pleasant user experience make
Author doesn't establish this, just takes it as a given. I wonder what features terminal emulators/editor programs would lack that are afforded by GUIs? I consider the terminal text editing experience far more efficient
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#4Summary: I would like a vscode that better integrates modal editing.
Verbosity is an existential threat.
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#5Inane article title required for clickbait?
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#6> In all seriousness though, a terminal does not a pleasant user experience make.
Yes, yes it does. At my fingertips I have access to every single tool and program without needing to clumsily navigate through folders or Finder, whatever it is. Moving my hand away from my keyboard to my mouse to check TS typings is biggest waste of time when I know how to get to any line in any file with less than 3 keystrokes.
> The way these editors achieve this is through graphical representation of the project hierarchy – the file sidebar
I work on a site which is part game engine, part marketplace, and part React application. I have never once used a file tree because I don't need it to understand the code. This isn't a flaw of terminal editors, it's classic PEBKAC.
Terminal editors don't suck. They require learning and discipline, something that some might argue is becoming a lost art in this field. In the days of "gluing modules together", maybe vim isn't for you, but it's for me and this piece contributed nothing.
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#7> Terminal editors are out of date. By this I don’t mean that they’re obsolete; I mean their user experience is lagging far behind modern standards. Using editors like Vim and Emacs is not a good experience for the user.
You... you are aware that you can run emacs not in a terminal, right? Use the mouse and resize split buffers and everything? It's okay if you still don't think it's good enough, just... don't pigeonhole it quite like that.
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#8I am kind of excited for Emacs in Rust. I would love something Emacs like that looks modern and easier to manage like VS' ability to easily drag and drop components wherever you need them, and is very fast to boot, think of ST3, CudaText, and co. Then all the bloatware is optional plugins.
I would say VS Code is a good goal, it has everything you need to have an IDE, and yet you don't feel forced to use it.
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#9> The most limiting factor for my choice of code editors is that I need modal editing. After learning how to use Emacs, and then Vim, I can not imagine going back to the typical non-modal text editing. These editors make it much more comfortable to edit text (and code), and ruined every other way of editing for me.
Truly, v*m rots the brain.
Re: Why don’t we have good code editors?
#10I think there could be a huge market for a ux effort that brings the somewhat forgotten goodies of old modal editors into the modern world, combining them with new advances like fuzzy searching. I love vim, but it's appalling that we have so many historical baggage creating a gap for the users...
It's so obvious how vim's ergonomics are made for the [adm 3a keyboard](https://catonmat.net/images/why-vim-uses-hjkl/lsi-adm3a-full...) (location of esc, control, arrow keys, etc) and yet we keep making layers of customization or force ourselves to the standard instead of doing the very needed reboot.
