Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code • Hacker News Board

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#151

Post by kitsunesoba » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

specialp wrote: post #48

mythz wrote: post #30

I used to think VS Code was going to be a threat to JetBrains IDEs considering how fast its iterative development was (thanks in large part to the productivity of JS + Web renderer) but its never seems to quite be able to reach the feature-set, polish & intelligence of JetBrains IDEs. Every IDE function appears to be better implemented in JetBrains, whether it's Code Analysis, Refactoring, Navigation, Running/Debuggi…

The plugin infrastructure for VS Code along with excellent first party support for JS/TS has helped it grow very fast. But in languages other than TS the mishmash of plugins of varying quality really degrade the experience. The opinionated approach and strong first party support just makes Jet Brains product much cleaner. I use both a lot.

Indeed, I haven't used VS Code a lot but my few experiences with it were largely figuring out which of the available plugins for a particular function was the "right" one, with all of them sitting at various levels of "working". The IntelliJ, Sublime, and heck even TextMate 2 plugin experience is cleaner in that regard.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#152

Post by vbezhenar » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #150

azeirah wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have. IntelliJ ultimate edition still has fewer features for PHP specifically than Phpstorm. Presumably not because it actually has fewer features, but because "the debugger" now has 150 options instead of like 5. Also, these super-featured IDEs still won't support languages that Jetbrains doesn't have a specific IDE for. For instance, Delphi. Sure they'll support syntax highlighting somehow, and there might be one…

It also kills performance when you have so many languages configured.

I did not try that myself, but I think that you can switch enabled plugins with a simple text file. So you should be able to write simple BAT files to launch Idea for different sets of plugins if you need to.

Or may be there are better ways to do so. Anyway just enable what you need.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#153

Post by usrusr » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

mythz wrote: post #30

I used to think VS Code was going to be a threat to JetBrains IDEs considering how fast its iterative development was (thanks in large part to the productivity of JS + Web renderer) but its never seems to quite be able to reach the feature-set, polish & intelligence of JetBrains IDEs. Every IDE function appears to be better implemented in JetBrains, whether it's Code Analysis, Refactoring, Navigation, Running/Debuggi…

A somewhat radical rephrasing would be that the IDEA products occupy the space that used to be held by Borland IDE or something like Quick Basic whereas VSCode seems more like an Emacs for the javascript age. (which I find surprisingly fitting, considering how according to The good Parts javascript is just a scheme with curlies)

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#154

Post by synergy20 » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

I spent nearly 1 year with VS code before paying for Jetbrains for good. The time I wasted with VS Code and all its configurations from different plugins in json format can't justify the time I lost with IDEs.

Not to mention, Pycharm, PHPStorm, GoLand, Clion,Webstorm etc all have consistent UI and shortcuts. You learn one and it's quick to pick other ones.

Yes I still use vim for console coding sometimes, but Jetbrains is where I got most of my productivity these days.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#155

Post by easytiger » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

Xorlev wrote: post #146

Speaking as a corporate programmer working from home indefinitely, I'd kill for IDEA Viewer. My laptop can't have code on it, so I'm forced to remote desktop to my workstation to use IntelliJ and CLion remotely, which is a middling experience at best. A light protocol for synchronizing the frontend with the IDE backend would be excellent. You can look at my profile and various papers we've published about why code on…

> remote desktop to my workstation to use IntelliJ and CLion remotely, which is a middling experience at best.

i had to do this for a while. Genuinely awful experience over the citrix thing and best possible connection situation.

> As an aside, I also use IntelliJ on my own projects for Rust. The Rust LSP is getting there, but nothing beats IntelliJ Rust yet,

Thanks for saying this. I'm trying to pivot to using rust for a greenfield project. Just gave up on the emacs rust set up as it was tremendously frustrating to use

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#156

Post by brandonmenc » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

Shadonototro wrote: post #130

VSCode won't kill IDEA, but it is a huge warning for Jetbrains They better invest A LOT MORE into solving slow startup and performance issues that are plaguing their IDEs since the beginning Time to ditch Java on the desktop, or invest in a native AOT compiler / or use GraalVM

I have been using JetBrains IDEs for about a decade, after having used emacs for nearly two decades. I have never felt that JetBrains was slow, but I hear that a lot here.

I'm curious what situations people are finding JetBrains' speed to be impacting usability.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#157

Post by sammorrowdrums » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

Longhanks wrote: post #92

jayjader wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you have had the chance to use a Jetbrains IDE with a professional license. Doing so gives you access to more or less the content of all the other "flavors" as plugins (it's basically all IntelliJ underneath). For example, I've been using PyCharm for both our python backend _and_ our React + Typescript frontend, all in the same project window, with the same features regarding syntax, linting, refactoring,…

It does not for C/C++, you need CLion for that.

And Rust, as the debugger only works for Rust in CLion.

I use PyCharm and WebStorm daily, and CLion for Rust projects at the moment.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#158

Post by varispeed » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

I hate to work with JetBrain tools. Whatever machine I am using them on, they feel sluggish and bloated. Starting an editor takes ages and often it is unresponsive or you can feel the delay between character appearing on the screen and your key press. Absolutely dreadful. That being said I still use them, because nothing can quite compare despite these awful flaws. I also use VS Code but only because there is almost no delay between typing `code .` and having an editor ready to type stuff in. It's perfect for quick "sketches" or if you want to check an odd file here and there, but if you want to work on a larger code base, the experience falls short (e.g. navigation between files, searching) With that in mind, there is still a big gaping market hole when it comes to IDEs - create an editor with JetBrains feature set plus make it as fast as VS Code or Sublime and you'll be a winner. One more thing I cannot understand is that literally every editor's search functionality is more or less useless for bigger projects - simple thing like "and" and "or" operators for keywords are yet to be found. Sure some allows you to use regexp, but that is a pain and not how people are used to searching when using e.g. google or github.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#159

Post by Waterluvian » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

Whether accurate or not, my personal perception of IDEA vs. Code is that IDEA wants to own my development workspace while Code just works with whatever files I've decided to check in.

It's a real shock when I occasionally try an IntelliJ product and it just swallows up my entire project repo and injects lots of magic.

There's absolutely pros and cons to both. And I don't see them as competing for the same class of editor.

I guess it's kind of IDE vs. Text editor. Though Code certainly looks more like an IDE every month.

Re: Reflections on IDEA vs VS Code

#160

Post by fabbari » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

fearface wrote: post #62

C# and F# support is vastly superior in Rifer to the VS Code epxerience.

This! I have been trying to switch to VS Code for dotnet core projects, wanting to ditch Visual Studio. It's clear that Microsoft is - willingly? - keeping VS Code an arm and a leg away from being close to Visual Studio. Refactoring is a hit and miss, the language server will randomly need kicking, code completion is at times outright trying to sabotage you - inserting random classes - and the whole experience makes impossible to consider switching to it.

And even their poster child language, Typescript, is handled by the code editor in a manner that's borderline unusable. If you ever used WebStorm the inability of VS Code to autocomplete with types defined in the same project is mind boggling.

All this said I still reach for it a lot, until I have to stare at a red file with an error on a line that's no longer there until you restart the whole thing and question my sanity.