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Visual Studio Code Has Surprisingly Huge Linux Use & Other Developer Metrics

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  • Visual Studio Code Has Surprisingly Huge Linux Use & Other Developer Metrics

    Phoronix: Visual Studio Code Has Surprisingly Huge Linux Use & Other Developer Metrics

    You may recall that back in July Intel's Clear Linux team was looking for feedback on Linux developer workflows and other developer preferences. This survey wasn't limited to Clear Linux users and the results are now published which provide for some interesting data points...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I'm actually surprised that people keep on using VS Code. It is a heavy, slow, text editor with terrible support for language features via the language-server, which is both a huge pain to set up, and terrible at doing its job. (Or you could use the cloud-based language servers, eek!)
    Changing over to another IDE e.g. the Jetbrains stuff (I know, not fair comparison), you really realize how much of the basic stuff is missing.

    I have colleagues whom use it, but then complain that their IDE didn't spot the syntax errors when they create a PR that doesn't even compile. Yet refuse to use anything else.

    (Sorry, Rant over)

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    • #3
      Originally posted by grigi View Post
      I'm actually surprised that people keep on using VS Code. It is a heavy, slow, text editor with terrible support for language features via the language-server, which is both a huge pain to set up, and terrible at doing its job. (Or you could use the cloud-based language servers, eek!)
      Changing over to another IDE e.g. the Jetbrains stuff (I know, not fair comparison), you really realize how much of the basic stuff is missing.

      I have colleagues whom use it, but then complain that their IDE didn't spot the syntax errors when they create a PR that doesn't even compile. Yet refuse to use anything else.

      (Sorry, Rant over)
      I agree. It feels like they just stitched a mini-file browser and some compile/run buttons and now it's an "IDE".

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      • #4
        Originally posted by grigi View Post
        I'm actually surprised that people keep on using VS Code. It is a heavy, slow, text editor with terrible support for language features via the language-server, which is both a huge pain to set up, and terrible at doing its job. (Or you could use the cloud-based language servers, eek!)
        Changing over to another IDE e.g. the Jetbrains stuff (I know, not fair comparison), you really realize how much of the basic stuff is missing.
        As far as I know Jetbrains, CLion at least, also uses language server approach via clangd.

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        • #5
          I am using Emacs with lsp-mode and ccls as the language server and I am pretty happy with it. It doesn't miss any compiler errors and has a lot of advanced features, such as finding base/derived classes and method overrides.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by klapaucius View Post

            As far as I know Jetbrains, CLion at least, also uses language server approach via clangd.
            I remember reading a huge rant from a Jetbrains blog about how they evaluated language server and didn't see the point.

            One could argue that VSCode has very different levels of support for different languages. JS is decent, Python is terrible. etc...
            It is still far too popular for its given lack of basic functionality.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by grigi View Post
              I'm actually surprised that people keep on using VS Code. It is a heavy, slow, text editor with terrible support for language features via the language-server, which is both a huge pain to set up, and terrible at doing its job. (Or you could use the cloud-based language servers, eek!)
              Changing over to another IDE e.g. the Jetbrains stuff (I know, not fair comparison), you really realize how much of the basic stuff is missing.

              I have colleagues whom use it, but then complain that their IDE didn't spot the syntax errors when they create a PR that doesn't even compile. Yet refuse to use anything else.

              (Sorry, Rant over)
              Ok? But the language server approach is actually quite good. It enables separation of concerns.
              As for being heavy/slow: I run it everywhere, including a trusty Acer Chromebook 14 with Crostini and no GPU acceleration.

              It's honestly not that bad, and the fact it's so easily extensible makes it a popular choice.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by grigi View Post
                e.g. the Jetbrains stuff (I know, not fair comparison)
                Presumably not a fair comparison because the Jetbrains IDEs (there seem to be different ones for each language?) are not free or particularly cheap.

                I am a frequent VS Code user. However I wouldn't recommend it for any HTML/CSS or Java, I couldn't get plug-ins for them to work. It's probably only suited to writing small programs in C++ which is what I have found myself doing recently. The syntax highlighting works alright and syntax errors are mostly ok for simple stuff. If I try to use complex libraries then it will claim there are syntax errors where there are none and where the compilers does not complain at all. I don't know of another simple to use IDE that is more suitable for this and has the same features (and is not paid for).

                I think for beginners it's a good choice because there is no configuration required and it doesn't mess you around with bloated "projects" which are a complete waste of time for trivial one file programs. For someone making a more complex program then you are probably going to be tried into using some IDEs (eg Qt Creator) or if you doing it for money then you should invest some in your IDE!
                What other free options are out there? I don't count stuff like Qt Builder (why did they?) because that is for Qt work, it's decent for that but it's not an all purpose IDE??

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                • #9
                  Also not a huge fan of VSCode, either. It’s a great tool, but to me it sits in this hybrid ground of trying to fit to too many workflows and not succeeding at them too well. If you stick to the Microsoft supported extensions/toolkits it can be a great, reduced IDE for small to medium projects.

                  Most of my coworkers use VSCode (some mainline, some OSS build) and I do as well. For markdown its preview system is great and the Python integration is pretty damn good with picking up environments and autocompletion. And debugging is a great add, too. However, I still prefer using PyCharm and GoLand* for my projects/non one-off scripts. I’m not the biggest fan of having to load a bunch of extensions to get the functionality that I want, and I much prefer Sublime Text’s speed and shortcuts in comparison to VSCode’s. If I could get VSCode’s Intellisense, environment detection, and shell support back into Sublime I don’t think I’d have any use for VSCode.

                  It’s got some great tooling, I won’t deny that. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t irrationally feel a tad weird every time I open it.

                  * And should I want to, switch to IntelliJ, install the Python/GoLand/Rust/C++ plug-ins and continue on as if there was relatively no change in my environment. Reduced thinking about how different editors handle shortcuts and what not.

                  Cheers,
                  Mike
                  Last edited by mroche; 05 September 2019, 02:49 AM.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Madgemade View Post
                    Presumably not a fair comparison because the Jetbrains IDEs (there seem to be different ones for each language?) are not free or particularly cheap.
                    Community version IDEA is Apache 2.0 level free. Probably most notably it does not support JS. But many other languages are supported via plugins.

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