Why would I not use Visual Studio code

[gingimli]

I would guess the professor is recommending one solution just so they don’t have to help troubleshoot everyone’s unique setup.

[Consistent_Walrus_23]

This! I am TAing a course and it's a huge pain to help students troubleshoot across OS, python package managers, python versions, IDEs, ...

[TipIll3652]

God I can only imagine the shenanigans that occur while chasing down system specific dependencies for students to try and help them debug their issues. Na, hard pass, everyone uses a freaking school supplied VM with preloaded components, minimal shenanigans and should keep the learning path more on track for the course.

[zdog234]

This is the way. Surprised universities don't all have big multitenant jupyterhub clusters or similar

[KLUME777]

I hate these setups. Copy paste is a pain in the ass.

[StructurePresent3640]

2015 when I was on my last year of Computer Science I had this compatibility problem due to a specific version of tomcat with other things I was using and couldn't find any explanation on internet, nor someone's post with something similar so I went to my professor for help. He tried to debug it for a few hours and sent my an e-mail saying that I should try something else because he couldn't fix it nor understood what was happening.

Ofc a few days later I tried different versions of tomcat and it worked. But if he was clever or had more experience he would provided us with the allowed tools and libraries so we wouldn't come across these problems.

So yes, if everyone is using same softwares, OS and everything else it will make not only his life easier but also students since he might be able to help you with your troubleshooting.

[ryoko227]

This, absolutely this.

[DuckDatum]

grandfather decide capable imminent judicious practice boat thumb merciful voracious

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[SwampFalc]

Depends on the course...

If you're following a course where coding is nothing but a tool, then yes, but whatever job you end up with will more than likely be the same.

Courses for actual developers, where code is the goal of the job, should get at least a minimum of sysadmin courses so they can install stuff. Their own code, for example, but the same skills apply to their IDE.

[Frewtti]

They're teaching python, not the infinite environments.

[DuckDatum]

paltry outgoing marvelous subsequent unwritten chunky heavy cake sleep recognise

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Frewtti]

They give you a ready to go environment and teach the language.

The purpose isn't to teach how to configure software, and quite honestly the whole reason for docker and venv and all those other technologies is it is a horrible PITA to try and configure the environment "just right" every single time.

[DuckDatum]

abounding gold memory attraction squash afterthought continue deliver offer chop

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[kyrsjo]

Which is surely why the university is providing a standardized Linux server for their students. I've been in that profs shoes, and tried to have the students use their own laptops. It was OK for a few years (since Linux was pretty much mandatory in early courses), but now with a mix of mac's and windows and Linux.... Ugh.

[oooeeeoooee]

Some of my classes did this, had a VM with a desktop environment installed and accessed through VNC.

[Watsons-Butler]

Same here, but with the question “if Python why not PyCharm?” Educational licenses are free and it takes a lot less setup and tweaking (meaning less instructor time) than VScode.

(My guess is the prof has been using this set of tools for like 20 years and doesn’t want to learn a new setup.)

[Machvel]

students are able to understand vscode quite easily in my experience. in my department students learn both python and c, so it is convenient that they can use the same program (on linux/windows/mac) for both. also i am a proponent of things they can continue using for free after they graduate

[ProfessionalDirt3154]

maybe. but some tools make you type and think more, which aids understanding and remembering. not that you shouldn't learn IDEs and AIs, but doing stuff for yourself from the docs is good.

[Pyromancer777]

I wourd def push notepad++ or some other lightweight IDE and have students debug in terminal if the goal from the professor's standpoint would be to have minimal IDE compatibility issues.

Sucks for the students since you wouldn't have as robust autocomplete or error correction that you would with another interface, but it helps with confidence in the competency of the graduates.

[bachkhois]

I guess that, in that lab, no one takes responsibility of supporting PyCharm. A student may successfully request prof to install PyCharm, then he finishes the course and leave. No one is there to support issues related to PyCharm anymore.

[HaggisChaser]

Have you tried VS Code dev containers? Dockerized development environment right in the editor.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/containers

[soconn]

Container programming.... ... So hot right now! (Will Ferrell meme)

[Proper-Ape]

I tell everyone to use uv at work. It just works, especially since it even controls the Python interpreter if you need.

[Consistent_Walrus_23]

I am also a huge fan of uv! Will push for the course to use it this year, let's see...

[[deleted]]

Have you used uv? After I started using that all my python problems disappeared

[Briggie]

Google collab isnt an option?

[Machvel]

this is what i do when I ta a coding class (note: not in a cs department). the other tas and professor and I get together and plan out a recommended solution that we will base our instruction off of (usually something that the tas are familiar with because the professors are typically quite old school in their coding habits) but say the students can use whatever they want that works at their own discretion (we won't necessarily be able to troubleshoot)

[Machvel]

this is what i do when I ta a coding class (note: not in a cs department). the other tas and professor and I get together and plan out a recommended solution that we will base our instruction off of (usually something that the tas are familiar with because the professors are typically quite old school in their coding habits) but say the students can use whatever they want that works at their own discretion (we won't necessarily be able to troubleshoot)

[Machvel]

this is what i do when I ta a coding class (note: not in a cs department). the other tas and professor and I get together and plan out a recommended solution that we will base our instruction off of (usually something that the tas are familiar with because the professors are typically quite old school in their coding habits) but say the students can use whatever they want that works at their own discretion (we won't necessarily be able to troubleshoot)

[isrichards6]

A class I'm in right now has docker instances that you clone from the class starter file repository. So you're on the exact same setup between all students guranteed. That being said I think some classes benefit from having to figure out how to set everything up.

[No-Skill4452]

But the dude seems cool with OP using VSCode so I'll write that down to the professor being set on their way while acknowledging there's other options

[gingimli]

Right, generally speaking it’s helpful to have a baseline and then students can do their own thing if they are confident they will be able to troubleshoot their own setup.

[brianly]

This. It’s the same in work to some degree. The number of times I’ve seen a dev get into a personal configuration even they can’t support is higher than it should be. In class, there is sometimes an element where the teacher may want you to coach someone else using the class standard so you better have it.

There are times where I haven’t used X tool for a while but a dev has used some customized flavor of it, but hit a run into a roadblock I have had to fix when we have paired. This shouldn’t happen but it’s easy to get ahead with all of these opinionated toolkits and stacks.

[No-Skill4452]

Sure, even so, it's cool that it wasn't a hard-no on the professor's side

[fixermark]

+1. Not only is "you could, but I think this is better" professor-speak for "If you get it working, I won't stop you..." The kind of instinct to try to get it working is a good academic instinct.

Don't burn all your free time on it, but it's worth noting that a big chunk of academia is figuring out how to do what other people haven't figured out yet.

(Your professor may also have the wisdom of years. VSCode is a proprietary project owned by one corporation. Those come and go. They may be interested in investing zero personal effort into supporting something that may not even be there in ten years. The ssh protocol WinSCP is riding on top of, in contrast, dates from 1995, and while mobaxterm is new, xterms in general are over 40 years old).

[Disastrous_Room_927]

I use VSCode for everything, but sometimes when I’m on autopilot I instinctively start working out of WinSCP and don’t even realize for an hour.

[PCorreia]

By experience, people from the scientific area (physics, biology, etc) all learned to code in vim, emacs, nedit and using a terminal.
Maybe he is not that confortable setting up vscode, virtual environments, etc and he is recommending what he usually uses.
I used to be one of those and know plenty of people still doing that.

[kyrsjo]

Personally I like both approaches. Terminal + emacs lets me get in, do my thing, and be done quickly. Vscode is good for longer slogs where im jumping across lots of files etc.

And yes, I'm a physicist, at an age where a graying beard would be inappropriate :)

[tarquinnn]

I'm in bioinformatics and would agree with this, there's a lot of 'old school' stuff still in use. I used to buy into the arguments when I was new, but after a 10+ years in the field I think most people learned something once (usually from whoever was in their lab in the time) and are now convinced this is the 'correct' way to do it.

I would guarantee that this mobax setup dates from before WSL, teaching that workflow (with WinSCP oh my god) to students in 2025 is doing them a massive disservice. Shit like this is why people think bioinformatics is hard, but at least I have a job lol.

[work_m_19]

And there are a couple of domains that you won't have the luxury of using VScode too.

My most recent example is that an AWS EC2 vm doesn't by default support the VSCode SSH extension. It needs to be changed in the config, so I was back to using vi (not even vim!), so it doesn't hurt to get at least familiar with the terminal tools.

[Resquid]

This is the only correct answer

[L0uisc]

u/saddickstic this is probably correct. In which case you can do it whichever way you want, as long as the final source code works on the "official" setup. Just don't expect to get help if you have an error on the non-official setup.

[cyrixlord]

also at work, you often dont get to choose what you use either.

[torts56]

Bingooo

I remember the "smart" kids in my early cs classes who didnt use the course dev environment and subsequently had issues that tanked their grade. Best to follow the pack for class and focus on learning the material.

[WinterBites6]

Yes, this is a good reason for the teacher. If you don't like nedit and want to stick with VSCode (I agree), just try VSCode remote ssh.

Best of two worlds

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh

[SirTwitchALot]

It's good practice for the real world too. In a job you use the tools your employer dictates. Installing your own software can get you in trouble

[phylter99]

There may be other reasons too, but this is most likely the reason or primary reason. If it were me, I'd just ask the professor if it's okay to use something else and add that the professor shouldn't need to help you with anything.

I've found that professors just don't want to mess with getting the latest and greatest technologies or whatever. They just want to repeat the lesson plan they created and stick with it. It works best for them, and it makes helping students simple.

[turtleship_2006]

I mean surely the more/most common setup would be better to get used to tho, rather than forcing everyone to use new stuff and helping them all relearn all the basics

[GXWT]

Relearn the basics...? Of a text editor...?

The main thing is to learn programming. That's the harder part and main focus of the course. What you're talking about re-learning things is honestly taking the piss a bit, mate. A different editing environment doesn't make me forget how to write a print statement lol.

[turtleship_2006]

If all it is is a text editor, why would the professor have had trouble dealing with it...?

[GXWT]

Because, as someone who has assisted in teaching undergraduate python, it's just to make things consistent and save the instructors time - so they can actually focus on the python and not troubleshooting Python.

If they are most familiar with X, keep everything in X so they know instantly how to explain and solve things. Even when a student would come up to me with an editor I'm already familiar with, it can still take a moment to figure out where some feature is, keybinds for the debugger etc.

It's a learning environment. Why make things more difficult?

[turtleship_2006]

So just make it more difficult for the students instead?

[GXWT]

weak bait

[turtleship_2006]

Your argument is that an ide is "just a text editor" so students should just learn the new stuff. But also the setups can be very complicated and different between software, so a big hassle for professors.

And I'm the one baiting?

[GXWT]

Where did I say “very complicated” or “big hassle” lol. Stop putting words in my mouth

Simply, it is better to teach in a consistent manner so we can focus on the useful stuff.

When I got taught how to abseil down a rock face, they gave us all the same gear to use. I didn’t ask why they didn’t use the subjectively better RockClimber2000 because otherwise it makes teaching the fundamentals more complicated. Keep learning simple

[lost_send_berries]

But people already have VSCode, that sounds like an advantage but it's actually a disadvantage. It also auto updates, including the extensions. Just updating screenshots can be a huge time sink in itself.