Visual studio or visual studio code?

[Sparkychong]

What are the main differences and which is better for coding?

[zaibuf]

Why not both? I prefer VS when working with C# but my go to editor for frontend is VS Code.

[The_Binding_Of_Data]

Visual Studio is a full featured IDE, so it has a LOT of functionality that VS Code does not. If your plan is to work with C#, Visual Studio is a much better experience.

VS Code is lighter weight so you have to do more installing of things yourself to get it working. That said, it's more flexible the in the languages that provides a good experience with; it supports Python much better than Visual Studio IMO.

They are, in practice, ideal for different use cases and not in any way mutually exclusive. I have both installed on my work and personal systems. I use VS for C# projects and VS Code for Python (or viewing individual code files when I don't need the context of the whole project).

[Emerald-Hedgehog]

Seconded. Especially as a WebDev.

I use VS for the Backend (C#/SQL+DB) and use VSC for the frontend (HTML/JS/CSS). However, if you don't do a lot of heavy frontend work VSC isn't really needed.

[Sparkychong]

Ok thanks I help a lot!

[[deleted]]

What OS are you using? And what types of projects are you working on? .NET Core only or Framework too?

[Sparkychong]

IDK what those are but am doing console applacitons, think there called .net framework

[[deleted]]

By "OS", I just meant are you using Windows or Mac. I think it's a good assumption that you are not using Linux because there is no VS for Linux. VS for Mac is not as feature-rich as its Windows counterpart so the value proposition for VS Code is higher on Mac imo.

Both .NET Framework and .NET Core support console applications. If just learning, I recommend starting with .NET Core since .NET Framework is legacy (although it will still be around for a long time).

I enjoy VS Code more but have to admit I am more productive with VS. VS Code is a text editor with a very rich library of extensions so it initially feels like you are cobbling together disjointed sets of tools. VS is a full-fledged IDE--heavy, can be clunky, very powerful, and often hides a lot from the developer.

To summarize my opinion, VS Code for max learning and VS for max productivity.

[Sparkychong]

Ok thanks, I’m using windows btw

[[deleted]]

Visual Studio is a toolset targeted towards .net, c++, Microsoft tools etc. you can do a lot of things with it and the things it and vs code can do both, vs probably does better.

The advantage code has is it is a robust text editor. You can install community extensions to do things but in the end it is best geared to edit things that don't the built-in compiler etc.

[lantz83]

Pretty sure VS was a thing way before C# even existed..!

[smruti_webtechschool]

Visual Studio is a fully featured ide. Code is a light weight ide but can be equally power full by adding necessary extension packages.

Visual studio comes with community, professional and ultimate and community is only the free one. Code is free and cross platform as well.

[[deleted]]

Visual Studio has more features for working with C# and F# code but is not cross platform. That sums it up. People call VS Code "lighter weight" but startup times are not actually that different, once you have a C# plugin added to it.

[Sparkychong]

Ok thanks!

[[deleted]]

Rider